Crumar GDS MIDI interface

Published on Jul 24, 2015 Michael Kukat

"The Crumar General Development System is a very rare late 1970s digital synthesizer based on the Bell Labs Digital Synthesizer, also known as the Alles Machine.

It might better be known by it's little brother, the Digital Keyboards Synergy. I'm fascinated by this machine since 7 or 8 years meanwhile, since i read about it in Mark Vail's Vintage Synthesizers book. One day, i want to have it replicated on a firmware basis running on a suitable micro.

A bit more than a year ago, i sort of accidentally bought this keyboard from eBay, missing the point that it might be hard to impossible to get the main unit for it. As the offer appeared several times from the seller before, i might not have been the only one.

But if i botch it, i'll fix the situation and not cowardly step back from the purchase. I mean. How hard can it be to make this a MIDI controller?

Really - not that hard. The "communications protocol" consists of several signals controlling some counters that control some multiplexers and a ramp ADC, not so difficult. It's a bit like a serial datastream for the keyboard and PWM for the potentiometers. But why not do it completely right and also support the other direction, adding MIDI to a Crumar GDS? So i took some more care analyzing the host-side interface circuitry to understand it and implement exactly the same signal behavior here.

So technically, this interface intercepts the keyboard and potentiometer lines using SPI DMA for the keyboard bits and timer PWM/capture for the potentiometer data. If the interface runs in master mode, there is another timer-controlled DMA generating the control signal stream, otherwise, this comes from the GDS and is just passed through.

The front panel LEDs, based on a ICM7218, are also intercepted, so i use externally-triggered timer controlling GPIO DMA to read the host writes into a MCU buffer, extract the LED data and forward this to the output code, which writes them to the keyboard. I can switch to internal LED control easily this way without losing host LED changes.

All this is based on a STM32F103RCT6 running at 72MHz. There is not even interface circuitry as the signal drivers in the STM32 are strong enough for the TTL receivers, the inputs already have schmitt-triggers, it just fits between the cable.

So far, everything basically works, basic MIDI support is there, now it's time to complete the configuration by SysEx and by the keyboard controller itself, implement firmware update via SysEx, add the USB MIDI support, make the 4 LEDs show some useful status information, but all this is just software.

The hardware is now completed and tested - which was the main purpose of this video, while showing you another not so common DIY hack."

Crumar GDS MIDI interface testing

Published on Jul 30, 2015 Michael Kukat

"Another video about the Crumar GDS MIDI interface.

This time, both interfaces are in use. One is running in master mode, sort of emulating a real GDS (just the scan processor, not the synth), the other one in slave mode, working as a GDS MIDI interface.

The purpose was to test if everything works as intended, as it already did on the breadboad.

Controlling the Korg Gadget on the iPad with a Crumar GDS keyboard - fun :)

In the second part, i try to describe a bit how the interface between the GDS main unit and the keyboard works and how i hook into this communication to implement the interface. The DK Synergy works exactly the same way, it even has nearly the same pinout, just number of keys and pots differ. My interface board could also be used in a DK Synergy."

Crumar GDS MIDI interface testing

Published on Jul 30, 2015 Michael Kukat

First part here.

"Another video about the Crumar GDS MIDI interface.

This time, both interfaces are in use. One is running in master mode, sort of emulating a real GDS (just the scan processor, not the synth), the other one in slave mode, working as a GDS MIDI interface.

The purpose was to test if everything works as intended, as it already did on the breadboad.

Controlling the Korg Gadget on the iPad with a Crumar GDS keyboard - fun :)

In the second part, i try to describe a bit how the interface between the GDS main unit and the keyboard works and how i hook into this communication to implement the interface. The DK Synergy works exactly the same way, it even has nearly the same pinout, just number of keys and pots differ. My interface board could also be used in a DK Synergy."

Crumar Synergy

flickr by Neil Vance

full size

"32 partial oscillators FM additive"

Anyone know the relationship between Crumar and DK if any?

