Synth.NL - TimeTravel officially release on CD and Download

 

Yesterday (12/12/21) my record label Groove Unlimited officially released my Fifth Solo album called TimeTravel. It is kind of different from my previous solo releases. In the last years I released a lot of single tracks on different sampler CDs. Some were for sale like the 'Dutch Masters' and 'Analogy 3' albums by Groove Unlimited, but I also donated some tracks to the German Electronic Music Club Schallwende. They give a free sampler CD every year to their members, so these tracks were never really available for everyone. There is also new (well actually old) material on the album, some tracks that were never released at all. One track that didn't make my AeroDynamics debut album because I had 68 minutes of music already and two old tracks that I found on my computer and decided to finish. All tracks haven been completely re-mixed and re-mastered by my good friend Ron Boots. So even if you have the Schallwende CDs: These versions are different and they are released as download in higher quality as well (48 kHz/24 bit). The artwork was done by my youngest daughter Tamara van Osenbruggen. I'm very proud of that and she will do more for me in the future. I hope you like it. I really do. This album is dedicated to my lovely daughters Joyce and Tamara. I know the divorce has been hard on them. I hope you like the music. At least it was a nice Travel back in Time for me :)You can find more information on my website: https://www.synth.nl/music/albums/timetravel. It is available as physical CD and also as download from both Groove Unlimited as BandCamp.

Synth.NL visits Iceland - North Video

 It has been a while but finally I went on a short holiday again. I visited Iceland with my girlfriend Sonja and we had a great time. We were there for two weeks and took a lot of pictures and did some filming. The first week we visited the North part of the Island and now we understand why it is called ICE land :) It started snowing when we arrived and it was very cold because of the hard wind. Here is a short video from that first week with some fast impressions and some Synth.NL music from my AtmoSphere album. The video from the second week will come later since I didn't finish it yet. I hope you enjoy it.

TimeTravel already up for Pre-order from Groove Unlimited

 

Hi everyone. I'm happy to inform you than Ron Boots has finished Remixing and Mastering my TimeTravel album. The artwork is done and CDs are being produced as I write this. You can already pre-order the CD is you want a physical product directly from Groove Unlimited (my record label). They will send the CD out as soon as they arrive from the factory and you will be the first to have it. The album will also be available as a download later on both from the Groove Unlimited download shop and from BandCamp including the artwork. The download will be available as 48 Khz 24/32 (not sure yet) Bit as well. You can order the CD on this URL: http://www.groove.nl/jump2.php?artiest=synth.nl I will update you as soon as the album is officially released with the other buying options. Thank you all for your continued support.

BorkHavn Nominated for Schallwelle Best Album of 2020!

I have exiting news. The BorkHavn album I released together with Ron Boot is nominated for the Schallwelle Preis best album of the year 2020. We are in the top five which is pretty nice of course. People could vote on their favorite album on their website so I'm very honored that you chose our album. Thank you very much! Now a jury will decide I guess. Normally there is an award ceremony in Germany but because of Corona it will be done online now. You can read more about the award and the other nominees on this website: https://schallwelle-preis.de/. And in case you didn't know. My albums 'OceanoGraphy' and 'Apollo' did win this album of the year award in the past. So be sure to check them out if you haven't heard them. So fingers crossed :)

Deckard's Dream DIY (Part 9)

The external 12V power supply brick has arrived. So I could finally finish the Deckard's Dream. First thing I did was again test all the voice boards individually. They all worked fine. I labeled them so that I know which board is which because they all have their individual tuning. Then I inserted them into the main board and attached them to each other with the spacers as you can see in the picture on the left. I was a bit surprised I had spacers in different lengths but it turns out that the distance between all the slots is not equal. I didn't expect that but luckily I had all the correct spacers in the parts kit. If I had ordered them myself I would have probably ordered all the same based on the first gap :)

