Synthesizer Restorations

"Welcome to my pages on Vintage synthesizer restoration. On these pages I aim to have information on synthesizer restoration, links to parts, manuals, schematics and so on. I have been reading electronics sporadically since way back in the 90´s and I always was the kid who fixed my neighbors TV set or VCR. So naturally I started to open up my synthesizers as well and started investigating how these machines worked and what parts they used and so on. My interest in restoring these machines does not stop at getting them back to life, I also like to cosmetically enhance these instruments either back to their original state or to do some custom work on them."

Title link takes you there. Walkthroughs and tons of shots. Pretty cool. Man I want a PPG after seeing this.

Cybersonica on CDM

If you haven't been checking out CDM lately, you've been missing some great coverage of Cybersonica 2006 like this device that plays scrps of torn paper. Yep... Title link takes you there. BTW, I love the tagging system on CDM, you can click on the cybersonica link and get all of the posts tagged with it. I wish Blogger had this.

Mike Ford's MicroSynth

"This MicroSynth purposely uses old electronic toys with the main sound modules being 2 toy rayguns from 1980, made by Kuson."

Cute synth. Title link takes you to more shots and info on GetLoFi.

old Mr. Grassi Paper Circuit

Remember Ciat Lonbarde? He now has a paper circuit now. Title link takes you there. Sound samples will come. Via Subtle Noise Maker.

Resonantie

Resonating rice. Amazing. Via Music Thing. BTW, Tom thinks this video is spooky but has an even spookier video on his post. I don't know, I thought this video was pretty cool. That other video, though. Scared the crap out of me. So much so I won't post it here; you need to go there to see it. Freaky, freaky stuff I tell yeah - can't believe I actually watched the whole thing. Thanks Tom.

Update via the comments (thought this was pretty funny):

"Doktor Future said...
This is so good. I'm happy to see that humanity is so close to discovering anti-gravity and personal psycho-shields.

On another note, it would be cool if there'd be a movie where the dead communicate with resonance patterns. Sort of like that lame 'EVP - Electronic Voice Phenomenon', but this would be 'URC - Undead Rice Communicator'."

Formant Modular Synthesizer

Shots pulled from this post on craigslist. Details below.










Details:

"This is a completely assembled and working modular synth.

( Those unfamiliar with Formant may wish to google-search for background.
Search "Formant Modular" or "Elektor Formant" )

They were kits that hardcore electronic wizards assembled. This one has been built by a professional electronic technician and I have never seen so much attention to detail paid to the soldering, wiring layout and assembly. The builder was totally anal about putting this together.

This is a complete "Book 1" Kit, all hard-wired in a cabinet with a keyboard.
3 x VCO (multi-waveforms out)
3 x LFO (multi-waveforms out)
1 x VCA
2 x VCF
1 x RFM (parametric eq)
1 x COM (main output with bass, treble and mid eq)
2 x Ring Modulators
With patch-cables and connector for 61-note keyboard that has portmento and vibrato.

A 2x8 sequencer is also included. The synth itself is hardwired, meaning you don't need patch cables to make sounds. But you can add patch cables for extra deep modulation, sweeps, etc.

The VCFs cover the full range of Moog, Arp and Oberheim sounds via the LP, HP, BP and Notch selectable filters. In addition, there are unique sounds that the Formant is good at that I have never heard out of any other synthesizer.

It is basically (more than) equal to a Minimoog or Arp 2600, but allows deep depth for those wishing to create complex and layered custom synthesizer sounds like a filter sweep that goes on for days and days and days.

$2500 Firm."

NOTE: This is not for sale via Matrixsynth. Just pulled the details for reference and posterity. If you are interested in the unit, click on the title link and contact the seller.

Prophet VS Shots

Title link takes you to more shots by Jason Proctor. This one is up for sale; if interested contact Jason.

Roland MKS-80 & MPG-80 Shots

Title link takes you to shots pulled from this auction. There is a great shot of the back side of the MPG-80. After seeing it I realized I've never seen the back side before. It's also a table top unit to my surprise; I've only seen the MPG racked before.

Aliens Project Synthesizers.com 960 Sequencer

Synthesizers.com clone of the Moog 960. Title link takes you to the post on Sequencer.de.

Korg Kaoss Pad - New Flickr Shots

flikcr by gentle bakemono. Title link takes you to more.

AN1X Demo

Title link takes you to an AN1X demo by Zamise on VSE, also saved off here. Be careful, there are some high resonance squeals at the end.