Update: I did a quick search here and found this post. The DK Synergy was based on the Crumar GDS. There is also reference to Crumar GDS on sequencer.de. It is interesting how different manufacturers overlapped. There were others. The Sequential Circuits Fugue for example was actually manufactured by Siel.

The PPG 1003 "Sonic Carrier" - World's First Programmable Synth?

via Wolfgang Palm on Facebook
Be sure to see the video below.

"This was the first programmable synthesizer (1977)."

Programmable as in patch memory. The 1003 was a programmable monophonic synth with two oscillators, digitally controlled keyboard, and it was duophonic.

But was it the first?

Excerpts via Part 4 of the PPG Story:

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ConBrio ADS100 and Crumar GDS synthesizer brochures

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"Two vintage digital synthesizer brochures. Just the Brochures. ConBrio ADS 100 and the Crumar GDS General Development System. Both brochures have punch holes, no writing, no missing pages, no highlights, no stains, no stamp. Very rare."

See the Con Brio label below for more.

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The First Digital Synthesizers

A friend of mine asked me what the first digital synth was. To my surprise I wasn't sure. We all know it was the Yamaha DX7 (1983) that changed the landscape from analog to digital, but it clearly wasn't the first. The NED Synclavier (1975) and the Crumar/DKI GDS (197x?) and Synergy (1982) predate it. If anyone out there knows for sure, feel free to comment. Image of the Crumar/DKI GDS via synthony.

Snip on the GDS via Synthmuseum.com:
"'The GDS came out of some early research at Bell Laboratories in the early '70s,' explains Mercer 'Stoney' Stockell, who himself shared in developing the GDS and Synergy. 'Hal Alles, a researcher there, designed the high-speed additive engine that was put into the GDS and later systems. He was a very bright man. The work originally came out of some stuff he was supposed to be doing for echo-cancellation on telephone lines.'"

BTW, regarding the DX7, be sure to check out this post on the Yamaha FX1.

Update via adam s in the comments:
"The Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer is the Synclavier's ancestor. This is recognized as the first digital synthesizer existing as a self-contained instrument, closed system or whathaveyou. Of course, the first digital synthesizer (that is, first digital device to synthesize sound for the sake of music), is the IBM 704 Mainframe computer, on which Max Matthews created Music I in 1957. It's amazing how far computer synthesis predates 'digital synthesizers'. I'm sure that in that almost 20 year span, plently of people had developed (successfully or not) digital synthesizers, especially during the early 70's microprocessor boom."

Crumar GDS Synthesizer - Original Brochure

via these auctions

"Crumar General Development System synthesizer.

Tri-fold format, 6 pages. No date.

This one's kind of underwhelming on the inside. No graphics, just text."

Update via Qwave in the comments:
synergy_ad.jpg
gds+synergy_ad.jpg
"The scans origin from the US Keyboard magazine I used to read every month in the late eighties and early nineties."

Crumar Synergy and GDS Scans

via Qwave in the comments of this post on the Crumar GDS Brochure.

Crumar Spirit

via this auction

"OK, by now, everyone knows the Crumar Spirit was designed by some of the Moog folks, namely Dr Moog, Tom Rhea, and Jim Scott. What's never been explained is how or why. That's where I come in. This is how it might have happened...

Let's first set the stage.

The year is 1982. The monophonic Prodigy and Rogue were still in production. Moog's attempt at a less-knobby synth (the Source) had been released the year before. The powerful but problematic MemoryMoog had finally started to ship and everyone involved really needed a break because of all the problems. New development had temporarily ground to a halt as all hands came on board to salvage the MemoryMoog effort.

During this time, the Rhodes Chroma had also recently been released.

Three Moog folks - Dr Moog, Tom Rhea, and Jim Scott decided to take a short holiday overseas to unwind and reset. They chose Italy as their destination and set off on their trip.


Meanwhile...
In Italy, Crumar had the DS-2 and Performer synths out there. They had also teamed up with a New York based firm to create the GDS and Synergy but they were having as many problems with them as Moog and ARP did with their recent polysynths.

