FINALLY!!

I picked up the Moog Freq Box this week, as it finally arrived in town. It appears Moog had been having some problems with the final production of this latest moogerfooger. I got it from NJAMS here in Vancouver, so my thanks goes out to Chris & Kate for putting up with my constant inquiries since June as to it's arrival. So yeah, NJAMS are stocking them along with the full 'fooger line & this one will cost you about $450 Can., not really a bad price when you consider they're not an official Moog dealer & are forced to get them through the only company that is Canada's Moog dealer.

As for this pedal/module, so far I've only scratched the surface of it's uses. In fact I've only used a guitar & one of my shitty Roland exp. pedals. Next time (maybe Sunday??) I'm gonna run it back & forth to the S&H on the cp-251 with the guitar & also a bass.

My overall impression is thus: the Freq Box is almost a synth in a box, almost!! I say this because I've already found a dozen or so sounds/uses for it & that's only with the guitar. I was able to get some fun Theremin like pitch, nasty fuzz tones, drones, ring mod like tones & a few other interesting sounds. Basically I have no other pedal/effect like this one.

Anyways... there's a lot more I could say about it & I probably will once I place it in the flight case I built this summer. But that's for another post when I take some pics of that entire set-up.

So does anyone have an opinion or a question about the Freq Box??? Please comment away!

Used Poly Evolvers... A Thought?

With the introduction of DSI's new Prophet 08 I've been wondering to myself if a lot of the used PE's would start showing up on ebay, AH, etc???

Well I obviously don't know if it is just a coincidence put I see AH has two PE's in their used section for about $1800. US. Hhmmm.

What do you think? Does anyone out their have a PE they'd like to tell me about? I've never really even tried one. I couldn't justify buying one even at these lowish used prices, but I must admit, it's really tempting.

Darren

PS. I realize we have sorta spoke about this issue on a previous post, but what the hell :-)

How's about a Sept. Bowl of Java.

Hopefully some of you can make it to The Grind on Main St. this Sat. Sept. 29th. @ 12 noon as this will be our best attempt at a monthly meeting.

I' d like to talk about the new DSI Pro 8 & your impressions on it?? Looks to be pretty affordable :-)
I finally bought a new sequencer, The mobius from Future Retro. Anyone out their have experience with it??
Probably a few other things on my mind...

How about you?? Any ideas, thoughts or questions??

Darren

August meeting (retrospective)

Well, I have to say the meeting we had last Sunday was quite good. Where most meetings it ended up being Darren and I and someone else, we had 6 people attend, and it stretched out to 3 and a half hours long.

A lot was discussed. I would be hard pressed to put together minutes. However, here is the gist of it for people that want to know:
-Musical education
-mid 80's Korg synthesizers
-kaos pads and how much they do (or don't) suck
-loopers and live performance
-really massive effect racks
-a gig that 3/6 people attended or played in the night before
-feasibility of pursuing the idea of making the group into a 'society' (or even how cool it would be to have a seal)
-the future of the gathering, most importantly the idea of having a show and tell or a large scale jam
-paia synthesizers

There was a lot more, but I was without pen and paper, and was much more interested in participating than simply documenting it.


A side note, if anyone is a fan of the evolver synthesizers (I know I am), Dave Smith Instruments just announced a very new 8 voice all analogue version of the evolver called the Prophet 8. It looks beautiful, and I am sure it will sound amazing. The only three things that I did not like from the evolver was 1-too much digital stuff 2-no arpegiator 3-modulations are too sophisticated. It looks like 2 out of three of these issues has been rectified (this news is enough to cause my GAS to jump straight through the roof into bad-credit land).
information here

August Meeting

Well it's meeting time again as we are coming up on the 2nd weekend of the month.
A few people can't make it for the usual Saturday-noon at The Grind so we are going to try for Sunday at a new local.

This meeting will then be held Sunday August 12th @ The Elysian Room, 1778 W.5th Ave. in Vancouver, at 1pm instead of noon. Apparently they have great coffee, as in a bit of a treat type of coffee.

Therefore, do not expect to find us at The Grind on Sat.

d.

Radio Shack Alert!!

One of the members named Al, recently informed me that Liquidation World's around the Low. Mainland are clearing out NOS R.S. stock. In other words there are some deals to be had for the avid DIY'er. :-)

I've been to the Richmond location & spent $5.65 on about 20 pots, a handful of caps & a few other things!!! At regular prices this would have cost me in the neighborhood of $90, uummm.... can u say SCORE!!

You've been told. Done!!

So as for the August meeting, me & Al are thinking instead of the usual coffee talk @ The Grind why not get a vehicle & a handful of us could tour around to as many locations as possible on that Saturday?????

