Inside the KORG Polysix

Title link takes you to shots pulled via Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

EDP Gnat

No title link, just this shot and details pulled via this auction.

"The Gnat is a single-oscillator version of the Wasp. It has one digital oscillator and analog circuitry with a basic lowpass resonant filter, envelope with Attack and Decay controls, an LFO which can modulate the pitch or filter, and a built-in speaker. Like the Wasp, it has a very un-playable touch-sensitive flat keyboard with 25 keys. The Gnat also had EDP's propietary control that could be used to link the Gnat to a Wasp or other EDP gear. This item is in full working order, The keyboard works, the pots are clean and smooth, all knobs are present, even the small built in speaker is still clear and free from unintentionall hum."

Redsound Elevata

Title link takes you to images pulled via this auction.

The Lords of the Mini

Title link takes you to The Lords of the Mini, where you will find info on (you guessed it) the Minimoog including the Voyager.

Update: new link: http://minimoog.monsite-orange.fr/

KORG PS-3100

Title link takes you to more images via MM who restored this particular KORG PS-3100. You can see a before and after shots after the hop.

HarriL - Ghetto Expander (Live)

video upload by HarriL

"MP3 VERSION: http://www.mikseri.net/music/play.php...

Hello again. I have some new stuff for you. Im currently testdriving my friends ESX (and maybe buying it later), and made this little hip-hop-ish track.

Gear used: Korg Electribe SX.

Enjoy.
Comments appreciated ;)"

Inside the RSF Kobol

Title link takes you to one more image sent my way via MM.

Previous Kobol posts

Leketøy for voksne

flickr by Lars-Erik Dahle.

MOOG Little Phatty

Video Killed The Radio Star

The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star. YouTube via Barisaxman89.

This is actually one of two videos. Title link takes you to Failed Muso where you will find the second video, a current live version of this song that is simply amazing. Note the lead singer is the legendary producer Trevor Horn. This original video featured a MOOG Minimoog and the current live version features the MOOG Minimoog Voyager. Pretty cool. Anyone spot the others synths? : )

Marion MSR2

No title link, just this shot pulled via this auction.

"Up for auction is a used MARION #MSR2 modular synth rack mount. Marion was founded by Tom Oberheim in 1993. It is similar to a Matrix6R. The unit turns on but is untested. It comes from a user who kept his equipment in good working order so I expect it to function well. No manual is included."

I didn't realize it was toted as a "modular" synth. The Oberheim Matrix-6 and of course Matrix-12 are sometimes alluded to as modular-like in that they have extensive modulation capabilities via their "matrix modulation." I wonder if the MSR2 is straight forward enough to program without a manual. The one thing I liked about the Matrix-6 was its relative simplicity. Everything was only one layer deep - no submenus. Everything logically flowed from left to right and all parameters were printed on the surface for easy reference. Some of the trigger modes and modulation sources such as the Ramps and Tracking Generators could use the manual to full grasp them, however in general it's a pretty straight forward synth and you could get away without the manual and just explore. The Matrix-6 was my first and favorite synth. Hence the Matrix in Matrixsynth. I never picked up an MSR2 to compare.

Via Jimmy.

Update via Jimmy in the comments: "It was "Modular" because it had room for two voice cards - the 8-voice analog matrix-style, and another that was planned - though none were ever produced."

I remember this now. I did a little searching and found this great SOS article on the MSR2. According to Tom Oberheim in the article, "'The MSR2 is a modular synthesizer comprising a 1U mainframe and two plug-in cards, or modules. The card modules utilise a simple connection system which provides MIDI, DC power and audio out. Effectively, each module card is a complete synthesizer, so there's no limitation as to what we can do in the future, and we plan to make the architecture open to third-party developers. Not only can we build synthesizer boards using different synthesis technologies, we could also build boards for effects like reverb, or we could put in a hard-disk recorder for specialised applications.'"

Beepworld - MIDI303

"MIDI303 Interface for TB-303, TR-606, SH-101 and many other Synths .."

Title link takes you there.