So, the three Moog employees are in Italy, touring around and checking out the local culture. A chance meeting with Mario Crucianelli kickstarts an idea for a new synth. Moog as a company is stretched too thin and is too worn out to take on any new R&D. Dr. Moog and friends discuss features that they'd like to see. Since this isn't going to be branded as a Moog, there is some more freedom to borrow ideas from other synths and to vary from the traditional Moog designs. They have had good luck with the CEM 3340 and 3360 ICs in the MemoryMoog and the Chroma was using the 3350 VCF to create some unusual routings and new sounds. Rather than worry about licensing a Moog filter for this product, the team decided to go off on a new track and try a pair of 3350's and provide separate control over each filter chip.

The idea for a monosynth that could sound traditional or radically modern was born and the Spirit is the result.

Well, that's how it might have happened...

Let's get back around to the auction now.
I have a Crumar Spirit, serial # 62, that's been cleaned and calibrated. In addition to the synth (110 volts) and power cord, I'm including the owner's manual and schematics. In addition, I sketched out the trimpot locations and names for the VCO board to make future calibrations easier. As an added bonus (I'm all about giving you guys bonuses), I'm including 2 CEM 3340 VCO ICs, 1 CEM 3350 filter IC, and 2 CEM 3360 VCA ICs. So you'll never have to worry about CEMs again."

Vintage Bell Labs Digital Synthesizer 1977 Demo Video by Creator Hal Alles

Vintage Digital Synthisizer 1977 Published on Jun 15, 2015 urcich

Roger Powell at 5:22. Further below is a video of Laurie Spiegel playing the synth. See the Bell Labs channel label at the bottom of this post for more.

It's fascinating to hear what the initial intent of this synthesizer was.

via Hal Alles on the Synergy list:

"Since a few people have expressed interest, I posted a video on youtube of a demo using the synthesizer I developed at Bell Labs.

This demo was made as a backup for a live demo for the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Talking Motion Pictures.

Hence the references to the movie industry.

The live demo was done on the stage at the Palladium in Hollywood in 1977, so the backup was never shown.
It started life as studio video tape made a few days before the show, converted to 16 mm film, then later to VHS tape, then to DVD, and finally the digital version posted.

Very few people have seen this – I did not have a copy until 1995.

Hal Alles"

Laurie Spiegel plays Alles synth - temporary replacement

Uploaded on Apr 27, 2009 Laurie Spiegel

"This 1977 tape is one of the earliest examples of purely digital realtime audio synthesis. It manages to achieve an analog synth sounding quality, but it is entirely digital synthesis and signal processing.

The interactive software I wrote and am playing in this video recycles my keyboard input into an accompaniment to my continued playing, which is why I called it a "concerto generator". I use part of one of the keyboards for control data entry, and the small switches upper right to access pre-entered numerical patterns. The sliders are mainly pre-Yamaha FM synthesis parameter controls, for the number of harmonics and amplitude and frequency of the FM modulator and carrier that constituted each musical voice.

Until they restore the copy suffering from data corruption please look at this copy instead.

Comments can continue to be left on the original's page where there have been many views and comments views, here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4T3eT...

Thanks for watching,

- Laurie"

Update via Spiegel's Reflections in the comments: "I've posted some additional info about the synth Hal Alles built that's featured here along with a link to more technical info. See my extended comment near the bottom of this page":