And then an exiting moment. Testing the whole synthesizer. In this picture you see everything that is inside. Starting from left to right with the front panel, the hardware PCB sandwiched to the main PCB. The inserted in the Main PCB first the Power Supply board and the 8 voice boards. In the right bottom you see the output board and in the top right the external 12V 6A power supply brick. All tests went flawless and then I uploaded some patch banks I found online 4 banks in total, one of which hold some recreated Vangelis sounds. They sound so awesome :) I ended up playing a long time with them just with a little midi keyboard and my headphone on. Even without any effects. But I had to stop just there and do the last remaining bits. Everything still had to fit in the case. In the back of the case is a fan for cooling that should not be necessary but I installed it anyway. Luckily you can switch it on and off from the settings menu. So I'll start with it switched off and see if the Decard's Dream wont run hot in the studio.

Then you have to put the IO board in the back and attach the flat cable to it. The IO board is just attached to the case with the rings of the jack plugs for audio input and output. The fan is attached to the IO board with a connector. It is all vert well thought of in my opinion. So after putting it in the case again I tested it one more time and again I ended up playing on it for way too long. But last step left was to put it in the studio. I did leave room for it of course :)

And here it is in all it's glory. I think it looks great. In the studio I could finally put some reverb on it and use my Roli Seaboard to play with polyphonic aftertouch and wow! just wow! I was impressed before but when you start using polyphonic aftertouch on some of those Vangelis patches it really sounds so big and organic. I love it. I will surely use it on my upcoming album. There is one more thing to do. There is also an expander module from Black Corporation which makes the Deckard's Dream even better. It is a 1U unit that can fit right where the patch panel is now. It adds Ring Modulation, Chorus, Delay and Reverb and makes the unit stereo as well. I already ordered the kit from Black Corporation and also the parts kit and case. So that will be my next project in the near future and of course I will post the progress of that as well on this blog. OK that concludes this DIY series. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you want to build one yourself I'd be more than happy to share my experiences and answer your questions where I can. But do keep in mind this is an advanced project not very well suited for beginners.

Deckard's Dream DIY (Part 8)

 While waiting for the new external power supply I did something useful as well besides playing on the synth with 4 voices. I decided to put on the colored slider caps. Actually I wanted to wait to that it as a finishing touch when it was done, but I couldn't wait any more. I even read the manual since I didn't really understand what all sliders did, but it all makes sense to me now. Unfortunately the package with the power supply was delayed so more waiting .....

The next useful thing to do was put on the cooling blocks on the power supply. I was a bit surprised that everything so far was in the parts kit I bought from synthcube but not the m3 bolts for screwing these on. Luckily that is stuff I always have lying around at home. After that I started twisting the wires for the power supply. I did read that putting on these cooling blocks is not necessary when you change to TL062 and TL064 because the Deckard's Dream draws less current because of these and get less hot, but I decided that it wouldn't hurt either. More cooling is always better with electronics. I also took the rest of the case and started looking how everything should fit together. And then I found out the main board didn't fit in the case. Luckily there is a clear instruction about this on the build website. There is a 5 mm strips on both ends on the PCB that you can break of. There is a line cut into it to make that easier but I did it very carefully with some pliers trying not to damage anything on the main PCB.

Then finally the missing IC's I ordered arrived and I could finish all 8 voice boards. After that I started testing them by pairs. I run the calibration procedure for the voices and unfortunately one board did not wait to tune. So I put that one in solo and I could hear sound coming from it, but getting stuck on tuning. Later I found out that VCO B was running fine on the board and I did have a square and saw wave on VCO A but with a very low frequency. VCF and VCA seemed to work just fine. I started with a close visual inspection of the faulty board but couldn't find anything wrong. I started comparing it with another working board and all components were the same. Orientation of all components was the same. So I decided to swap components with a working board. Starting around VCO A. And bingo suddenly when I swapped the CEM3340 it worked! Luckily there as one extra in my parts kit, so I put the spare on on this board and voila. It worked like a charm. So now I have 8 working voice boards! Now only wait for the power supply to test them all at once.

