MATRIXSYNTH: Baldwin Syntha-Sound and Tempo-Matic


Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Baldwin Syntha-Sound and Tempo-Matic

Ran into these on a post on Vintage Synth Explorer. I never knew these existed. Title link takes you to Audio Playgrounds Synthesizer Museum page on Baldwin. Click through to get a bigger shot of each. Oddly you have to click on the Syntha-Sound picture on the first page to get to the Tempo-Matic picture.

I found the following in the AH archives regarding the Syntha-Sound:

"Interesting box, but not what I recall as a terribly remarkable sound.
Three sections: a variable synth department, some preset synth tones
(trumpet, trombone, sax, cello) and a monophonic organ section comprising
flutes at 16', 8', 4', 2-2/3' and 1-1/3'. I think they can all be used at
once, but they were all monophonic.

Some controls on sliders, a lot of mode selection controls on pushbuttons,
like the VCO octaves, waveforms and 'mode' controls, which essentially set
you up with preset envelopes. The filter, as I recall was a multimode and
had at least low-pass and bandpass modes.

hmmm, what else? Built-in spring reverb, built in amplifier, *and* a speaker
on the side of the unit. There are a couple of push bars right above the
keys- one of them shut off the LFO momentarily, if I recall. Three octave
square-front keyboard, more wood than most synths (in fact, essentially all
wood except for the keys and front panel, don't remember what the bottom is
made of). I think there's an external input, but I don't know whether it can
be routed through the filter/VCA or not.

Different architecture, and an interesting concept. I don't remember being
blown away by any particular characteristic of the sound though...

Frank"

There is also a little piece on the Syntha-Sound in this article.

I haven't found anything on the Tempo-Matic.

1 comment:

  1. I bought a synth-a-sound a while back... Haven't gotten it working completely yet, but I found it's appearance to be amazing for my collection... quite heavy too...

    ReplyDelete

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