"I never heard this called "Alice" till the last couple years. Don't know when that name first surfaced.
A correction: This was at the time considered the world's first ***realtime*** digital (not "additive") synthesizer. Yes, it could do additive synthesis but was quite flexible as to how the oscillator could be used. I used them as FM pairs, with both the modulator and carrier of each FM pair being additive, with the number and amplitude of their harmonics controlled by the slide pots. (This video of me playing it shows is a rare example of pre-Yamaha DX-series FM synthesis.) The breakthrough was to do digital synthesis in realtime so it could be interactive. Prior to this technology, digital computers were not fast enough to produce audio in real time and it was not possible to do digital audio interactively.
There were 72 slide pots. (72 oscillators were mentioned above instead). The number of oscillators depending on how the components were programmed to interconnect. For the specifics of its synthesis architecture, please see Hal Alles's paper describing the system in Computer Music Journal, Vol. 1 #4, which you can find on my website at http://retiary.org/ls/obsolete_systems/Alles_synth_1977.pdf
The system was not dismantled as it says here, but donated to the Oberlin College Music Dept. For all I know it is still there. I'm not sure why Gary Nelson and the group there were not able to get it running. I had heard that it was dropped during the move, but alternatively, we programmed it remotely from (if I remember right) an LSI 11/45 computer in another part of the Labs. I don't know to what extent it could be programmed independently of an external computer with a compiler etc. installed, so that might have been a major hurdle for them. This was 1977 at Bell Telephone Labs, so the purpose of the system was never to make a marketable music system but to develop and test the new designs of its components, and I was under the impression a bunch of new patents resulted, The ideas built into this instrument were not lost to music though. Crumar created various synthsizers based on its internal architecture. I think (but am not sure because I never had direct experience with them) that those included the Crumar GDS and Synergy.
From the liner notes of my 'Obsolete System' cd:
This composition was commissioned by Bell Labs and the Motion Picture Academy for the 50th anniversary of talking pictures. Working with the Alles synthesizer, with its extensive array of input and output channels for control, was a real pleasure after years of GROOVE's extreme restrictions. The interactive software I wrote for this composition recycles the player's keyboard input into an ongoing accompaniment. However, writing the software from a remote DEC PDP-11 computer [..] in the new "C" computer language still undergoing frequent change, within a still-experimental UNIX operating system, without the control inputs or sonic output, under a tight deadline, while the Alles synthesizer hardware was still under construction, turned out to be quite an adventure.

It's also not necessarily true that only 1 composition survives from this instrument. Roger Powell also composed something on it I believe, though I don't know if he finished or recorded it. And I have a couple of reel-to-reel tapes I recorded on it that I haven't listened to since then (1977). It is possible that something on one of those open reels might be worthy of being considered additional music. At some point I will work up to transferring them to digital and find out."

DK Synergy

Click here for shots via this auction.

"This auction is for a DK SYNERGY. It's one of the first digital synthesizers, and it implements both additive and FM synthesis. It was created by Digital Keyboards with the consulting help of Wendy Carlos. Its technology is based off of the Crumar GDS Synthesizer."

Synergy DK

via this auction.

Update via the comments regarding the details that follow: "It was a Crumar GDS that was used on Carlos' TRON soundtrack, not a Synergy. Also, I'm not aware of that Larry Fast ever used a Synergy. That was just his artist name."

Details:
"Here is your chance to own one of the rarest keyboards in existence (there are reportedly only about 100 working models left in the world!) as used by Wendy Carlos (Tron and "Beauty in the Beast") and Larry Fast. This particular model has the MIDI in/out/thru on it, and looking inside, seems to have been done by a skilled technician (or perhaps the factory). This means it is the II+ model. The sounds are very digital in nature, but have a nice warm tone to them. There are plenty of electric pianos and strings, as well as some neat digital drum sounds. The keyboards velocity sensitivity drastically change the sounds, and this is part of the nature of the Synergy's programming.

I also have 14 original sound cartridges with this, 4 of which seem to be blank. The cartridges include: VCART 1-3 "Voices", CARLOS WC-1 "ORCH-PLUS", CARLOS WC-2 "Bells and Whistles", CARLOS WC-3 "Missing Links", DEMO "Demonstration of internal voices" and TCART1 "Processor and Panel Tests" and TCART2 "Oscillator and D/A tests"... These are included in the auction.

From the web: The Synergy is a Phase Modulation/Additive synthesizer and has lots of DX type FM sounds. The Phase Modulation algorithms are user defined with up to 16 oscillators available.
The envelopes have up to 16 stages/per osc, and are loopable. Program/sounds consists of 2 'boundaries' which are 2 separate timbres. The keyboardist can morph between these timbres via velocity and key number. The DK SYNERGY II synthesizer originally retailed for around Six Thousand 6$k (Thanks matrixsynth.com!)

