A trip down Memorymoog lane

By joehahn
August 27, 2022

Casio MT-40

My brother could play the synth hook from Van Halen's "Jump"

Casio CT-640

My dad got a deal on it from Sears so I could take piano lessons. This is how I discovered the meaning of velocity sensitivity, which this wasn't. One of the preset beats with accompaniment was consistently used for an improvised silly news show, recorded to VHS.

Casio SK-1

Sounds best when the batteries are depleted.

Featured on: https://protman.bandcamp.com/album/siktoe-navajoe

Yamaha CS1x

Split keyboard zones into drums, bass, lead, pad which could be individually routed through distortion, reverb, and resonant filter effects were sequenced with Impulse Tracker's MIDI-out feature.

Yamaha AN1x

Software was available to generate random presets. Randomizing every parameter mostly wound up with sounds like a mosquito flying into your ear.

Korg 01/W ??

Part of my Technomusicology I/II/III courses. It's M-10 UPSIDE-DOWN! I don't recall which revision it was vs "pro", "x", etc.

Moog Micromoog

I wonder where our old bandmate Mike, nicknamed Mike Moog, is today. The Moog Micromoog was Mike Moog's Moog Micromoog. Later, our bandmate Mark had a Moog Micromoog, but Mark's Moog Micromoog may have been Mike Moog's Moog Micromoog.

Rhodes Mark 1 Suitcase + MXR analog delay

Unique that it has a built-in effects loop insert. Combined with the MXR analog delay, it's one of my favorite sounds.

Moog Memorymoog

What a pain in the ass.

Roland TR-707 Rhythm Composer Drum Machine

Fun with ImpulseTracker MIDI-out

Novation K-Station

I don't remember much about this, but it's in some old photos of my IKEA JERKER.

Moog Little Phatty Stage II

This got sampled more than played.

Bleep Labs Thingamakit

The first thing I ever soldered.

Arturia MiniBrute

Came and went. This made me start thinking about a "one-synth-at-a-time" rule at home, so I would get more out of them individually, sample them, then move on.

Bleep Labs Thingamagoop 2 – RGB

Fed into a sidechain compressor, it fills any dead-air!

Arturia MicroBrute

Cute.

Korg MS20 Mini

I wrote down a "quack" preset.

KORG MS-20 mini (použité) Analogue Synthesizer

Korg MicroSAMPLER

Huh?

microSAMPLER - Korg microSAMPLER - Audiofanzine

Korg Monotron(s)

Fun and confusing gifts for your brother's kids.

Bleep Labs Bleep Drum

NOISE MODE 30XX

Hold shift while turning on the device. The light will turn green. Hitting shift again will turn it pink and blinky
Green – Pots control the pitch just like normal
Pink – Pots control noise.
All other controls are the same.

Korg Volca Beats

It can certainly make a beat.

Novation Circuit

It was fun for a few road trips to get away from computer.

Novation Bass Station II

I'm working on an app to randomize the AFX mode splits.

Korg Volca Drum

I thing consumers are confused about the difference between the 'Beats and 'Drum. The 'Drum is superior with six identical drum synth parts that can create both standard and crazy synthesized drum sounds. The goal with this is to make a hardware drum machine drop-in for percussion channels in Renoise.

Novation Circuit Mono Station

This was shipped to me by accident and I had to send it back.

Arturia MicroFreak

My current one-synth-at-a-time synth, combined with an MXR Carbon Copy Deluxe to relive the days of Rhodes mentioned above.

Korg NTS-1

The goal with this is to make a hardware synt drop-in for synth channels in Renoise.

Novation Circuit Rhythm

I'm working on software to automatically generate kits and sessions for this so the user can turn it on and have zero-setup to start sequencing something fresh.