Analog Haven Videos on Sonic State

Videos currently include:

Analogue Haven Synth tour
EAR Research modular
Future Retro XS
JoMox new stuff
Livewire Modular
Memotron digital Mellotron
Surfin Sequencer
Cynthia Industries Zeroscillator

Title link takes you there.

Also be sure to check out the rest of Sonic State's NAMM coverage.

MOOG Little Phatty Goes Accordion

Title link takes you to the video on Sonic State.

Dave Smith on the BoomChik and Evolver

Title link takes you to a video from this years' NAMM show on Sonic State. Dave calls out it is not an MPC style drum machine but rather a more traditional box with the focus being on new sounds.

Yamaha YC45D

I originally posted this on MATRIXSYNTH-B, and figured I'd put it up here as well. Click here for shots pulled via this auction.

The Yamaha YC45D is an organ, however I'm wondering if it had any synth-like capabilities, particularly in the bass section. You can find the manual here. If anyone knows more about the YC45D, feel free to comment.

I love this image from the manual.


via Loscha.

Update via Kitana in the comments: "The famous "Bionic" sound effect for the Six Million Dollar Man television show was made using a Yamaha YC45D Organ and a Morley Electrostatic Delay Line.

- SynSynth"

The Casio PT-1

No title link. Just this shot and details pulled via this auction.

"This is one of the cutest little synthesizers Casio ever made. It dates from 1981, and is the big brother of the Famous VL-1. You will know the sound of the PT-1 and VL-1 from famous songs like "Da Da Da" by the German group "Trio" (recycled into many different advertizing jingles over the last 26 years - most recently in Australia as "Sa-Ka-Ta"). It was also used in countless songs as a novelty fill in sound (The Bloodhound Gang have used their PT-1 on most of their albums).

This casio has been lovingly looked after, and is in a lot better condition than when I got her, she's been cleaned inside and out, and the key and button contacts were cleaned about 6 months ago, so, it works reliably. The batteries have never leaked, although, sadly, I received it with no battery cover, so, it has never had one to hold in it's 4 x AA power source - but this is not a problem as the batteries stay in. There is also a slider cap missing from one of the controls on the front. You can move this around to be which ever control you need it to be.

The PT-1 has all the famous beats of the VL-1, and most of the same sounds. It also has little letters in the plastic under the keys to let you know which notes you are playing (C D E F G). I don't know of any other small casios that have this feature. It's not very useful if you are an experienced player, but, again, cuteness. The PT-1 has an interesting set of capacitor filters and single transistor gates which drive the percussion section and melody tone generator, and, although the heart of the synthisizer is Digital (using Walsh Tones), there are a great many things which can be modified and changed to alter the sound (to make it harsher or smoother, depending on your tastes). The "bends" which can be accomplished (routing the drum tones to the pitch of the main instrument to make arpeggios and such) are varied, and don't require too much experimentation to get good results."

via Loscha

Matrixsynth by vgermuse

Click here for Buchla 200e tracks by Todd Barton, aka vgermuse. The following is the track listing along with synths used for each.

1. drifting--evi-2000, steiner-parker synthacon, boss rc-20
2. being and time--steiner-parker synthacon, boss rc-20
3. metalliton--buchla 200e
4. slowEvolution--buchla 200e, metasynth 4
5. cresting--buchla 200e
6. autumnAmbience II--steiner-parker synthacon, boss rc-20
7. stormBirds--buchla 200e
8. spaceMetal--buchla 200e, metasynth 4
9. exponentialSpace--serge modular music system, roland jp-8
10. horizoning--buchla 200e
11. offering--evi-2000, boss rc-20

Yamaha CS80 Schematic

Title link takes you to a full sized scan via the Yamaha CS80 group.

Sequential Circuits MultiTrak Battery Leak Fix

Update: The original site appears to be gone. The following is from the Internet Archives WayBackMachine. Unfortunately the additional images referred to further below are gone, however you can make out the mod (albeit blurry) to the left. Update: pics added below.