Also from the web:

http://users.ece.gatech.edu/lanterma/synergy/
http://www.synthmuseum.com/synergy/index.html
http://www.synthony.com/vintage/dkigds.html

The rear of the Synergy has 1/4" unbalanced outputs 1 and 2, and balanced XLR outputs 1 and 2. There is also RS-232 output for interfacing to a Kaypro computer for programming. The knobs on the front offer user control of the sounds, but in order to really dive into this synthesizer, you need the Kaypro."

Hands On - Energy for UVI Falcon and Workstation

Published on Feb 14, 2016 Synth Anatomy

"Energy is Synthesizer sample library by UVI. Energy can be load in UVI Workstation and Falcon Synthesizer Workstation.

ENERGY is the product of a unique and extremely rare additive synthesizer from the early 80’s, the Digital Keyboards Synergy. Released in 1982, the DK Synergy was based on an extremely sophisticated additive engine for the time, derived from the nearly $30,000 Crumar GDS (General Development System) and famously used by Wendy Carlos on the original TRON soundtrack. In fact many of the Synergy’s presets were crafted by Carlos herself, who is noted to still use the synth to this day."

Synths of Sci-Fi Episode 04: Wendy Carlos, GDS Digital Additive Synthesizer & TRON (1982)

Koboto Music

"In this episode we continue to look at Wendy Carlos’ work on TRON, additive synthesis and the GDS Digital Additive Synthesizer from Crumar."

Synths of Sci-Fi Episodes


See 3:19 in the following for Wendy Carlos' GDS demonstration:

Wendy Carlos Interview 1989 BBC Two

automatic_bazooti

"Wendy appeared on the BBC in 1989 and is best known for the scores to A Clockwork Orange, Tron and The Shining."

DK SYNERGY II+ SYNTHESIZER, KAYPRO II & SYNHCS SOFTWARE

synergyII timbres Uploaded on Sep 5, 2010 xenmaster0


s 2 demo 1 441 final 320x240stream Uploaded on Sep 5, 2010 xenmaster0

Warning: this is a long post and can't be paged with the "click for more" link otherwise the videos will not load. Also, no time to parse the entire listing, so everything captured below for the archives.

via this auction

"DIGITAL KEYBOARDS SYNERGY II+

WITH KAYPRO II & SYNHCS 3.182 PROGRAMMING SOFTWARE, 14 FLOPPY DISCS OF SYNERGY TIMBRES, and 3 SYNERGY ROM CARTRIDGES

This is the legendary Synergy synthesizer. It comes with the Kaypro II CP/M computer I bought with the Synergy and the SYNHCS software used to program the Synergy. Three Synergy ROM cartridges are included, WC-1 and WC-2, the Wendy Carlos Voice cartridges 1 and 2, and the VCART 4 cartrdige, along with a null modem cable that you use to connect the Synergy synthesizer with the Kaypro II computer.

Using the Kaypro II computer running the Synergy Host Control System software (SYNHCS), you gain access to the full capabilities of the Synergy synthesizer. With the Kaypro II computer + SYNHCS software, you can program the Synergy synthesizer to generate any kind of sound you can imagine. Then you can save the timbres you create on floppy disk and organize those timbres into banks of sounds, and send them to the Synergy synthesizer. (Originally the Synergy was sold with ROM cartridges but with the Kaypro you don't need 'em because you can send new timbres to the Synergy from the Kaypro. I am, however, also including one original Synergy ROM cartridge.)

You will also get the complete set of 13 Synergy voice library banks on floppy disk, L1 through L13 (on 7 floppy discs) as well as the 6 Synergy VCart voices banks 1 through 6 (6 floppy discs). You also get the WC-1 and WC-2 voice banks on floppy disc. Each synergy ROM cartridge or CRT file holds 24 timbres. So you get the complete set of 20 x 24 voices, or 480 Synergy voice library timbres. This is the complete set of timbres that were offered for the Synergy II+. You also get the Wendy Carlos WC-1 and WC-2 voice cartridges (these are duplicates of the WC-1 and WC-1 voice banks on floppy disc) plus the VCART4 cartridge. The VCART4 cartridge has been disassembled so that you can resolder the socket to use a ZIF (zero insertion force) socket if you prefer, and burn your own ROMs and swap them out in the ZIF socket. I'll include information on how to do that. As a practical matter, the Kaypro II computer can transfer voice files to the Synergy II as fast as swapping out EPROMS, but it's nice to have the ability.

