Testing out various vintage drum & tape machines during repairs including some major custom modifications by Dani in the workshop...

All recordings Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio.

The Secret World of Vintage Delays, Drum & Tape Machines...

Testing various prototype custom midi interfaces designed by D.A.Wilson at Hideaway Studio for the control all manner of old kit...

Player Robots: Prototypes In Action...

Having a go washing through a cute little 1983 Doctor Rhythm DR-110 analog drum machine through a vintage VA-55 tube mixer with spring reverb paralleled with the kicks fed through a tube amplified Bruel & Kjaer 1615 resonator set in the 63Hz 1/3 oct band.  The result was then washed through an old SONY DAL-1000 digital limiter. The result is quite beefy! :)

PLEASE NOTE: THESE LOOPS ARE FREE TO USE IN ANY MUSIC RECORDING BUT STRICTLY FORBIDDEN FOR USE IN COMMERCIAL SAMPLE PACKAGES OR INSTRUMENTS WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION FROM THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER.

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2021.

1983 Doctor Rhythm DR-110: Tube Processed (Free Loops 4U)

My studio archives are littered with long forgotten test recordings I made of vintage studio gear that has been through the workshop for clients. Sometimes I have fun throwing a few of them together and seeing what comes out. In this case its a couple of test recordings from back when I custom modified a number of Adrian Utley's wonders a few years back to be sync'able including his Bentley FR-6, TR-808 and a rackmount Oberheim Two-Voice (TVS-1).

Composition  & Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio 2015.

Locked & Loaded: TR-808, Bentley FR-6 & Obi TVS-1 Sync Retrofit testing...

Using some of Chopin's more finger blurring moments as a test bed whilst ironing out some of the remaining tweaks to the firmware (which has proven a little tricky to say the least!) for the prototype external MIDI2SIA Interface which allows pre model II+ models to be driven from MIDI.

In the form of a small external interface box the MIDI2SIA should run with any DK Synergy as long as it is equipped with a 25 pin SIA port and running V2.45 firmware or later.

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio 2018

1982 DK Synergy: Prototype External MIDI2SIA Test (Chopin Op. 23. In Gmin)

The first successful test of Hideaway's new Dual Channel MIDI2CV interface pcb playing a somewhat down-tempo rendition of the harpsichord solo from the first movement of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 (Allegro)

In this case one channel from the Dual MIDI2CV is driving three oscillators in unison on a classic Moog Modular System 55.. each of the two parts were overdubbed.

NB: In this quick test no VCAs were used so the oscillators are heard throughout the recording. 

Designed as both a small external interface box or in internally installed applications as a MIDI retrofit the interface supports two CV output channels spanning 4 octaves in 12-bit accuracy and two gates which are link selectable at 5 or 9 volts or Moog S-Trig.  

The interface supportings a number of modes such as pitch + velocity on two CV channels, a Duophonic Mode and two pitch channels assigned to separate MIDI channels as well as a variable delay mode between CV1/2 and Gate 1/2 which is ratiometric to the MIDI clock...

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio 2018

1977 Moog Modular System 55: Prototype Dual MIDI2CV Test

Another test of Hideaway's prototype Dual Channel MIDI2CV interface driving a 1977 Minimoog playing part Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in unison with the Music 5000 on the BBC Micro via Hideaway's new M5KMIDI interface. 

Designed as both a small external interface box or in internally installed applications as a MIDI retrofit the interface supports two CV output channels spanning 4 octaves in 12-bit accuracy and two gates which are link selectable at 5 or 9 volts or Moog S-Trig.

Prototype Dual MIDI2CV Minimoog & Music 5000 M5KMIDI play Bach!

My first go at writing Korg Hz-V CV control firmware for the new Dual CV2MIDI Interface and retrofitted the prototype to a 1977 Korg Micropreset M-500 as a test bed.   The floating point exponential maths proved a little tricky and the calibration is not quite there yet but its getting close!..

Update:  The interface is now also driving the filter cutoff via MIDI Note_On velocity which adds a whole new dimension to the little M-500 - a quick test appended to the end of this recording...

