MATRIXSYNTH: 1979 Remco SoundFx Machine - 9V Toy Synthesizer


Monday, March 02, 2009

1979 Remco SoundFx Machine - 9V Toy Synthesizer


via this auction

"The Remco Electronic Sound FX machine operates on a 9 Volt battery, weighs less than a pound (including the battery), is made of thin, hard plastic with cardboard backing [while flaunting burly tough-guy handlebars] and produces a seemingly endless array of loops, shrieks, whoops, buzzes, distortion, dirty noise and pure chaos. To take it to another level, fit it with a quarter inch output. The small built in speaker is loud for a battery operated machine, but I have heard one unleashed through real speakers and it basically can sound like an EMS Synthi; mean, angry and demanding attention.

These are becoming increasingly rare and sought after. Comes with a booklet of instucitons and dial settings for "Hollywood" effects such as: Ricocheting Bullet, Diesel Generator, Bionic Strength, Laser Beam, UFO Landing and Taking Off, Revving Moped and dozens more. (The booklet is complete, but many of the pages are stuck together. I thought about putting in the oven, but decided to leave it up the next owner so I don't ruin it!) Comes with the original box, which is in okay shape, but the unit itself is in Near Mint condition. Works perfectly."








5 comments:

  1. Oh man, I remember that thing! I wanted it so bad as a kid, but my parents (wisely) refused to get it for me. I'm sure it would've driven them crazy...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Heh, anybody up for cloning this thing?

    ReplyDelete
  3. @flight - it's based on a TI SN76477 chip. These can be found online. Circuits to build a pretty much identical box also abound. The same chip is in the Blacet Dark Star and the Thomas Henry SuperController and SN Voice

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ridiculous price - what a prick.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @flight - My little noisemaker (featured here a while back is very similar - same IC, and the visual design was strongly based on it, as my wife (the recipient of the noisemaker) had the Remco as a child. I basically followed the Saratronics SARA-002 schematic (available here) and laid it out on a perfboard. Mine doesn't have a built-in speaker, but it would be easy enough to add (a little LM386-based amp).

    ReplyDelete

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