MY NEW GEEKY SYNTH BLOG.

So far there is literally nothing there. Over the course of the next few days the blog will be populated with every synth and cool electronic musical gadget I own, including those that I just buy to repair and flip, those that I build, those that I borrow, etc.

As soon as I believe there is enough content on there to make it interesting for others, I'll let a few people know about it.

Oh - when I first created Nebula's Eclectic Domain I remarked that it is inspired by matrixsynth.blogspot.com. Even though my new blog is called nebulasynth.blogspot.com, it's really not the same thing at all. Matrix provides a fun blog to geek out to. This one will be ... well ... we'll see over the next few days.

Miscellaneous Updates

I think it would be wrong to let an entire calendar month pass without at least one update, so here goes ...

Sarah, my newlywood American wife, has finally moved in. We got her a new black Macbook a couple weeks ago.

I'm playing at Off The Wall in Buffalo with Dharma Lab plus at least one other DJ this coming weekend. I decided I don't want to do my usual repertoire, so I have picked up a couple of classic Electribe units, plus I'll be bringing a TR-909, MC-303, MFB-502 and MS-2000 along for this one. The plan? Bangin' techno and acid. Life is good.

Sasha from the MIDIbox forum is getting me a customized x0xb0x PCB made and will be shipping it to me with some special parts.

The "Wilba" MB-6582 (MIDIbox SID) PCB's and SIDs are received, and the panels will arrive shortly.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Sarah is ... distracting me. More soon

LOGIC PRO 8 RUMOUR ROUNDUP.

There has been a lot of speculation about what's taking Apple so long to get Logic's successor happening. This blog entry looks at a lot of the rumours, and takes some pretty reasonable stabs at their likelihood.

HOME WEB SERVER ANNOYANCES.

Seems I have a NAT issue on the router at home. The server works fine over the LAN, and it was working fine for a few days from the WAN, but now it has stopped serving.

I know that the dyndns is good, so it must be a port forwarding issue with the router. I continue to investigate. In the meantime, places that I have stuck images appear blank and it's pissing me off.

UPDATE Aug. 15/ 2007: OK, I think it's sorted out. My sketchy home router apparently likes to forget to forward ports. At random. If it happens again, it's getting replaced.

MORE JOY AS MIDIBOX SID PCBs ARRIVE.

Hooray Wilba!

NEW WEB SERVER.

Finally I've put up a web server at home. Once again I'll be able to host images for this blog, message board posts ... even weird oddball sites.

Stay tuned.

THE ANSWER.

I MISSED DONALD GLAUDE AND JELO.

Not real impressed ... I wanted to go to this last night - why, oh why, did last night have to be a Wednesday??

Evan sent this to the "activate" group on FaceBook:

thanks to those that made it out to Budo last night.

while it sucked DJ Sneak cancelled on us, we ended up being treated to DONALD GLAUDE & JELO going back to back all night. And with no cover at the door even. Donald said this was the most intimate gig he'd played in well over a decade.

I'd say that's a pretty fair trade.

Grrrr...

MIDIBOX SID: FINALLY SOME PROGRESS!

Take a look just a couple posts down at Wilbas's MIDIbox SID. After years of puttering, that world is finally about to become a reality for me!

For years I've been pondering building something just like it. The obstacle has always been the modular nature of the MIDIbox hardware platform: too many individual, oversized modules for such relatively simple circuits. I had plans to combine several Core PIC modules and several SID chips all on to one circuit board, miniaturize it some and build a kickass desktop SID synth.

Wilba has done just that, and has now organized a group buy for his circuit boards and front panel. The PCB order has been placed, and I'm in on it. I'll probably pick up a front panel too.

If all goes as planned, I'll have this SID synth built and running by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, this video was posted about a year ago to demonstrate some of the aciddy sounds just a single SID is capable of. The unit you see here is the first actual MIDIbox SID, all put together in a used C64 case.

My instrument will have 4 SIDs and a case similar to Wilba's.

It's not too late to jump on the group buy bandwagon, but by this time tomrrow, it might be! All the info you need is in the MIDIbox forum.

FLORIAN SCHNEIDER: WACKETTY SCHMACKETTY DOOOOOO

Kraftwerk's Florian Schneider has a sense of humour after all!

MORE FROM THE TECHNICIANS.

Just when you thought you had learned all that Mr. Brady and Mr. Cornwell had to teach, another smashingly informative video is released by Museum Of Techno.

FREESPACE: NEBULA LIVE 2007-08-24.

I am set once more to unleash audio chaos on yet another unsuspecting group on Aug. 4. FreeSpace is throwing a cheap fundraiser for the First Nations land reclamation at Caledonia.

Other artists of note: Rollin' Cash, Azakite, Evolve, Paranoize, Kneptune, Davy (the Smoky One).

I may talk a bit more about it here, but the party is low-profile so I am not likely to post details in public view. Contact me if you want/need more data.

BTW: Thanks again, Jos, for the pic of me circa 2002. Let me know if that bandwidth thing is a problem. :)

WILBA'S BEAUTIFUL MIDIBOX SID.

From the "more-than-an-afternoon-project" department, just look at this fantastic MIDIBOX SID, made with 8 Commodore SID chips. Wilba designed custom circuit boards and a gorgeous front panel, and had them professionally fabricated.

SID is the unique sound chip found in the Commodore 64 computer. MIDIBOX SID is an open-source project that uses these ICs (you need to sacrifice Commodore 64s) to make a MIDI-controlled synthesizer. The sounds are amazing.

This article's title is a clickable link to the MIDIBOX message board article with more information and pictures of this amazing homebrew creation.

BILL BAILEY KRAFTWERK PARODY.

THE HOKEY COKEY.




This is pretty damn silly, and doesn't sound much like Kraftwerk, but Dieter from 'Sprockets' ain't got nuthin on this crew!

OM REUNION PICNIC THIS WEEKEND.

Assuming she is for it, Sarah and I will be going to Hanlan's Point this Saturday for another Om Reunion Project get:together ... this time in the form of a picnic.

Title is a link to the details!

HI THERE.

I've never done anything like this before. I have no idea what I'm doing. I think I'll be putting things that catch my attention here.

For what it's worth, I got the inspiration to do this from matrixsynth.

If you have a gmail account, Blogger is a snap to set up. If you don't, and you know me, send me an email and I'll invite you.