Deckard's Dream DIY (Part 7)

In the previous part I already said the Decard's Dream was coming alive. I had a menu on the display. Here is a picture of the display and knobs. I already put on the volume knob as well. The display is small but very high resolution so it is readable, but I do need my glasses for that :) So first I scrolled through all the settings to see what is there. I did find some interesting settings that I will try out later. But for now I especially want to know if everything works. I could not find a good test procedure on the build site so I started googling to see what other people did. And apparently it is a good idea to start testing all the knobs and sliders.

There is a special option in the menu to calibrate the sliders first. There are a number of sliders with a dent in the middle position. They go both up and down. Pitch course and fine. Balance between oscillator one and two, overall brilliance and the keyboard control sliders. You have to set them in the middle position before you start calibrating. Then there is a special option in the menu called 'debug' with this you can test all the sliders and know one by one. It reads out the value from 0 to 255. But I did see some stepping while doing this. I was a bit surprised. But I will figure that out later. For now all sliders seemed to work.

Nest thing to do was connecting the IO board back to the main board. It is connected via a flat cable. Here is the main output (mono) and also the midi connectors and the usb connectors. I hooked it up with USB to my notebook and then you get midi over USB. Next thing up was testing all the voice boards. I inserted a voice board in the first slot next to the Power Supply boards because I assumed that was the first slot. Then hookup up a midi keyboard to my notebook and used Midi-OX to connect the keyboard to the Deckards Dream. I expected to get some audio even though I would assume it would be out of tune or something, but nothing happened :( Then I read on the forum that you need to calibrate the voice boards, so I went in the menu and selected that option. Nothing happened. Like it didn't see the voice board at all. So i tried another voice board and same problem. I started panicking a bit and posted on the forum. But I was impatient for as answer and they I saw I made a very stupid mistake :) The slot next to the Power Supply board is actually slot 8 and now 1 :/ Duhh..

So then I calibrated the first board and it worked :) I had sound. After that I did all the boards I had complete since I still missed a couple of IC's. The supplied didn't send me the right amount. I had 6 complete boards and they all worked like a charm. They I wanted to hear the Deckard's Dream with multiple voices and inserted the 6 good boards, but apparently my lab power supply could not take that amount of power, so finally I got 4 running. I must say it sound fantastic :) Even mono and without any effects just on my headphones. So first thing to do was order a 12V external power supply that can deliver 6 Amp. I think the Deckards Dream has a high power on current, since with the four boards installed it only took 1 Amp on 12V, and my lab power supply should be able to deliver 3 Amp. We'll see when the power supply arrived. More next time.

Deckard's Dream DIY (Part 6)

Next thing to do was connecting the main PCB to the hardware PCB. After that I also did a quick power test and again the magic smoke stayed in :) I had some trouble determining how to mount the oled display so I didn't solder that yet. There is not much information available unfortunately about the mechanical construction of the Deckards Dream. I did look at some pictures online but still I didn't know for sure. So it was time to also screw on the front panel to see how it all fitted together. At first I had the spacers wrong so that the front panel was too far away. So this is a picture after the second attempt. And now I could also finally solder the oled display.

And then it was time for yet another exiting part of the whole build. Finally putting some software in the Deckard's Dream. You do need to buy a ST programmer for this and connect it a flat cable to the main PCB and with USB on your computer. You can freely download the programmer software. It did see my programmer right away and they you hit 'connect' to hook it up to the main PCB. There is actually a micro controller on the PCB. It is kind of a mini computer that controls everything and it needs software to run. You can download the 'bootloader' software from the Deckard's Dream build page and then you hit 'program' and it actually worked :) I got a success message. After this you disconnect the programmer and switch the Deckard's Dream of and on again. Some garbage appeared on the oled display. But then the manual said to hold the 'shift' button to boot it in USB mode. So I did and then the Deckards Dream acts as a USB drive and you can copy the firmware and factory sound banks on it. Reboot again and voila ! It came alive :) I had a working menu on the oled display.