The SYNHCS control program included with this Kaypro is the latest version, from October 11 1985, version 3.182. You can see the version number in one of the photographs of the Kaypro II screen. It's later than the version 3.15 SYNHCS that sold with most Synergy/Kaupro II combos. SYNHCS V 3.182 fromOctober 1985 is the final version of SYNHCS, and includes menu options the earlier SYNHCS didn't have -- the earlier version 3.15 dates from September 1983. This later version October 1985 version 3.182 of SYNHCS has features the earlier SYNHCS didn't have, and it's not generally available. I got it from Stony Stockell. I'm pretty sure that only a handful of other people have this latest final version of SYNHCS from 10/11/85.

There are 18 floppy discs all told: 7 discs containing Synergy voice banks 1 through 13 (2 banks per disc, so 7 discs there total) and Vcarts 1 through 6 (6 discs there) and the Wendy Carlos 1 and 2 Vcarts on a single floppy disc. along with the Kaypro CP/M 2.2 boot disk to boot up the Kaypro II computer and a disc of CP/M utilities, like UNERASE and some other very useful utilities. That makes 16 floppy discs. I've also included a CP/M 2.2G boot disc in case you want to use another model of Kaypro II. The boot discs differed depending on whether your Kaypro II had ROM 81-149C, ROM 81-232, or ROM 81-292. All that is spelled out in detail in one of the information sheets I'm including with this Synergy II+. I'm also including SYNHCS V 3.12, the earliest versionof SYNHCS, in case you pick up another Synergy II with older ROMS.

Some of these Synergy voice banks were designed by Wendy Carlos, and all of 'em sound gorgeous.

The Synergy synthesizer boasts a unique sound, unlike that of any other synthesizer. It can caress your ears with silken delicacy or hammer you with brutal rancor. The Synergy can sound raucous or subtle, and it can change from one to the other as you hit the keyboard harder. There's a reason for this: it has arguably the most complex and sophisticated synthesizer architecture ever created, unparallelled evern today. The Synergy's amplitude envelopes are more complex, its oscillators are arranged in a more sophisticated way, and its advanced features like digital noise source, quasiperiodic vibrato and digital formant filter still have not been fully duplicated by any other digital synthesizer -- even today."

"THE BELL LABS DIGITAL SYNTHESIZER AND THE SYNERGY II+

The Synergy is based on the Bell Labs Digital Synthesizer designed by Hall Alles. The Bell Labs Digital Synthesizer used a remote computer to program the synth, with access by a different kind of port (RS-488 serial port, then common for programming lab equipment over a serial link). The remote computer at Bell Labs had to use software written by the composer (Laurie Spiegel, for example, whowrote programs on a DEC minicomputer in the then-new C programming language to control the Bell Labs Digital Synthesizer) to program the synth. When Digital Keyboards licensed the design of the Bell Labs Digital Synthesizer, they also built an 8-bit microcomputer that could program a version of the Synergy called the GDS.

About 700 Synergy I synths were sold all told, but less than 100 are still working today. A small handful of (I believe no more than 6) GDS systems were built in addition to the originl non-programmable Synergy I synths: GDS stands for "General Development System." These were versions of the Synergy with 16 front-panel digital sliders to control parameters of the synthesizers that hooked up to an associated CP/M computer thta used 8-inch floppy discs. With the GDS, you could program the Synergy and store voices on 8" disk via an S-100 buss CP/M computer based on the Ohio Scientific Challenger. Wendy Carlos bought a Synergy General Development System, Stockell kept one in his basement, Klaus Schulz had one, and someone else reportedly bought one (I don't know who).

