THE PLAN B ANALOG BLOG at yahoo is an important forum for new product announcements and updates as well as useful applicaiton information. Click here to join the PBA Blog.

Don Kim posts nifty Plan B Videos

Plan B system owner Don Kim (who purchased his instrument on Noisebug's opening day!) has posted some really nice videos of his new synth. Go here, here, here and here. Thanks, Don!

Wendy Carlos pays tribute to Bebe Barron

Wendy Casrlos, who has become quite a close friend over the last few years, has posted an amazing honoraium to Bebe Barron on her site, including photos she took of the Barron's famed Village apartment where the magic took place in 1956. It's great read - highly recommended. Have a box of tissues handy, it's touching. Go here.



Peter Grenader returns to PotLuckCon - New Orleans June 8

Peter Grenader returns to PotLuckCon (formally TapeOpCon) as it returns this year to it's original home in New Orleans, hosting the third annual Analog Synthesis workshop, 1:00 to 3:00 PM on Sunday June 8th at the Sheraton Hotel at Canel Street. Hope to see you there!



Peter Grenader interviewed in BEAT Magazine

Click here for the article and here for the English translation of Peter Grenader's interview in the January '8 issue of the German music magazine BEAT.


Plan B 2008 NEW PRODUCT PREVIEWS

Exciting times are ahead for Plan B. If you'd like to see what we've been up to, click here for previews, descriptions and photos of the 15 new Plan B products which will be released over the Summer and Fall of 2008, inclduing the ELF family series modules and the 21C Mini Milton!.



Rest in Peace, Bebe Barron

On March 20th we lost a bright little light and a dear friend. Bebe Barron has passed. She has captivated us with her charm, her modesty and her enchanting smile and her memory will remain in our hearts, our art and our spirit forever.

Early proteges of John Cage, Louis and Bebe Barron's influence on the escalation of electronic music is immeasurable. Along with assisting in the creation of John Cage's legendary WIlliams Mix, they were the first ever commissioned to write an all-electronic score to a major motion picture. MGM's 1956 release of FORBIDDEN PLANET was, for most of us, the first time we heard this stuff and that may still be true today as the soundtrack to that album is argueably the best selling original electronic music album ever released.



Plan B featured on ANalog Suicide video form Namm '08

Click here to see a short vid taken by Tara Busch and Co. from this year's Namm show in Anahiem, CA.

PLAN B: NEW HOME AND NEW US DEALER

We are pleased to announce that effective April 2 PLAN B has moved operations from Toluca Lake to take permanent residency in the loft of the NOISEBUG complex in Pomona, CA. - formerly the home of Analogue Haven. Along with this we are equally excited to announce that NOISEBUG has become our exclusive U.S. dealer with shipments beginning in approximately two weeks. We wish to thank Shawn Cleary and Chuck Oken of Analog Haven for two years of excellent representation and service to the Plan B line.

In the next few weeks there will announcements on the release of the Models 16, 21, 21C, 23 and the new Models 30, 30A, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 38A, 39 and 40 along with three different chassis as we shift focus from modules only to full systems.

Shipment of Plan B products to our dealers will commence on April 10. We appreciate your patience during this interim period as we set up operations.

Eurorack Modular Planner includes PLAN B products

Andy Parker has created an incredible interactive web-based Modular Planner worksheet for Eurorack gear which includes Plan B products. A must for anyone planning a modular system in this format. It's free, it's fun and an extremely useful tool. Go here

Model 10 Mk II Now shipping

The first lot of RETRIGGERABLE Model 10 Polyphonic Envelope Generators are shipping this week. Click here for more info.

Ear-group.NET or .COM, it's all the same...

Just a quick note to mention we regained ownership of the .COM domain (thanks to everyone who assisted in this) a few months ago. Going to ear-group.net or .com will take you to the same place...here. Email however is exclusive to the .net domain.