Here is another picture of the backside where you can see the sandwich of the main pcb the hardware PCB and the front panel. You can also see the correct spot and orientation of the Power Supply PCB in this picture. The only thing I find strange is that all the boards will be connected together in the end. I don't know how yet at this moment, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. There are all hanging horizontally though in the cart-edge connectors without any fixture. So that is a bit surprising to me. But we'll see later about that.

And finally here is a picture of the front of the assembly. Here you can see all the sliders and what they do and everything seems to fit fine :) I also soldered the headphone connector on now. I didn't do that yet again because I wasn't sure about the fit. The only thing missing now is the power switch. I will do that when I assemble everything together in the case.

 

Deckard's Dream DIY (Part 5)

 Like I said in the last part it was time for some testing. I did a visual inspection of all the boards and could not find anything that seemed wrong. The only thing is that there was an error found on the output PCB. Once of the Capacitors was actually wrong on both the PCB and the schematics. So before testing I decided to desolder it and turn it around. After that I attach the power supply to my lab power supply and applied 12V to it. The nice thing about a lab power supply is that you can limit the current it gives so I slowly turned up the current and the power supply lit up and all voltage led were OK. After that I measured all the voltages and everything was fine :) No magic smoke this time :)

After this I put the power supply board in the main board. First without the ICs as you can see in the picture on the right. Main goal here is to see if there are no shorts in the soldering or anything. It is very important to look for the right slot for the Power Supply since it is exactly the same connector as the slots for the voice PCBs, but they are not interchangeable. Also you have to watch the orientation of the boards. So my main board was also OK. After this I inserted all the ICs and did the same test. And I could see on my lab power supply it drew more current but everything still looked OK. The only problem is you don't see anything happening yet on the board. There are no leds or anything to indicate it is working. So more testing is needed for that.  After this I also inserted all the voice boards without ICs to also see if there was no shorts on these PCBs. Again no problems so far. Still always a scary moment to be honest powering up self soldered PCBs for the first time. Even after all these years of soldering.

After this I did another modification on all the voice boards. The advise was to solder two 1 mega-ohm resistors on the backside of the voice boards. It has something to do with the glide function and making it more like the behavior on the original CS-80. You have to be very careful here you solder them to the right pins of course which is a bit more difficult to see from the back side. But luckily there is a clear picture on the Decard's Dream build page. After this I compared them and actually I made a mistake on one board I had to correct.

Then I started inserting the chips on the boards. I did another modification here as suggested by the builder. My original components kit contained TL074 and TL072 IC's. Later on they suggested to change them for TL064 and TL062. I decided to this this. The advantage is that they draw less current. So the synthesizer will get less hot because of this. This results in that you can omit the fan in the case and you supposedly don't even have to install the cooling blocks on the power supply board. It was some extra cost but I decided to do it. Eventually you earn it back in power cost and I don't like noisy fans. Unfortunately I didn't get the right amount when the order was delivered so I had to contact the supplier and straighten that out. And that meant a lot of waiting. And I'm not very good with that so that was a bit of a struggle. But here is a nice picture of the whole stack of voice boards with all ICs inserted. More in the next part.

Deckard's Dream DIY (Part 4)

 The last board I had to do is the Hardware PCB. This is basically the 'human' interface of the synthesizer. It holds all the knobs and sliders and the display. Again the first thing to do is solder all the SMD capacitors. You need to apply flux first if you want the solder to flow under the components connecting surfaces. I have become quite handy by now, but I do need some magnifying glasses to see everything. Age isn't helping me here :) My eyes have been better in the past.