When Kaypro started producing the Kaypro II CP/M computer in the early 1980s, Stony Stockell, the lead engineer on the Synergy synthesizer, saw an opportunity to replace the cumbersome General Development System with a cheaper setup for programming timbres on the Synergy, so he hired someone to write the Synergy Host Control Program in Z80 assembly language to program the Synergy using the Kaypro II instead of the S-100 buss IEEE 696 CP/M computer used with the GDS.

The new SYNHCS software was much more straightforward and didn't require any programming on the user's part. The Kaypro II was a standalone computer running CP/M, once again easy to use (unlike the Bell Labs minicomputers, which the user had to program to get anything out of 'em, even to send a note to the synthesizer!) and the Kaypro used a simple null modem cable linked to the RS-232 serial port in the back of the Synergy to program timbres, download and upload voice banks, and control the synthesizer's many subtle functions from the Kaypro.

The general method of programming involves pressing a specific button on the front of the Synergy to access a given function, then typing in a value in the Kaypro II to adjust the synthesizer parameter. Once you get the sound you want, you save it on the Kaypro floppy disk as a single .VCE file. Then you can load the VCE file off the Kaypro floppy disk and send it to the Synergy to recreate that timbre whenever you want. The SYNHCS program lets you arrange timbres defined by VCE files into banks which get saved as a single large files called a .CRT files, so SYNHCS combines the functions of synth programming and a synth librarian (and remember that this was back in 1981-1982!).

There was no such thing as the MIDI protocol when Hal Alles designed the Bell Labs Digital Synthesizer in 1974-1975, and no such thing as a finalized MIDI spec when Stoney Stockell adapted Alles' design into the Synergy in 1978-1980 for Crumar's Digital Keyboards subsidiary.

MIDI became a big deal between 1981 and 1984, so Stockell retrofitted the Synergy synthesizer with an add-on circuit board that added full MIDI in and out capabilities. This was the Serial I/O board, which Crumar sold for owners of the original Synergy I synth to upgrade to a fully programmable Synergy II+ along with the SYNHCS software and the voice library discs and the Kaypro II. These new modified versions of the Synergy were called the Synergy II+. This Synergy II+ of course includes a MIDI IN and OUT port, along with the RS-232 serial port for programming the timbres via the Kaypro computer.

The last and most sophisticated version of the SYNHCS software was version 3.182, which is the version I'm including with this Synergy II+ synthesizer. To quote from the manual PRELIMINARY OPERATION OF THE SYNERGY II WITH COMPUTER, "The SYNHCS version 3.xx significantly extends the capabilities of the Synergy II+ synthesizer even beyond the original General Development System." Yes, this combination of the Kaypro II plus null modem cable plus Synergy II+ plus the final SYNHCS version from 1985 gives you more abilities than Wendy Carlos had when she programmed the Synergy voices for her albums Digital Moonscapes and Beauty In the Beast.

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Digital Keyboards Synergy Vintage Polyphonic Synthesizer

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"Up for sale, a Digital Keyboards Synergy model polyphonic synthesizer in exceptional, near mint condition and in perfect working order. Of the estimated 700-800 Synergy keyboards originally produced, it's estimated that less than 100 are still in existence, and this example is easily one of the cleanest and most complete, with the original pedal, manual, and paperwork. This synthesizer was produced from 1982-85, and Digital Keyboards was a high-end US-based division of the Italian company Crumar. Using a high speed additive oscillator system developed by Bell Laboratories, Digital Keyboards created a sophisticated additive synthesizer known as the Crumar General Development System (GDS). While the GDS originally had a price tag of a whopping $27,500, the Synergy was a moderately stripped down version that sold for a mere $5,300 (roughly $13,000 when adjusted for inflation). A favorite of pioneering electronic music composer Wendy Carlos and a synth that has inspired a fervent following, the Synergy was state of the art in its time and is an enduring classic today.

The cosmetic condition of this Synergy is exceptional, as evidenced by the photos, with only a couple light scuffs on the plastic top and tolexed exterior. The original dual foot pedal is included, along with an IEC power cable, the manual, and other original paperwork."

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