Alessandro Cortini Keyboards Mag feature is heavy on the EAR System props

German Magazine KEYBOARDS just ran a great intervew on NIN keysman Alessandro Cortini which we're sure any EAR fan will enjoy. (thanks, Ally!). Some terrific photos and reading on the world's cooling Zero case!. It's a 2.5 MB download, but worth the bandwidth. go here

Plan B Announces Canadian Dealer: Moog Audio

We are pleaed to announce the addition of our Canadian dealer, Moog Audio, who will have product beginning March of 2008. For more info, go here

Plan B... Now with SKYPE

I know, we do analog..but tha doesn't mean we can't be cutting edge! You can now contact us FREE through SKYPE address Plan_B_Synths. Give us a call!

Carl Stone and Peter Grenader at the 2008 Sonic Odyssey Festival Los Angeles

Carl Stone's Al-Noor and Peter Grenader's Secret Life of Semiconductors will be presented among other studio electronic works at the 2008 LA Sonic Odyssey Festival in Pasadena, CA, March 28 and 29 at 8:00 P.M. For more information, click here

Model 23 Analog Shift Register soundbites added

As the M23 ASR nears completion, we've added some soundbites of it's final incarnation. You may be impressed. Click here

CalArts Plan B System installed

Click here to see the recent Plan B system installation at California Institute of the Arts

Homepage Reorg

We've moved some things around on the homepage. We've added a dedicated MUSIC section (scroll below) which highlights music sent to us which features Plan B equipment. Hope you find these changes useful.

John Loffink features Analog/Plan B in SEAMUS Newsletter

Before all else, thanks to John for writing his informative piece on the rebirth or analog in the EAM scene. In his recent article in the newsletter for the Society of Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), he said of Plan B:

"Plan B is a Eurorack format modular from former SEAMUS Board of Directors member Peter Grenader. With perhaps the best Eurorack format VCO on the market and an inspired line of original designs, these modules have a Buchla bent, while focusing on new and useful features. The VCO is triangle core based rather than the more typical sawtooth based core, and there are updates to the Low Pass Gate and two types of vactrol filters. The Polyphone Envelope Generator provides simultaneous AR, Ramp, Gate and End Pulse Outputs, as well as logarithmic, linear and exponential shape controls for the first two outputs"

New Model 10, 24 and 28 demos by James Ciglar

Go to the product pages of the M10, M24 and M28 for three great video demonstrations by Plan B user James Ciglar. Thank you - James!



Tokafi.com interview with Peter Grenader

Click here

PLAN B Prince increase

After more than two years since the line was announced and due to circumstances beyond our control (namely ROHS) we've had to re-evaluate our pricing on the Plan B line and are making adjustments effective October 15th, 2007. These adjustments do not effect all products and were determined by calculating the increase of raw marerial costs for each module. It's not a blanket percentage applied across the board and does not exceed 20% for any given model.

Plan B Model 15 sine takes high honors in Thumbuki purity test

The Model 15's sine wave took high honors in a wave purity comparison recently published on the Thumbuki site. The test compared three manufacturer's analog outputs against a theoretically pure digital standard generated in Csound.

Go here for details:



Model 15 scores big on Electro-Music.com

In a recent head-to-head VCO comparison on Electro-Music.com, Per Wikström said of the Plan B M15: On basic sound: "The winner is, with no doubt, the Plan B VCO. It has a sort of warm and still a bit glittering sound, especially in the triangle wave." On FM modulation: "the Plan B shows its class. Increasing the amount of FM gives a big palette of rich and deep sounds from mellow to brute, without going into distortion or too metallic buzz.". On overall performance: "Plan B VCO outclasses it's competitors in nearly all aspects" Click here for the feature in full.

Introducing EARwear!

The EAR group is happy to announce our very own clothing line (sort of)! Tons of Electro-Acoustic Research tee's, jackets, mousepads and other doo-hickey's now available at the EARSTORE. Beat the holiday shopping crowds and shop from the privacy of your own home - click here to proceed