Steve Porcaro Teaches You How to Synth, New Love Hultén Craziness, More: Synth Journal
The best of the rest of this week’s synth news.
Learn your way around a 1980s synthesizer studio with Toto’s Steve Porcaro, check out the latest magic from Love Hultén, and plenty more in this week’s Synth Journal.
Synth Journal
Love Hultén Magicós
Another week, another jaw-droppingly gorgeous creation from industrial design magician Love Hultén. This time it’s Magicós, a “triangular oddity born from deranged imagination and psychedelic fandom,” according to the YouTube description. Psychedelic is right. With that glowing pyramid and melting sound, it’s bringing Holy Mountain, for sure.
Hultén is the master at repurposing existing devices into new instruments, and in Magicós, he’s got Tangerine and Lemondrop from 1010music, Walrus Audio’s LORE, and Tars DLX from Collision Devices powering this modular double-necked guitar wonder. “A nothing box plugged into the crystalline emitter, chakras align.” Indeed.
The products mentioned here are available at Thomann*.
Koma Elektronik Komplex Sequencer
Koma Elektronik got in touch to let us know that it’s reissuing its Komplex Sequencer. It’s a big ol’ thing with four separate 16-step sequencers capable of both MIDI and CV/Gate output, 87 patch points, and a seven-bank CV Recorder that can output up to five banks at once.
This run of the Komplex Sequencer is limited to just 50 units. Head to the Koma site to pre-order yours for €1998.
Polaxis Talko 2
I admit it: I love speech synthesizers. It was probably growing up with talking video games like Gorf and listening to Kraftwerk in junior high that did it, but the sound of a low-bit voice laboriously pronouncing every vowel in a word brings out the goosebumps.
If you’re like me (and if so, who hurt you?), then you’re going to want to know about Talko 2 from Polaxis, a company that specializes in speech synthesizers. Talko 2 is the sequel to the company’s first product and speaks numbers, alphabets, phonemes, and classic phrases, and features real-time pitch, speed, and effect controls.
Talko 2 is available in standalone and 18HP Eurorack formats in DIY kit and pre-assembled forms. Prices start at €129 and go up to €185, depending on options.
muSonics Lyle Four-Voice Vanilla Synthesizer
muSonics has announced its latest creation, Lyle, a supersized four-voice version of the Vanilla Synthesizer. If the original Vanilla modular synth was inspired by Tom Oberheim’s Two Voice, then Lyle takes the Four Voice as its jumping-off point.
Lyle offers four voices, a polyphonic envelope generator system, a four-voice mixer with drive, MIDI allocation, and utility modules, and claims to be the first polyphonic modular synthesizer “with master control of time and timbre since the Oberheim Four Voice.”
Suit And Tie Guy of muSonics is taking deposits for the Lyle now, which costs $8000.
Loess Labs Quad Creek
Quad Creek is the latest device from experimental outfit Loess Labs. A combination semi-modular analog instrument and effects unit, it offers four voltage-controlled bandpass filters and a variety of CV circuitry and is capable of melodic drones, plucks, and percussion, wah-like audio effects, and more. It’s also got LFOs and pulse generators, white noise, sequencers, a five-channel mixer, three stereo audio outputs, and two stereo audio inputs.
Quad Creek is available as a full unit for $444 or a DIY kit for $250. Alternatively, you can buy just the PCB for $60. Find out more at Loss Lab’s website.
Steve Porcaro Star Licks Instructional Video
In the mid-1980s, Toto synthesizer guru Steve Porcaro appeared in a Star Licks instructional video. If you’re too young to remember, Star Licks sold videotapes at music stores to help teach aspiring musicians how to play their instruments. Steve’s entry is a real tour de force, covering MIDI routing, sequencers, drum machine programming, synthesizers, and more, and it’s all available in a single upload now ripped from a Japanese import.
Not that you need any more encouragement to watch this than me saying “Steve Porcaro,” but there is some fantastic gear porn in here, including a Yamaha TX816 and DX7, Moog Minimoog, Oberheim Xpander and DSX, Linn Electronics Linn 9000, Roland MC 500, and more.
It’s a beautiful time capsule of an era when short sleeves could be as long as your arm, the rains down in Africa were regularly blessed, and Steve Porcaro had enough excess energy to power a small city for weeks at a time.
The products mentioned here are available at Thomann*.
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