So I had to decide what manufacturer to go with. Surprisingly, there are lots of manufacturers. Some use 1/4" patches, some 1/8" patches, some use "Banana" patches. Each manufacturer has their strengths/weaknesses. Some current manufacturers are:

• Modcan - A Toronto based modular! Yay Canada!
• Cynthia - Makes modules in Modcan format, and others
• Serge - Sounds great. Sells panels of modulars vs. individual modules.
• Blacet - Makes kits. Since 1978!
• MOTM - A popular system
• Synthesizers.com - Similar to MOTM.
• Buchla - expensive, beautiful, but sounds naff!
• Doepfer - Krazy german company
• Analog Systems - Good innovation
• PAIA - kits since 1972. Founder died recently.

So, to cut it short, I looked hard at the Buchla for it has the most blinking lights. But it just sounded naff. I really like Serge systems, but find that you have to buy a panel at a time (which holds about 7 modules) vs. just a module at a time. That means you have to do a lot of planning ahead, and end up with lots of panels, some with modules you might not use much. Compatible with Serge is the Modcan/Cynthia. I liked them for years. But they are one of the most expensive systems going. I don't like the big black panels of the MOTM and Synthesizer.com systems (kind of ugly in a Russian-Tech sense), and I don't like building kits, so after several years of study, I finally chose Modcan/Cynthia. I believe they have the widest selection of modules and a fantastic sound.

So once you've settled on a brand, the trick then is to determine just what modules you want. Since each costs a lot, you have to plan carefully at the beginning. Do you want polyphohy? Do you want lots of effects? Do you want a Moog flavour? An ARP flavour? A Synthi filter flavour? You can kind of design whatever type of monster-synth you want a module at a time. It's WAY harder than it looks (it took me 2 years to decide a layout!), because the average price of a Modcan module is 300ish USD (maybe more) and you need several just to make any useful sound at all.

These things are all hand built, and typically built to order. They're not sitting on a shelf. So once you order it, it might be anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months before you get all your modules! It depends on what other orders they have in queue.

Here is the system I have ordered (some from Modcan in Toronto, some from Cynthia in Los Angeles):

Update: I've added 3 modules to my original order to fill out two racks

I got a 2 month delivery date from Bruce for the 'Modcan' modules (look in the lower left of each panel, and you can see if they are Modcan or Cynthia). I haven't gotten back from Cynthia re: when they will be available (shudder) :) Bruce says they would have been available sooner, but some Russian ordered a 60 panel system (Russian oil/black market/kidnapping money?) so he has to build that. Crazy!

So some the above modules, broken down, with some MP3's detailing the sound they can make (when controlled by other modules):

Zeroscillator - SciFi | FM Percussion | Sequence | Blues Mix | Wicked | Stereo VZO (good for headphones)
Triple Resonant Filter - Vox2 | Zombies
Moog 904A Filter - Electropop | Moog Bass

The goal I have is to link in the Kyma via the envelope follower, and the Anything Module, and feed those wacky filters and oscillators, and then back again into the Kyma. Should be way wacky.

I'll know for sure in 2 to 4 months :)

Lock is Ultra-Uber

On other fronts, the radio station [to the left] is VERY unreliable (sorry to all the folk who have emailed me), due to lockups on the Windows 2003 server the streaming originates from. It seems Windows is now the least reliable operating system I'm running, as my Win XP 64bit also hangs for me at least 2 times per week. I did full memory diagnostics (courtesy of memtest on the Ultimate Boot CD), full temperature/event log/process logging -- no obvious or even semi obvious reason they are crashing (just unobvious). I'll put Linux up on those boxes soon and see how reliability fares (perhaps it is the hardware? -- soon we will know).

Also, the cheezy webcam I'm using to drive the video uses up 30% of my CPU for some reason. It's crazy. If I switch to a firewire video card, the CPU drops down to 3%. GREAT DRIVERS CREATIVELABS. THANKS.

Klipsch La Scala Crossover type AA - 3 way Crossovers!

Sherman Filterbank 1 - Analog Filter - NO RESERVE ! :)

Korg Electribe EA1 - NO RESERVE

Korg Electribe ER1 - Rhythm Synth - NO RESERVE

I'm changing my studio around a bit, moving some gear out and some gear in. I'm also selling:

Juno 60 Analog Keyboard
Korg Karma Keyboard
Kawai K5000s Additive Workstation
Korg MS2000R Synth
Line 6 Studio Modeller - Echo Pro
Line 6 Studio Modeller - Filter Pro
Line 6 Studio Modeller - Mod Pro
Electrix Filter Factory
Electrix Mod Factory
Electrix Warp Factory (vocoder)

I'm putting together a Serge and Modcan (made in Toronto! Yay!) modular synth. These babies cost a lot, and demand a lot of focus -- hence the re-org. I've also got my ionic performer comming from repair (it's taking close to a year to fix it up!).

