Jack Hertz's blog

ENCYCLOTRONICA New Releases Guide - Listen to electronic music new releases from around the world. Browse, search and play over 100 new 2013 releases streamed instantly on-demand. If you hear something you like. Please show your support by downloading a copy. Just click through to the netlabel album page listed with each title. Check out the site now at http://encyclotronica.com/

This is an edit of a piece from Shane Morris / Mystified's cd, "Emergence", due out June 11, 2013 on Spotted Peccary / Lotuspike Records. The theme of "Emergence" is the appearance of mammals in the ancient world.

About four years ago Lester Hall identified a completely unfilled market niche in the synthesizer world: inexpensive miniature modular synthesizers based on the breadboard system. In that time, emSynth as he calls the project, has grown in fits and starts and is now beginning it's third generation of revisions.

Happy Earth Day 2013! Few can deny the relationship that electronic music and our wonder for the universe share. The two create a wonderful of mixture of sound and vision that compliments our passion to better understand the cosmos. To celebrate, I am making this post that I will be updating through the day with electronic music made on and for Earth Day by various artists around the world. Please check back again for what is sure to be a stream of wonderfully Earthly sounds.

Thanks to Paul McNees for organizing the event. I had a great time at the Koinonia Music Festival on April 20, 2013 where Doug Lynner and Thea Farhadian performed live at Tom's place in Berkeley, CA.

Fenix II Modular Synthesizer - The Fenix II is a high end modular synthisizer built in the Netherlands by electronic instrument designers Marc Paping and Bert Vermeulen. This Fenix II was built for in late 2011 after being on a wait list for over 3+ years. The "new price" for a Fenix II is approximetly $5000 USD after import tax/customs fee's and shipping from the Netherlands to the United States. Bid on this now at Ebay.com

In this first Geo Tutorial, I show how you can quickly and easily sample something in SampleWiz and move it to Geo Synthesizer! Get it now from the iTunes App store at http://itunes.apple.com/us/a...

For many weeks I’ve been trying to come up with a cabinet design for the vacuüm tube Theremin I built a while ago. I decided that the electronics were far too marvelous to hide away in the classic RCA “drinks cabinet” and it had to have *lots* of elliptical curves. Check out the full article and more images at http://www.stephenhobley.com...

Everyone is going bonkers over the the Animoog synth itself. Not much focus on the incredible job Moog did on the polyphonic keyboard and XY controller. Its easy to over look, but watch and listen for independent control of volume and pitch for each note. So you can have a fast attack touch at the top of the bar, or start at no/low volume and fade in for slow attack. Addtionally, you can bend the pitch note to note for smooth runs.

Chilled and deep sounding for this first release by :. X . M . M .: from Norway. Lay back and close your eyes for the cosmic journey through space. Strange sounding and moving of the melodies creates a slow and wide atmosphere to relax in... after listening to this LP try to return to Earth...if you can... Get it now at http://www.nostressnetlabel....

Brian Eno on stage during his “Illustrated Talk” at Moogfest in Asheville, North Carolina - October 29, 2011. Check out the images over at http://www.tumblr.com/tagged...

We are extremely pleased to announce that Kate will be releasing a brand new album: "50 Words For Snow" on 21 November 2011. The album will be the second release from Kate's own label Fish People and comprises all new material that was recorded during the same period that Kate worked on her album “Director’s Cut”.

Here's a new video Livid Instruments have made of their soon to be released modular midi controller system. It's based on the eurorack standard and will feature dozens of modules that can be arranged to create totally unique layouts. Shown in the video is a preview of their 4 modular skiff enclosure.

Thanks to Robot Speak for hosting Randy Jones and his Soundplane controller. He was really great sharing the intimate details on his controller and the technology behind it. Get a look at the controller, calibration software and other details presented by Randy himself.

Hypercyclic 1.1 is a new version of the original LFO-driven MIDI arpeggiator, gate effect and step sequencer for mangling sustained MIDI input chords, the output of which can then drive other MIDI instruments.

A while ago Rob Papen visited my Apollo studio. Together with his crew he was filming some footage for his upcoming book and DVD about sound design on synthesizers. While they were filming in my studio I filmed them with my own camera. So this short movie is sort of a 'making of'. More info about the DVD will follow on http://www.robpapen.com

Interesting vdeo of a very simple analogue neuron circuit modded for synth use. In this clop, the neuron is fed Tri waves from 2 CGS LFOs. The output is used to modulate the cutoff in a vari-BW VCF. Schematic is here - http://www.sdiy.org/pinky/da...

Madrona Labs are finally rolling out their Soundplane controller. They had a little meating in Berkeley, CA where Don Buchla popped in for a cup of coffee, laid hands on the Soundplane and pronounced it a worthy object. There will be a demo at Robotspeak in San Francisco, CA this Saturday at 4 pm if you want to learn more about it. Check out more details about the Soundplane at http://madronalabs.com/

Here is an excellent documentary on those who produce Noise, a small, unnoticed style of Electronic music.

This Saturday July 23rd, London-based electronic music composer MARK JENKINS stars at the VANDERBILT MUSEUM PLANETARIUM, NEW YORK. Mark has been a leading figure in the UK's electronic music scene for over 20 years, and his release last year of the world's first all-Apple iPad CD "The iPad Album" drew international attention. This weekend's concert at the palatial museum and planetarium setting on Long Island, NY sees his return to the USA, with other concerts in the UK and Europe to follow shortly.