On this board there are also components on both sides. So you have to watch carefully for that. Eventually this board will be hooked up to the Main PCB they will be connected with the two double header connectors you see on the right. I did try if it fitted and it did so I guess that is OK. There are also some resistors and IC Sockets that go on the back side.

And here you see a picture with most of the sliders on there. I was a bit puzzled that some were different values than stated in the parts list, but since they are only voltage dividers it doesn't really matter which value you put in. I'm still looking how the display has to go in. I'm looking for some build pictures of other people for that. But I'm sure I'll figure it out in the end. Next time is actually testing the boards with the lab power supply and see if there are no shorts. First without the ICs and then a second time with ICs and see if everything stars. More about that in a next part.

Deckard's Dream DIY (Part 3)

 The next board I made was the IO board. This board takes care of the communication of the Deckard's dream with the outside world. The audio and midi connectors are on here, the power connector and also the USB connector. There is small SMD chip you have to solder on here and I was very confused about the orientation of this IC. So I asked on the Muff Wiggler forum and got some advice, but I'm still not 100% sure it is correct. I also read something about the Capacitors being wrongly oriented on the PCB and in the schematics. I guess I will have to be care full and do some measuring before I hook it up.

Another important board is of course the Power Supply. I still need to fix the cooling blocks but further this is not a very difficult PCB to create. The downside is though that it sticks in the same slot on the main PCB as the voice boards and you definitely do not want to mix them up. There is only one slot where the Power Supply should go. I also got the advise on the forum to test all the boards separately and the same goes for the Power Supply. Better test them all first with as less components inserted as possible. Also first test the PSU on the Lab Power Supply where you can limit the current to make sure you don't have any shorts. 

And here is a picture of the Main PCB where you can see the blue slots that will fit the voice boards and the Power Supply. The SMD components on this board were already preinstalled. I wonder why they didn't do this on the IO board. As you can see the rest is pretty straight forward. The only board left is the control PCB with all the sliders and knobs for the front panel. More about this in the next part.

Deckard's Dream DIY (Part 2)

After soldering all the capacitors on only one thing is left and that are all the IC sockets. After that I did a careful inspection for the orientation and checked for missing components. As you can see if you inspect the picture closesly there are some resistors not in place. So I started reading on that and it turns out this is meant to be this way. They were put in by the designer to have the possibility to do some changes to the filter afterwards in case that was necessary without having to design a new PCB. I didn't put in the IC's yet. I read on the Muff Wiggler Forum that it is better to test the PCB for shorts first and then put the IC's in later. So I decided to do that as well. It is always a good feeling when you finish a PCB like this, but then also the worrying starts if you made no mistakes. But we'll see about that later. I followed the instructions closely so at this point I can't see what could have gone wrong.

And then 7 more of these boards to go. Here is a picture when I finished three of them. After the first one it usually goes faster. I could finish a complete voice board one day actually. Creating all the voice boards took me about 10 working days where I also did some other work in between. My girlfriend also helped comparing the boards to see if they were all identical. And so far we could not find any differences between them. So so far everything looked great.

And here is a another picture I took during the building of the voice boards. I actually didn't make a picture yet with all the voice boards, but that will come later when I start testing and assembling. Now I need to look at the rest of the PCBs because there is a lot more. I also acquired the case by now and started looking for assembly pictures, because there is only a build document for the voice PCBs not for the rest. So you are kind of on your own there. Even though there are some nice people that really provide excellent information and help on the Muff Wiggler Forum. If you plan to build one yourself you should really create an account there and read up on the whole thread about the Deckard's Dream. By now I have all the 8 voice PCB's done. More in the next part.

