BENCH NOTES

Welcome back to Bench Notes!

This month had us repairing all kinds of vintage delights: Korg PolySix’s, Juno 106’s, and oddities like the Maestro USS-1. That said, none got weirder or more niche than the Atari Video Music. We’ll get into that and some new music recommendations in this month’s Bench Notes.

FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC

It’s our job to keep instruments up and running. But as much as we love the nerdy, tech side of gear, we do it for the music. It’s gratifying to know that our work is a small part of so many amazing recordings out there, so, to shine a spotlight on the artists using these beautiful old instruments in an age like today, we’re introducing a new section to our newsletter: Releases.

Starting this month we’ll be featuring new music releases from customers of the shop. If we’ve tinkered in your gear and helped enable some new music, let us know! We’d love to put it on display.

Send us an email with a link to the single, EP, or album along with a short blurb about the artist and/or music. We want to help share as much as possible, so don’t be shy! Scroll down to see the inaugural artists featured in this month’s RELEASES.

ATARI VIDEO MUSIC’ing

We’ve fixed a couple of these devices now, and they really are fun. They take a stereo audio input to drive the psychedelic video synthesis it displays, with a few controls for parameters like the shape, colour, and contour of the geometric pattern. 

Al Alcorn (creator of Pong) may have put it best: "Some of the technicians who did our early chip layouts were a little spacey. When the Sears guys came by we'd hide them in the back room. Well, Bob Brown had designed Video Music, our weirdest product ever… The Sears guys took one look and asked what we'd been smoking when we did that. Naturally, one of our techs lit up a joint and showed them.”

Both units we’ve fixed this year turned out to only need new power supplies; luckily everything else was running just fine, and they were super fun to play with (once we found a working TV to test them with). We won’t be fixing any VCR’s, CRT’s, or other vintage visual tech anytime soon, but these rare birds are fair game in our book!

RELEASES

Some of the latest releases from the Synths When community. 

Subduction & Shadows - Matt Thibideau

Matt Thibideau debuts on Kontakt with three innovative, dub-infused techno tracks, pushing the boundaries of the genre to new heights. 

Pre-order here

Twin Paradise - Golden Drag

Dark and highly textural, songs like “Think Blue Count Two” layer a driving bass section with classic synth sounds and blown out vocals to evoke a low-fi psych atmosphere.

Listen and support here

Part of Who I Am - Not Your Average Worker Bees

NYAWB improvise live electronic music using an array of modern and vintage synthesizers and effects.

Listen and support here

The Smokey Quotient - Intrepita

Paul Stillwell is a musician and artist who is fascinated by the darker side of sound and live performance. This album is inspired by the Scotch whisky created by the distillers of Isla in Scotland. Truly, nectar of the gods!

Listen and support here

LOCAL EVENTS

Synth and synth-adjacent happenings in the GTA.

Monday, July 8th | Toronto Electronic Music Open Mic

On the second Monday of each month, our friends at TEMOM hold an electronic music open mic night at Handlebar. 15 minute sets. All live. All musical styles. Drop by at 8pm and enjoy! This month’s slots are fully booked, so it’s sure to be a good time!

Every Wednesday | Render File

You can often catch our talented tech Sam playing at Render File on Wednesdays. This casual event stars a different video game playthrough each week with a live band improvising a score to the gameplay. Last week marked Render File’s first anniversary, and it’s showing no sign of stopping. Check it out in the basement of Wenona Craft Beer Lodge any Wednesday at 8pm!

Saturday, July 20th | Frequency Freaks

Frequency Freaks Synthesizer Workshops are free educational synth events that encourage sharing gear info and sound-design techniques in the Toronto synth community. They’re held in association with Arraymusic at 155 Walnut Avenue.

Got any suggestions for local events we can add here? We’d love to hear about them! Just reach out and let us know.

If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading! Feel free to let us know what you think, share it with a friend, or suggest new topics you’re curious about.

—The Team at Synths When