Wind instruments - Korg Micropreset / Harpsichord - Alesis Micron

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2019

1977 KORG Micropreset: Prototype Dual MIDI2CV Hz/Volt Interface

Having another bash at improving the exponential pitch control calibration in the new Hz-V control firmware for the new Dual MIDI2CV interface.  The prototype has been retrofitted in a 1977 Korg Micro-preset M-500.

Here is the Micro-preset playing oboe and the Matrix 1000 playing Harpsichord.... (last movement of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No.5)

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio 2019

1977 KORG Micropreset M-500 & Matrix 1000: Lets Play Bach..

Made whilst testing out a gorgeous 1978 Ibanez AD-230 all BBD analog delay heavily modified in The Lab at Hideaway Studio to permit full CV control of most of the major front panel controls including Vactrol controlled regen levels adding a whole new slant to a great sounding modulated delay jam packed with Bucket Brigade Delay chips!...

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2020.

1978 Ibanez AD-230: Under Full CV Control...

Testing out a brand new prototype of a major upgrade I designed for the super rare 1979 Linn LM-1 Drum Machine which implements a separate MIDI velocity controlled analog VCA on each of the 12 drum channels thus giving this pioneering beast the dynamic control it never had.

The upgrade also has a gating mode allowing MIDI note-offs to cut drum samples short - great for those moments of particularly intricate programming.

Only around 500 Linn LM-1s were manufactured but it was to become the first model of a line of some of the most influencial sampled drum machines ever made including LinnDrum which found its way onto countless best selling albums of the 80s.

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2020.

1979 Linn LM-1: Prototype 12 Channel MIDI VCA Retrofit

This thing is just plain nuts when you start injecting LFO signals onto the pins of the ADC MUX chip for the front panel control CV channels!!

All segments of this were made with a simple one note sequence whilst the pitch, sample, decay and repeat parameter CV channels were modulated by an LFO with a roughly time related period to the tempo thus causing all manner of evolving natural patterns - this includes the entire section at the end of the recording which was made the same way!..

I feel some serious circuit-bending coming on as none of these parameters are available via midi or CV in stock form...

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2020.

1986 Simmons MTX9: Messin' With Its 'Nsides!...

Testing out Adrian Utley's infamous and very awesome 1979 Maestro Echoplex EP-4 after it developed some capstan motor issues.

I love old tape delays - they all have a sound and character of their own and the EP-4 sounds particularly chunky with a great vibe and really cool sounding regerative feedback.

In this case a factory drum sequence from the Alesis Micron I keep in the workshop as a useful test source was fed into the EP-4 - and what a transformation!...

My archives are littered with literally hundreds of test recordings like this!

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio 2020.

1979 Maestro Echoplex EP-4: Drum Munging Beast..

D.A.Wilson is an Electronic Engineer, Sound Designer & Vintage Synth Specialist with a particular interest in combining vintage tube, classic analog and modern digital technologies working as a synth engineer looking after a very considerable amount of vintage studio equipment for Will Gregory (Goldfrapp / Moog Ensemble) and a number of other internationally celebrated electronic musicians and producers.  Having undertaken several major restorations and produced custom electronic designs for a number of major artists including Jean-Michel Jarre, Dani is also known for fully restoring two out of the world's four remaining 1979 Crumar GDS and partially restoring 1938 Novachord 346 (the only known operational Novachord in the UK) to playable order along with developing and producing the new Elfin family of 8-bit polysynths and the popular MIDI Front Panel Animator (FPA), Filter Defeat Module (FDM) and XD-280 Drive Emulator upgrades for the AKAI S612 sampler.

Demos of the S612 Upgrades in Action: 

https://soundcloud.com/hideaway-studio/sets/hideaway-studios-s612-front


Hideaway Studio Kontakt Sound libraries may be purchased directly from: 
https://www.lootaudio.com/category/kontakt-instruments/hideaway-studios
 

..and a nice introduction by Cory Pelizzari to the Hideaway Studio Kontakt Libraries:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-C7a3ChC9U&feature=emb_title


For more on releases from Hideaway Studio for Kontakt please visit the blog at:  www.hideawaystudio.net