Deckard's Dream DIY (Part 1)

 If you follow my blog you know I like to build my own synthesizers. Unfortunately due to my divorce I had to sell a lot. Also some of my DIY stuff. But as you know after 2,5 years I have a small studio again. Luckily I still had a DIY kit that I saved. It is a Deckard's Dream which is actually a clone of the famous Yamaha CS80 that was heavily used my Vangelis one of my favorite musicians. I did have a CS60 in the past and that came close. So I'm really looking forward to this synthesizer. But the build is a lot of work and not the easiest to build. First thing up is build  the 8 voice boards. In the picture you see the back of the first one. You have to solder a lot of very  small SMD capacitor on there to begin with. I never really did that and my eyes used to be better ;) So that was quite a challenge.

After that you start with the resistors and diodes. There are a lot actually and you need to pay attention to the correct value going in the right spot. Usually it is quite a puzzle, but luckily some made a build document that made life a lot easier. It is divided with a drawing that highlights all the resistors of one value and where they need to go. That actually saves a lot of time and mistakes. And one thing I learned myself is using to multi meter to measure the resistor values before I put them in and not rely on what is printed on the bag you buy since sometimes the supplier makes mistakes too. It is a lot of work, but actually I find this work very therapeutic and relaxing :) So I don't mind.

After This the capacitors go on. Just like the diodes here you have to watch the orientation too. Getting this far for the first board was about a days work. So time to stop and also the sun light was going away. Unfortunately I don't have very good lighting in my temporary work place which is actually the dinner table in our living room. So time to call it quits. 

And already I'm worrying if I didn't make any mistakes. But I decided to build the 8 voice boards one by one so when they are finished I can compare them to each other. It would be weird if I made the same mistake 8 times over. But well you never know ;) I will update you with part 2 soon.

Working on New Solo Material

Now that BorkHavn is finished I started working on new music for my new solo albums. Yes multiple! The last 7 years I recorded quite some music, but never got to finishing it. So I'm slowly starting to open all these projects and begin working on those tracks. One of my solo projects is going to be about dinosaurs so hence the new name for my studio called the 'Jurassic' studio now and the accompanying Jurassic Park T-shirt. My Girlfriend Sonja took this picture for the upcoming Schallwelle sampler release, but I thought it was a nice idea to share it with you as well. I'm also working on the music I recorded a couple of years ago for two planetarium shows. That will be released in the future as well with some new tracks and I have another surprise album planned with old and new material. So lots to come.

During the work on this new music I did encounter a problem though. It turned out I used a Virus TI polar as a plugin and didn't record this as audio because I thought I would never sell it. I only had the midi notes. But because of the divorce I did sell it :/ I had to find a solution for that. So the first new addition to the 'Jurassic Studio' is this used Access Virus TI2 desktop module. Fortunately I did backup the sounds I programmed for it so all projects I used it in are working again. Another nice thing to mention is that I did the artwork for two of these upcoming albums together with my youngest daughter Tamara van Osenbruggen. She is learning media design in school. I'm very proud of the outcome and will share it with you soon. I will try to put more updates online from now on about the progress of my ongoing projects. And do let me know if you have any questions for me. I'd be happy to answer them.

 

Creating 640 Sound Effects for my upcoming Solo Album

I just released the album BorkHavn together with Ron Boots, but I'm already working as well on new solo material. In the last 7 years since my last release I recorded quite some material. But usually that are just rough track ideas that need to be worked out. Not to forget finalize with small details in the form of sound effects like rises, synth modulation sounds and so on that make a song much more detailed and interesting. With the first album I created I did this during the final moments and found out that is costs a lot of time. Since my second album I started to dedicate a whole week to this process. I pick out a couple of synthesizers and start creating sound on sound on sound.

After that I start listening everything back and cut out the sounds I like. I usually make everything in random order like drum sounds, percussion sounds, sweeps and wooshes, modulation sounds and some weird stuff. Sometime on purpose sometimes by accident :) Last week I made 640 of such sounds. The hardest part actually is to come up with names for them. You can also see which synthesizers I used. I have 4 rack mounted Behringer clone synths that were very suitable for this work, because they are also semi-modular and easily patchable to another. I have done this proces for every solo album I released so I have lots of sounds. One day I might even release a sample CD with only these sounds. If you are interested let me know ;) I thought it would be nice to share this step in my creative proces with you for a change. Michel, Synth.NL

Ron Boots & Synth.NL BorkHavn Released Today!