Hot Chip

I recently received an email from Felix Martin of Hot Chip. I was flattered to find that he reads this blog. I heard of Hot Chip in passing but hadn't checked them out until now. Good stuff that really grows on you. Watch this video a couple of times and you'll see what I mean. You can also check them out on MySpace and thier official site. Felix and the rest of the band are very into synths and keys. They use a number of them including a Casiotone MT-70, Fender Rhodes Mark II, Teisco 60-F, MicroKorg, Roland SH-101, Moog MURF, Elektron Machinedrum and Akai MPC1000. Check out the Teisco in the video. I never realized they were that small! Also, love the red balloon scene in the video. : )

"we are appearing on the jools holland music show this friday on BBC2 if you are able to tune in, playing all the stuff mentioned above. also, the Over and Over video features some of the gear but is very obviously mimed!"

Felix goes on to say, "I have studio in london as well which is filled with odd old synths, including a modified Pro-5 that used to belong to the BBC symphony orchestra - will take some pictures soon and send them in"

Can't wait. Thanks for sending this in Felix.

Infernoptix

Click play button to launch. Ok, I might be stretching this one as "Everything Synth" but a computer drives it so, I'm guessing you can control it somehow via MIDI and your synths. Just be sure it's your outdoor studio.

More videos. Title link takes you to Infernoptix.com with more info, images and videos.

BTW, remember the rave kids killing their eardrums up against the speakers in their little trance dance worship of the bass?... Well, just keep these up high if you plan to use 'em...

The Dream of "I": Instruments - Doug Wyatt

Now this is pretty cool.

Title link takes you to a page on the instruments used by Doug Wyatt on his The Dream of "I." What's great about it is you can click on an instrument and hear it played solo followed by in the track. It's an interesting exercise in that you actually get to hear how a particular synth sounds solo vs. in the given track. Some just sound odd until you hear them in context. Great stuff. Make sure to track back and check out the rest of Doug's site while there.

Update via the comments:
"Doug Wyatt is also the main developer behind OMS at Opcode, back in the OS9 days, and also CoreMIDI/CoreAudio at Apple on OSX. Brilliant guy, and responsible for making some essential tools for sequencing and audio on the Mac."

MODULATIONS

Throbbing Gristle, Moog and more. Via Sequencer.de. Update: You can pick up a DVD here

MODULATIONS Vol. 1


MODULATIONS Vol. 2


MODULATIONS Vol. 3


MODULATIONS Vol. 4


You can pick up a DVD here

Mod - New Flickr Shot

flickr by Jyoti Mishra. Click here for more.

Oxford Synthesizer Company OSCar Shots

Title link takes you to shots also saved here. BTW, this is up for sale for 1400 euro by Dennis Vershoor. email if interested.

Wooden Casio

Shot pulled from craigslist. Circa 1982 according to the listing. Anyone know what model this is?

Update via the comments:

"Jexus / Polaranta said...
It's CT-403 :)"

Distortech studio party may 28 2006

Via Suit & Tie Guy.

I aksed Suit & Tie Guy what was left of the 909:
"ha. a craptastic behringer submixer used to sum the 101 and 303 and overdrive the fuck out of them. i mean, his name _is_ Distortech, right?

I'm a bit amused with the video because it's like, this is where real rave is at now: a small party at someone's studio with some cheap disco lights from Target.

so on one hand it's kind of silly because we have these crappy lights and it's quite obviously a project studio in an ancient storefront but on the other hand it's really cool because we're having a blast just like it was 91 and the hoover just hit us or something.

that night i heard some of the most bizarre heterodyning coming outta that tiny little mixer. the 101 and 303 may or may not have had any kind of tuning relevance to one another, which definitely contributed to the effect."

EMS Soundbeam

Shot pulled from this auction. Note it is different than this one, although the video in the auction is the same. Also note that the Soundbeam logo is the same as the logo in these updated Soundbeams. If you know more about this, feel free to comment.

According to the EMS History page the Soundbeam was designed by Richard Monkhouse (Digital & Video design:1972 - 1975), however it was not manufactured until after Edward Williams took over EMS assests in 1984. According the site EMS (London) folded in 1979, their assets were bought by Datanomics who owned them from 1980 to 1984, followed by Edward Williams when the Soundbeam was made.

via Torsten Keppeler.

DIY Dub Club Sensible Systeme

Title link and image takes you to a video on DIY Dub Club. Also track back to the root for more.

via Sameli

Synth Mangler

Title link takes you there. Via Analog Industries.