I've been *CLEANING MY HOUSE*. A lot of dust has appeared. So much so that I was wondering if the laws of conservation of energy were being violated. Inexplicable dust, making bunnies:

So, apart from the cleaning, I've been building a new room-concept. What was the "Library" has now become the "Cocoonatorium". I know I already live in a lair of technology, but I was recently lamenting that it was not really a Cocoon-Of-Technology -- I just didn't have that 360 degree enclosure concept happening.

So.... I put in a Scandanavian stressless chair

a pair of Reference 3A speakers (now made locally! carbon fiber woofers!):

22 mighty watts of 845 tube amplification (thanks for getting me new tubes Fei!) (fed by an excellent wireless audio device, the Squeezebox):

lasers (of course) and LED mood lighting (thanks to Global Lighting and Walmart), A 'making of' post will be up soon. I've got to do a lot of wiring for the LED mood lighting:

Now, all that's left is to decide upon the ultra ergonomic split keyboard, and whether it's a 30" Apple Cinema Display suspended above the chair, or a projector on a slanted screen.

I just want to feel weightless in the chair, and able to code/think/transcribe my mind in the most ergonomic way possible.

PAULSOP.COM has just joined pool.ntp.org (about 529 other servers in the world) that help coordinate the time of millions of computers around the world. NTP stands for Network Time Protocol, and uses approaches to solve the Byzantine clock synchronization problem called Marzullo's Algorithm (uses correctness intervals to determine the most probable time from a series of incorrect clocks). A good summary is here. Keith Marzullo's homepage is has a happy picture of the man.

Right now, I'm a mere Stratum 3. If I had a GPS clock, I'd be Stratum 1 (hope that for 2007). The Stratum 2 servers are ones which distribute load for Stratum 1 servers. Stratum 3 servers distribute load for Stratum 2 servers. Every time you query a greater stratum level, the clock gets a little more wrong (not much in human time, but a few ms here and there can matter to a computer). So, when, in the future, you get your time from pool.ntp.org, there will be about a 1 in 500-odd chance of it comming from ntp.paulsop.com :)

Since I just joined, I have to be up for a little bit before I'm added to the cluster. When you start, your score is given at a -5. If your host is performing well (available and time is not too wrong), you get more points. They go up to 20. You can watch my score go up by clicking here (maybe). You can see the score for the whole USA here and Canada here (wow -- big difference!).

Anyway, ntp.paulsop.com is here to stay, and you can set your watch on it.

NO, REALLY! If you are on a recent version of windows windows, issue this command at a command prompt to get your time from me:

net time /setsntp:ntp.paulsop.com

NTP STATS
=========
     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
==============================================================================
-time.nrc.ca     132.246.168.2    2 u    3  128  377   53.628   -6.158  15.503
+phobos.cis.sac. 129.7.1.66       2 u  122  128  377   12.484    3.156   2.195
-venus.cis.sac.a 192.5.41.41      2 u   51  128  377   12.522    0.198   3.482
+sol.cis.sac.acc 192.43.244.18    2 u  121  128  377   13.380    1.409   2.122
-time.nrc.ca     132.246.168.9    2 u   39  128  377   54.767   -3.861   1.688
-sue.cc.uregina. 142.3.100.2      2 u   49  128  377   79.277    6.007   3.464
-c-24-62-5-48.hs 18.26.4.105      2 u   58  128  377   53.622    0.209   1.754
*wxo-svr2.cmc.ec 18.145.0.30      2 u  119  128  377   50.775    3.409   2.936
 LOCAL(0)        .INIT.           0 l   44   64  377    0.000    0.000   0.001
==============================================================================

assID=0 status=46f4 leap_add_sec, sync_ntp, 15 events, event_peer/strat_chg,
version="ntpd 4.2.0a@1:4.2.0a+stable-2-r Fri Aug 26 10:30:12 UTC 2005 (1)"?,
processor="i686", system="Linux/2.6.11.12-xenU-rimu1", leap=01,
stratum=3, precision=-20, rootdelay=75.677, rootdispersion=38.407,
peer=25547, refid=199.212.17.20,
reftime=c7742ff0.a34fd6d7  Sun, Jan 15 2006  2:20:32.637, poll=7,
clock=0xc77430a9.0eebe596, state=4, offset=2.752, frequency=-53.997,
noise=23.198, jitter=3.485, stability=704.462

==============================================================================