#eric barbour

Wikipedia Celebrates its 15th Birthday with $100 Million Funding Drive

C O N T E N T S: KEY TOPICS SAN FRANCISCO Wikipedia is getting another source of cash for its 15th birthday, expanding beyond fundraising drives that have already poured $250 million into the Internet’s leading encyclopedia.(More…) If you?d like to help celebrate Wikipedia?s 15th anniversary, you can share on social media what Wikipedia means to you by tagging @Wikipedia and using the hashtag…

Now that you have had a taste of the Yellow from the last post, I think you are prepared for The Almighty D-1000 Vacuum Tube Drum Machine.

This future primitive masterpiece of a drum machines was designed by evil genius synth scientist Eric Barbour. 

"The first drum machine made with vacuum tubes since the Wurlitzer Sideman of 1959. 

Unlike the Sideman, it's a "modern" primitive device--with plenty of inputs, outputs, and flexibility. Even though it has only four drum sounds -- two tunable drums, a tunable "snare" drum (harder sounding than the others), and a cymbal -- control voltage inputs give great flexibility. Each of the tunable drums is made from a vacuum tube ringing bandpass filter, and can be tuned to sound from below 20 Hz to over 2 kHz. They are also tunable with external control voltages, allowing complex patterns to be built up with external CV or pulse sources. Resonance of each filter circuit is set by internal trimpots. The cymbal sound is an extremely primitive circuit, with white noise gated by a pentode tube. The cymbal's attack is knob-variable and CV variable, from a sharp click to a soft "whoosh". The four outputs mix to a single tube preamp that allows for overdriving via the mix-level controls."

- Eric Barbour

<a href="http://voltagectrlr.bandcamp.com/album/metasonix-r-54-sketchbook-vol-1" data-mce-href="http://voltagectrlr.bandcamp.com/album/metasonix-r-54-sketchbook-vol-1">Metasonix R-54 Sketchbook vol.1 by VoltageCtrlR</a>

This is a collection of auditory sketches I performed with the infamous Metasonix R-54 vacuum-tube driven synth module designed by mastermind Eric Barbour. 

About the R-54 in Eric Barbour's words... "Welcome to the strange new world. The R-54 is the most radical, revolutionary module we've ever made. It will change the way you do music synthesis. There has never been an electronic-music product like this before. Even the oddest things that Buchla And Associates or Serge Modular ever made are prosaic and dull compared to the R-54." Now that's setting the bar high! This collections of improvised analog modular synth compositions feature the unruly tube driven R-54 module that refuses to be tamed. The compositions on this ep were recorded live in one take with me tweaking the dials, controls and sometimes live patching. The R-54 is a really deep module that will keep you busy for years.