- Two Soda Meiser-style fuzz's in one box
- Each has its own volume control, hiss and chaos modes
- Two seperate in's and out's for the fuzz's to be used seperately
- Run both fuzz's together (in series) with the flip of a switch
- The Joystick controls the intensity of both fuzz's

Akai VX600 Shots

Title link takes you to shots pulled from this auction.

Tiesco sx400 Demo

Demo by David Brands. Title link takes you there. Also saved here for posterity.

Is Kore a Nightmare?

Title link takes you to a post on the CDM forums with the following posted by Vincent. I was wondering about this ever since my dongle post. It's a 10 pound dongle. They should have shipped with a mini dongle for times when you don't want to use the controller. Say composing out in the park or in your comfy recliner. If any one has anything to add please feel free to comment.

"I just returned KORE after 3 weeks of unknowingly being an unpaid alpha tester...

What a nightmare. Just read NI's KORE forum and you'll see what I mean. I don't know if/how NI will fix this.

They've made the KORE hardware a 10 pound dongle, and since it must be attached to run and sends control messages through usb audio it requires a fair amount of cpu even if you don't want to use it...

Sounds like some of you guys are inside industry types that may know the guys at NI, if so, someone please have a talk with them... "

Earth, Wind & Fire’s Yamaha DX7 II FD Centennial LE

Shot and details via this post on craigslist.
"Earth, Wind & Fire’s Yamaha DX7 II FD Centennial limited edition. Stunning, silver body with gold buttons, 76 fluorescent keys. Flight case included. Celebrating their 100th anniversary in 1987, Yamaha created 100 of these worldwide selling for $3,995. Only 13 were allocated for the USA-this is one of them. Features: 76 keys (channel after touch; split; layer) 32 Voice (16 x 2); 6 operator x 2 (A & B); 64 patches; 64 performance memories; 64 voices via cartridge."

Ladytron on KCRW

Title link takes you to the post on DVDBorn. 4 Korg MS2000s and 2 MS20s all played, no sequencing. Great band. Love the feel of their music.

Electronic Ballet with Sound Beam

Via Alex Theakston on AH:
"the one we had [EMS Sound Beam] was a bit more advanced, with a control box and a separate beam device. in the first half of the video (not the upbeat last bit) it's triggering a virus, and we set up a constrained range of notes that could be triggered along the length of the beam. theres a CS5 in the mix too, and a speak n spell."

If you listen closely at the beginning you will hear that she is playing the sound beam with her movements and they are playing accompaniment.

Update: It's not an EMS Soundbeam but actually one of these.

Update: Alex pointed out that the Soundbeam logo is the same as the EMS. Interesting, I wonder what the history is. According to the EMS History page the sound beem was designed by Richard Monkhouse (Digital & Video design:1972 - 1975), however it was not manufactured until after Edward Williams took over the assests in 1984. According the site, EMS (London) folded in 1979, their assets were bought by Datanomics who owned them from 1980 to 1984, followed by Edward Williams when the Soundbeam was made.

Bluezone

Title link takes you to Bluezone, home to a number of unique electronic musical instruments built by Blauw.

Playstation - New Flickr Shot

flickr by Stebbi.


via Sameli.

First MIDI Sequencer - New Flickr Set

flickr by Nohaptimus. Title link takes you to more.

via Sameli.

Riday T-91 Midi Controller - New Flickr Shot

flickr by floorvan.

Riday T-91
Midi Controller

Invented by Rick Riday,
the T-91 is a midi controller that uses his patented "unified keyboard" design. This design allows for identical fingering patterns for all 12 scales (12 major scales, 12 minor, 12 blues, etc.)


via Sameli.

Updates via the comments:
Via Carbon111:
"Its too bad but I don't think they ever went into production. I contacted Rick about twenty years ago and he sent me some promotional material...I think I've still got it somewhere."

Via divbyzero:
"Riday's patent sheds some light on the details of the keyboard. It's isometric like the Janko (Chromatone) and Hayden (Thummer), which makes transposition simple and shortens the learning curve compared to other nonstandard keyboards.

However, his choice of isometric offsets (go up by a half-step as you move one key to the right; go down by a whole step as you move up a row and half a key to the right) is a little odd. In particular, going down in pitch as you move up in row feels quite backwards. At least half-steps are on adjacent keys, unlike the Hayden.

I've posted this before, but I'll mention it again... my little free program qwertymidi is great for testing out experimental keyboard layouts like these."

MIDI for Musicians - New Flickr Shot

flickr by betameme.

via Sameli.