Today is the day. After 7 years I finally have an official release again. 8 years ago Ron Boots and myself went on a family holiday in Denmark and took some synthesizers and notebooks with us. During the day we enjoyed the nature with our families and did some nice stuff and in the evening Ron and myself went in the small improvised studio and started improvising on our own. All music on the album was recorded live and was improvised in that holiday house. 8 years later we picked the best parts and finished them in our studios and eventually did the end mixing in Ron's studio and Ron also did the mastering. I did the artwork. The music is a bit more modern film music than classic EM we think, but judge for yourself. You can listen to some excerpts on my website on this URL: https://www.synth.nl/borkhavn and you can also listen on bandcamp here: https://synthnl.bandcamp.com/album/borkhavn. You can also buy the album there as MP3 or FLAC. You can also buy it directly from Ron's record label Groove Unlimited from these links.

Physical CD with Jewel Case: http://www.groove.nl/jump2.php?artnum=GR-299
FLAC download including all the artwork: https://shop.groove.nl/gr-299-flac
MP3 download including all the artwork: https://shop.groove.nl/gr-299-mp3

I hope you like it. Let me know if you have any question. 

Synth.NL Jurassic Studio

 I'm sure you all remember the famous 'Apollo Studio' pictures that still roam the internet. Well that studio is gone :( As you might well know I have gone through a rough period with a nasty divorce and I abandoned everything. After 2 years I moved in with my new girlfriend Sonja in her new apartment in Rotterdam. I did manage to save some stuff during the divorce. Some stuff is put in long term storage like my Eminent 310, V-Piano and Roland Drum Kit and some synths, but I could bring some stuff to the new apartment and build a small studio again. I always name my studio's and  I call this studio my 'Jurassic Studio'. For several reasons. First of all it feels like traveling back in time for me, but secondly I'm currently working on a new solo album about dinosaurs. So now that cat is also out of the bag :) I hope to release it somewhere next year.

So what is still in the studio. Well most importantly I saved my studio computer, where all my recordings were stored and also my software was installed. Then I could take my Genelec monitors. I'm very used to that sound and even though the acoustics in my studio are terrible I know these monitors very well. I could take my Aurora AD converters and also the RME MADI stuff. I'm also happy that I could keep my main reverbs like the Bricasti M7, Eventide H8000 and Eclipse and the Quantec Yardstick. And some of the graphic display units I like to use as reference for my levels. This was my basic recording chain and that means I don't have to sacrifice much in sound quality fortunately. I'm really happy about that.

So are there any synthesizers left. Yes !! I have kept both the Korg Kronos and the Nord Wave. Especially since I used them on the BorkHavn album with Ron Boots, so I needed these to finish the album here. I also still have the Alesis Andromeda but it is currently under the bed since I don't have room to put it. I kept some DIY stuff like the SamichSID, SamichFM and MIDIbox SID and I'm currently building a Deckards Dream. I will post more on that project later as well. I also bought some new gear. Not much budget so I started out with some Behringer Modules. The Model D, K-2, Neutron and Pro-1. And I just pre-ordered the new ARP2600. I must say. Having owned all the originals in the past. I'm not disappointed. They sound really good. So what is next? I still have a lot of recordings I made during the last 10 years. I plan on finishing them now and releasing them. So expect much more to come! I know it has been quiet for a while, but I'm back :) Keep an eye on my Blog, Twitter and Website and even better subscribe to my newsletter here: https://www.synth.nl/newsletter-subscribe