"SCI MultiTrak (Model 615) battery drain fix

So you found this page. Maybe intentionally, as you don't like the lifetime of your backup battery of your MultiTrak, or just by browsing. Anyway - if you have problems with your backup battery only keeping up power for several months, you may want to modify your synth a bit. I found this fix today, when i searched the last problem of my MultiTrak after the monster repair i initially did on this synth. After the repair, i had a temporary battery in it, a button cell 3V lithium battery. It took about 3 months to drain the power from this battery. Even after the second one, after 3 months, end of lifetime. So i purchased the large cell this synth usually needs, but as i didn't feel very comfortable with this very short lifetime, i didn't put it into the synth. Until today, where i wanted to track down this problem and find a solution, if there is any. And i did.

For i impatient and the ones not interested in the technical description of this problem, just the following show modification is needed to fix the problem.
Modifying the MultiTrak

In fact, my MultiTrak had a design bug, which lead to the short lifetime of the battery. If you want to fix this, disassemble your MultiTrak (i don't describe the procedure here, you can find out yourself or somewhere else i think), remove the keyboard cable and put the electronics assembly in front of you, with the connectors away from you. Remove the voice board (the upper board of the stack of 2 large boards) to reveal the CPU board. Near the keyboard connector, you see a large 40 pin chip, which is the keyboard processor, and right of the keyboard connector, you find a CD4022 (maybe it has other letters, but it must have the number 4022 on it). Left of this chip, there are 2 resistors of 10KOhms. The left one (more away from the 4022) is the one we neeed to touch. Desolder the pin of the left resistor which is nearer to you (goes to a thick trace, which connects it with its neighbour resistor), you can also cut it, but we need to connect it elsewhere, so be careful when cutting it. Next, isolate the board and maybe the neighbour resistor, that your modification can't touch something it shouldn't. Now connect the resistors open end to pin 16 of the 4022. That's it. Maybe you want to fix everything with some hot melt glue or another piece of isolation tape. Of just use a piece of wire stiff enough to keep everything in place.

Have a look at the photo (sorry, it is very blurred, i seem not to be capable to do those near-shots in a better quality :) to see how it has to look.

If you are not interested on what you did in detail, you are done now and may reassemble your MultiTrak. Otherwise, read on.
What happens in this modification?

If you want to know, you may want to first measure the current flowing through the battery. On my synth, it was around 200µA. After the modification, it is around 1µA:

So why that? Let's have a look at the schematics:

(Strange. This near shot worked...) You see the 4022 here. As you can see, it gets power from Vnv, the non-volatile power. Besides this, what you can't see here, the RST pin is pulled high by the same signal turning off the RAM access when the main power goes away. Read the datasheet. Pulling RST of the 4022 high sets CARRY and Q0 high. For Q0 this doesn't matter if you don't hit any keys on the keyboard. And even if you would, it should make no trouble, as the CARRY signal also doesn't leak to the keaboard scanner (partially left in the photo). But there is a completely different problem. The 10KOhms resistor used as pullup for the CARRY signal is connected to +5Vd, which is the main power for all other electronics. So you have a high signal on CARRY. A signal of maybe 2,5V. This goes over the resistor, at the other end (the +5Vd) around 0,5V are left from this power. Use your calculator - 2,5V - 0,5V = 2,0V. Using Ohm's law, R = U / I, you get I = U / R, 2,0V / 10KOhm = 0,2mA = 200µA. Quite a lot. If your battery has 1000mAh, you need 5000 hours to drain the battery. 24 Hours per day (assuming you don't turn it on all the time) = 208,3 days and your battery is gone. After the modification, the NV circuits draw 1µA from the battery according to my multimeter. That's 1 million hours then, which again is 41,7 years. No, don't think "i never have to replace this battery again" - lithium batteries have a lifetime of about 10 years, so it's not the synth drawing the power, it's the battery itself, which leads to you replacing the battery after some years again. Maybe 5, maybe 10 - but not one year, as it might be the case until now."

Update: pics via the comments, via Deep Signal Studios:

Oberheim OB-Xa

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.