Now, I realise that the number of people as excited by this as I am is hovering around zero, but some crazy wonderful genius has made a set of presets available for the free Vital synthesizer program that mimic the sounds of a Lyricon-1 windsynth! Free to download and use, or make a donation to the creator.

If you don't know the Lyricon then look up "Einstein a Go-Go" on YouTube, or listen to Tom Scott playing it on Steely Dan's "Peg".

https://windsynth.booth.pm/items/7289606

#WindSynth #Lyricon #Synth #MusicalInstruments

You can also read this article about the instrument from 1979: https://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/wind-of-change/13043)

Something I was very much hoping for turns out to exist… and be unavailable.

Software to allow a modern electronic wind instrument to sound like a Lyricon, their analogue ancestor. And a great price! Alas, the man behind it has apparently been uncommunicative for over a year, and he decided to saddle the programs with a system requiring a unique, personal, computer-specific activation code that nobody else can issue. You can still *buy* the software, you just can't use it or get a refund.

Deeply frustrating, but at least I read about the problem before handing over any money.

https://www.davidsonaudioandmultimedia.com/products/lyrihorn-1

#Lyricon #Synthesizer #Software

After a lot of searching I discovered that someone has indeed created a software synth that appears to make the same kinds of sound available to the original 1970s Lyricon electronic wind instrument. Very exciting! and a remarkably reasonable price.

https://www.davidsonaudioandmultimedia.com/products/lyrihorn-1

Brilliant, looks to be just what I was hoping to find. Designer had a great reputation and seems to be very highly regarded in the (somewhat niche) world of wind synths.

Except… You can buy it, but it won't work. The designer set up his software downloads to require a separately (manually) issued code, tied to your computer, to work… and he appears to have been failing to issue them for any of his products, or respond to emails and calls, for about a year. A lot of unhappy and very disappointed people out there.

So… bum. Heavy sigh.

#Lyricon #WindSynth #ElectronicWindInstruments

My occasional hunt for an old TV clip continues, with the discovery that a lapse of memory has been making it harder than it should be: Back in the early 1980s I saw John Walters of the band Landscape on Blue Peter, explaining and demonstrating the electronic Lyricon wind instrument. Can't find the clip online anywhere.

One reason for that may be because he appeared on Tomorrow's World and not on Blue Peter.

Unfortunately I still haven't found the clip anywhere, but at least I'm now looking for the right thing…

#BBC #Lyricon #TomorrowsWorld

"The whole idea of chopping a sample up by either the transient or by the bar beat position was not something that was in the original MPC. It was added because that’s what Pete Rock was doing. He was getting a sample and chopping it up into eighth notes or sixteenth notes. So then the guys that made the MPC said, ‘Oh, well, we can actually add that feature.’ They added it, boom."—Prince Charles Alexander >

Prince Charles freaked the Funk >

https://djhistory.com/read/prince-charles-freaked-the-funk/

#interview #DJhistory #music #CharlesAlexander #funk #lyricon #electronicboogie #electrofunk #hiphop #house #samples #MPC #frenchiphop #RnB #history #audioengineer #streetlife #gangs