I know is has been very quiet (again) from my side. I have been through a rough time and still am actually. I'm currently in a divorce that already lasts for 2 years and the end is not there yet. Unfortunately this meant that I had to leave everything behind including my studio. I had no place of my own and lived at my parents for about 1,5 year. I have good news as well though. I have been very lucky to find a very beautiful and sweet new girlfriend and we are living in a new apartment together now in Rotterdam. In this apartment I have a tiny studio with some equipment I saved from my Apollo studio. I usually name my studios, but I haven't come up with a good one yet. More good news is that I am composing and producing new music again. So finally all the music I have been promising for the last years is coming to you. I'm sorry it took so long. The first release will come very soon. It will be a second album together with Ron Boots. Just like the first one we recorded new music live and improvised during a family holiday. This time we spend a week in Bork Havn in Denmark. At this moment Ron and myself are adding some details in the 9 tracks we selected to go on the album and we will start mixing and mastering very soon. We also finished the artwork already and here you get the first sneak preview of the album cover. I will update you with more information as it gets available. I have accumulated a lot of material since my last solo release in 2011. So don't worry. A lot more is coming! But first things first. Keep an eye out for BorkHavn. I think it has become a really beautiful album that represents the friendship between Ron and myself. The music is different from our first album together, but the people that heard it so far liked it a lot :) I did leave social media by the way. So please subscribe to my news letter on the website http://www.synth.nl when you want to be kept up to date. (or send me an E-mail on michel@synth.nl and I will add you manually). More to follow soon....

Best Wishes for 2018 and New Music Coming

Hi, first of all I'd like to wish to all the very best for 2018. Happy New-year ! I know some of you wonder if I'm still alive. Well the answer is yes, but the last years I have been very busy with both RenderFarm.NL and Virtiso. By now I have sold both of these companies and I'm a free man again. In the end it gave me too much stress and I almost suffered another burnout. So I decided it was enough. I'm still involved in the background with my first company BIT BV, and will continue to do so. No plans at this moment to start something new. The good news from this all is that I had time to completely rebuild the studio last year. I sold a lot of my vintage synthesizers and bought new stuff equipment back. I also bought some synthesizers I had as keys back as modules without a keyboard. I took all cabling out and completely redid everything. On of the new additions it the Roland V-Piano you see me playing on here. I really love this thing. The 88 keys weighted keyboard is so nice to play on. I will show more of the new studio is later posts. I also got asked a lot if new music is coming. Yes there is! I'm currently working on 2 solo albums, and also a collaboration album again with Ron Boots and also another one with Remy Stroomer. I recently also finished a single track for a sampler CD that will be released soon. I will update you all on this in time as well. I hope to release at last one of these albums in 2018. I'm working on it. Thank for you interest and let me know if you have any questions.

Clavia Nord Lead 4 in the Studio

You all know by now I guess I have a thing for Clavia synthesizers. I still remember the first time I saw Jean Michel Jarre play the Nord Lead 1 when he introduced it during his concert in Rotterdam. I just had to have one. It was the first virtual analog synthesizer back then. In the mean time Clavia did quite some improvements and just introduced the 4th model: The Nord Lead 4. This time it has an extra effects section, just like they did on the Nord Wave.

In the effects section there is also a drive button, that gives the sound a subtle overdrive effect. I really like that. It has again become a more mature synthesizer than the Nord Lead 2 I was used too, even though I have the impression that the Nord Lead 2 sound a bit more 'raw'. As you can see in the picture on the right there are actually 4 Clavia's in my studio now. I'm doubting if I will keep the Nord Lead 2 but, the Nord Modular G2X en Nord Wave are actually quite different synthesizers. I had to let one machine go, since the studio is full. So if something goes in something has to go out. This time I sold the M-Audio Venom. It was nice for a while, but not special enough to keep. For now I will be making some presets for the Nord Lead 4. Hopefully that will give me some inspiration to start some new music soon. Keep an eye on this blog. More news is coming soon. I'm actually rebuilding the studio a bit and of course I will keep you posted on the blog on this project.