27 Oct
2004
27 Oct
'04
12:51 p.m.
On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 17:34:32 +0200, derek holzer wrote
I've made a few recordings with a friend's
Formanta EMS-1 in Latvia.
He said it was just laying around an old theatre in Liepaja
collecting dust when he found it. The synthesized strings on the
keys are fairly tame, but the noise-driven, sample-and-hold LFO is
an absolute monster!
http://ruskeys.net/eng/base/formanta.php
Another bonus feaure is the fact that the Formanta sounds
*completely* different about three hours after turning it on than
when you start. Let's hear it for non-linearity, which simply can't
be emulated on the computer.
we should try :)
I found a bug in my in-development drumsynth last night where the sine
oscillator's ever increasing float time value was causing a very slow
incremental bit reduction effect - presumably because the representation loses
precision and breaks down at high values. Fine when you wrap it properly - but
perhaps it should be left in as a quirk of the instrument...
Another friend from Riga occaisionally sells different
Soviet/Russian synths on Ebay. In fact, there seem to be quite a few
of them around. Not the Formanta, it's a rare beast, but if you are
looking for a Polyvox, for example, the going price seems to run
between 500 and 700 Euros. Shipping is what would really kill you,
though. A Polyvox isn't too heavy, but the Formanta is approximately
the size and bulk of a small fridge!
there is definately something special about old soviet technology and the
like. I guess they didn't have planned obsolescence back then :)
dave