Please post to the comments if you are interested in this idea??

Darren

Another Meetin'!!

Hey.

Well this Sat. is the 2nd of the month, so it's meeting time again!!
The Grind on Main @ 12 noon. How's that sound?
So that'll be Sat. July 14th.

Also if there be anyone that can't make it & would like to meet on a weeknight.... just let me know & we can arrange a sort of side meeting where i can bring you up to date on things.

Darren

Modular Inspirations (pt 2)

This picture was taken from bluesynth.com. Its another DIY modular. This is more my style. I love the metal on metal look, and the kind of knobs that were used.

However, I don't like the flat paneled look.

Which leads me to the following post on matrixsynth. I think a mixture of the two, with a control interface/sequencer as part of the bottom row, and a modulation section as part of the second to bottom row would be awesome.

Modular Inspirations?

Well.... seems the group is moving towards a modular synth focus.
That's fine by me!! I wanted it that way in the first place anywho!!!

So, I found this post on Matrixsynth about a Swedish synth diy'er or perhaps he's just Euro. of some kind. Anyways, i downloaded an image of his rig & i'll try to post it here, w/any luck??

Needless to say he's definitely got the right idea in my books!!! This is pretty much what i'm after, just not quite on this grand a scale!! Basically i'm looking to do this; a modular of large & small modules & a mix of diy & company modules.

Go to Matrix & today's posts for more info.

Darren

Yesterday's Meetin'

Thought I'd post some minutes from the meeting. Me & Jason discussed:

- Future locations & date/time of our scheduled meetings.
We feel that ultimately Saturdays @ 12- 1 PM is most logical & conveniant for most people. Sorry to those that work @ this time :-(
As for the local??? Well... we probably could find somewhere better than The Grind? Maybe somewhere near a Skytrain station?? What do u think??

- Options for creating a bigger profile for this group/blog.
We will look into finding some alternatives to marketing & exposing the blog. Does anyone out their have any ideas to help out here??

- Gear discussion centered around The Fatman that J's building & how it's tweaked some interest in building some modules, in particular Ken Stones' CGS diy pcb's/modules. This option has me stoked for sure as i'd like to expand upon my modular gear!! In fact what i'd like to do is a group buy of some diy kits & build them together in this group. Who's with me?

- A new member came to the meeting aswell, his name is Rich.

Darren

Meeting Reminder.

Just a little reminder that tomorrow is Sat. June 9th, the 2nd Sat. of the month so it's meeting time again for those that can make it.

12 noon @ the Grind on Main st. etc. etc.

I'd like to discuss: Frac Rack modular building, Potential new meeting locations & times(??), & how best to increase our group numbers?? how about u?

Darren

Updates

A few changes to the blog. I worked around the color scheme a bit for one thing, and changed all the text to a sans serif font. Its a bit simpler this way, I find it. Pretty much the only extravagance on the page is that little picture of a synthesizer under all the links, which actually doubles as a post button (I noticed blogger doesn't have one embedded in their pages by default, so I added one. If it doesn't work for anyone let me know by email). I would also like to take this moment to invite everyone for comments or suggestions. The point of this message board is to act as a communication medium between meetings, and I would like to encourage everyone to use it, if only to engage more people to attend our next meeting.

Speaking of which, if I am not mistaken, the next meeting falls this coming Saturday. Noon at the Grind (unless anyone else has a suggestion for a new place). I am looking forward to it.

Blog content additions

Just wanted to chime in and say a few things. If anybody has any links they would like added or any other kind of information or layout suggestions, feel free to mention it. I spent a little while combing through my bookmarks to make a bit of a list on the side here, but there is a bunch that I have missed I am sure.

Also, wanted to point out that we meet every second Saturday of the month. We seem to have turnouts of between three to seven people. Each meeting seems to last about an hour, and there always seems to be some good conversation and company that comes by. If you have been considering attending or know other people that are interested in talking about music gear and the likes, feel free to come. We are friendly people. :)

Finally, I am going to be building a Paia Fatman kit this weekend. If anyone has any advice or suggestions, feel free to reply to this blog.

-J

hey-up!

hey fellas.
well, is anyone around??
just wondering how many of us are using the blog??

how's everyone?

d.

PS. i'll be out in Toronto next week, is there any gear anyones looking for that i can keep an eye out for??

"This thing of ours!"

Well done J!!!
Great job on putting this page together for us all.
Hopefully this will really get the ball rolling.

Next Meeting

The next meeting is scheduled for today at 12:00 at the Grind.

Minutes from that meeting will be published in this blog.