Casio ck200 - New Flickr Shot

flickr by floorvan.

"Probably one of the rarest boomboxes, this Casio surfaced briefly in 1985. It was their second effort to create a crossover musical intstrument / entertainment system, preceeded by their KX-101 a year earlier."

via Sameli.

Nova Edition Studio Electronics SE-1X

"THE NEW SE-1X NE...Innovative NEW LOOK!...Limited Edition with NEW Amp Overdrive for Saturated "Fuzz", Ultra fast ADSR for ultimate SNAP, Expanded wide range Filters, NEW added SINE WAVE GENERATOR for more BOOM, and Custom Scroggins Techno Sounds Bank... "

Interesting. This appears to be a Nova Music edition. Check out the Nova Music logo. I wonder how often manufacturers have done this. Studio Electronics does offer custom paint designs and mods so I guess this wouldn't be too difficult to do.

Gear of Carbon Based2 - New Flickr Shots

flickr by ^^Orion. Yamaha AN1X and CS1X. Title link takes you to more.

Chroma Polaris Demo

Title link takes you to a demo of the Chroma Polaris by memo on VSE, also saved here for posterity. I'm surprised at how much this actually sounds like a Rhodes Chroma. The character is there.

Analog Overkill Pro One Demo

Title link takes you to a demo of the Pro One by Digital Screams on VSE, also saved here for posterity. I'm noticing old VSE posts expire over time. Anyone else notice that?

Aliens Project Toy of the Month - Wersi Bass Synth AP6

Title link takes you there. Samples on site. Via sequencer.de.

Roland OP-8M

Shot pulled from this auction. Via Loscha.

Roland System 100

Shot pulled via this auction. Via Loscha.

Vangelis Improv on YouTube

Update:
According to this post on VSE, it's a Prophet 5 to the right of him.

Analog Systems Modular

Shot via this post on the Experimentalists Anonymous forum, sent my way via Colin Raffel.

More on Analog Systems.

Aelita - New Flickr Shot

flickr by Amstrad. Another sent my way via Sameli.

Buchla 2 - New Flickr Shots

flickr by SortaLucid34. Sent my way via Sameli.

Cybersonica 06 Videos on YouTube

The video above picks up about one minute in. Title link takes you to more videos. More on the event here.

Pappas pojke - New Flickr Shot

flickr by sykossa.

Cheetah MD16 Drum Machine

Spotted on Sequencer.de.

EMS Vocoder 5000

Paul Sop sent in the following on the EMS Vocoder 5000. It is interesting how much it does sound like the cylons in Battlestar Galactica. Thanks Paul!


Shot via EMSRehberg, who still makes Synthis and some other EMS products including the EMS Vocoder 5000 which will only set you back 23,000 Euro.













"I'm all about Vocoders lately. Check it out

EMS Vocoder 5000- AND -
EMS Rehberg 5000 Page (great pic here)

Pretty cool. A few factoids:

http://www.bigbluewave.co.uk/ems_vocoder_5000.htm- It is probably the highest specified vocoder ever. 22 bands.
- Includes things like Frequency Shifters, Oscillators, etc.. It's a whole synth!
- It weighs about 20kg!

Cyclons Forum
- It may have been used on the cylons.
- From this page:

Here are some audio samples of both the EMS Vocoder 5000 and the Cylons, see if you think they sound a like and are. Some sites such as one from Ben Liebrand "claim" it's the Sennheiser but after hearing this audio from EMS I have to go with that one.

First the Cylons:

cylon.wav
cylon2.wav
cylon3.wav
cylon4.wav
cylon7.wav
cylon9.wav

EMS Vocoder 5000:

EMS5000plab1.mp3
EMS5000p2.mp3
EMS5000p3.mp3

Apparently it cost 5000 pounds in 1976. If you want one today, it would cost you 23,000 euro from:

Pricelist

I guess it wasn't in the new Battle Star Galactica's budget!"

Update via Derek Wildstar in the comments:
"Some say the Cylons used the EMS Vocoder 5000 and others say it was the Sennheiser VSM-201!! The only thing I knew for sure is that a ring-modulator was also used (I don't know if that was part of the vocoder or not) and that it was based on the voice of Colossus according to Mr. Glen A. Larson himself. Matrixsynth if you, Paul, or anyone knows for sure please post the answer here. I personally believe they used the EMS Vocoder 5000. Thanks."

Korg Polysix, Window, Cat - New Flickr Shot

flickr by
H O L L Y W O O D S T E V E.