"Vintage 1970s EML Electrocomp 101 Semi-Modular Analog Synth Synthesizer. This one is in average used shape cosmetically - study all pics closely for details. The stickers should be easily removable. Functionally it's in good working order, having been serviced by a qualified tech a few years ago. Since then the main issue is that the calibration has drifted, so that will have to be scaled in order to play standard in 12-tone equal temperament. This should be a relatively straightforward process for a qualified tech. The keys all play smoothly and trigger cleanly/correctly. Note that this is the earlier version without the "SEQ" (aka CV) input, and it doesn't otherwise have any mods to accept standard CV. I'm not aware of any other mods to this unit either. I'm not the original owner, so I don't know the full history of it.
The demo video features some simple demo tracks I produced with this synth awhile back when it was still mostly scaled well. All sounds except drums and police scanner noises are from the EML. I used the trigger input for rhythmic sync with my sequencer, and played the notes manually on the EML keyboard as the sequence ran. After that is a bunch of noodling, some of which I recorded when I created this listing in Sept 2022. It's not very "musical" but will give you a sense of the range of sounds this synth can make. I did very little/basic manual patching for this demo- the range of sounds you can get with manual patching is even more varied."
"While running errands today, I found an Elka E9 organ on the side of the road. Against my better judgment, I wrestled the thing into my car, since I have a fondness for anything Elka ever since I had a Synthex years ago. When I got it home, I found it to be in good working order and sounding quite nice with some onboard phasing effects, so I thought I'd whip up an abridged rendition of Glass' KNEE 5 from Einstein On The Beach. This is the raw sound of the organ with no external effects or EQ. The G bass note sounds thin for some reason, not sure if that's just out this organ sounds, or if there's something wrong. This one goes out to Eddie Van Halen, RIP today, 10/6/2020."
This one is in via peahix of https://optigan.com. Forward to 6:52 for the mechanical rendition.
"Another garage sale find. This is almost certainly the CDC 3600 that was installed at UCSD. Please note: Only parts of this film have sound. You can hear the CDC's rendition of Sousa's 'Stars & Stripes Forever' starting at 6:52."
Peahix is one of my synth heroes. His creations never cease to amaze me. He also runs optigan.com.
"I resurrected an old Cubase file I created originally to record a version of this track for my Yamaha CS01II synth, in order to test out this Moog MG-1 I picked up for $100 at a garage sale. All the sounds (drums too) were generated by the MG-1. I didn't spend alot of time dialing in the patches or the mix for this one, just sort of got it ball-parky. I did a bit of a better job overall w/ the CS01II version, which you can hear and read about here: [below]
Anyway, the Moog was MIDI'd up to Cubase via a Kenton Pro-Solo, and it seemed to work nicely with that. Neat little synth!"
The Yamaha CS01II is the first real synthesizer I ever owned. I got it when I was about 14 years old, back in 1985 or so. I noticed that I could get reasonable approximations of most of the sounds from Depeche Mode's "Speak & Spell" album with it, but at the time I didn't have the means to make decent multi-track cover versions, even after I got a 4-track.
Recently I was studying the Depeche Mode 5.1 surround mixes, and realized that I could clearly hear all the distinct parts of alot of the songs, including "New Life." I also realized that most of the sounds in "New Life," which heavily featured the ARP 2600, were fairly simple. So I decided to throw together a version of it using just my trusty old Yamaha CS01II as the sole sound source (including the drums), just to see how close I could get to the original.
This version has no vocals at all, but otherwise it comes pretty close to the original. The actual musical arrangement is 100% accurate. The sounds themselves are of course only approximations, and most of them don't have the same level of timbral detail as the ARP originals. I sequenced the whole thing in Cubase via a Kenton Pro Solo going into the custom CV/Gate inputs on my CS01II, recording each monophonic line in one at a time (20 tracks in all). Cubase provided the reverb and EQ, otherwise it's all CS01II."
"This CD contains all of the known promotional recordings that Mattel produced for the Optigan. Basically there were two different cassettes that were distributed at different times: one containing 1/2 hour of Christmas standards, and one containing a 15 minute “tour” of the Optigan, featuring voiceover work by Mike LeDoux. For anyone who is interested in hearing how the Optigan sounded in the best of all possible circumstances, this CD is a must. Johnny’s arrangements and performances are remarkable!
A specially customized Optigan was used for the recordings which minimized hum and buzz, but this CD proves once and for all that the Optigan, even at it’s very best, was still an incredibly noisy and lo-fi instrument!! Bottom line: I don’t want to hear any more complaints about scratchy discs!! ;)”
Roland MC-8 Factory Demo Program - Bach Invention #1
Published on Feb 1, 2010 peahix
"This is another of the demo programs provided in the Roland MC-8 manual. This time it's a Bach Invention, played back on a Roland SH-101 synth (not seen in the video). The first part of the video is specifically designed to bore you with stunning footage of me entering the channel 1 CV data for the first 3 pages of the 10-page score. Be thankful that I didn't decide to include the entire CV/Step/Gate data entry process for the entire score. In the 2nd part of the video, you hear the entire mixed piece, played back in sync with the MC-8 displaying the CV data for channel 1.
After posting this video, I was informed that Yellow Magic Orchestra featured this very same demo at the very end of the show during their 1980 world tour. You can hear their version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1qocP...
For more info about the MC-8, and to see high-res scans of the score & program data sheets for this piece, please visit http://www.rolandmc8.wordpress.com"
Note this is for sale from peahix of opitgan.com. It's the one featured in this video. You can find audio demos of this exact unit here and here.
"This Axxe was serviced by a qualified tech about a year ago, and at that time it was 100% functional and working well. The keyboard bushings were also replaced. I have not had a chance to use it much since then, so it's likely that it will at least need to be calibrated. Also, since this is an old piece of electronics, the usual caveats apply with respect to its long-term functionality. It will almost certainly need to be maintained by a qualified tech in order to continue working well. Cosmetically it's slightly rough- study pics carefully. The bumper sticker on the back adds an odd bit of charm, so I left it intact, though it should be easy enough for you to remove if you wish..."
"Next in my line of synthpop re-creations is this classic from 1982. I'd been wanting to take a stab at it for awhile, with th eventual goal of porting the whole thing to my Roland MC8 MicroComposer, which is the sequencer that the original was created on. That will be a huge project, though, so it'll have to wait for another day. For now, I've just used Cubase and basically limited myself to Arturia's Jupiter 8V plugin, plus the VProm plugin to cover the Linn LM1 drum sounds (http://www.alyjameslab.com/alyjamesla...).
As I always like to point out, I don't consider this a "cover," ie it's not a creative re-interpretation of the song. The goal is to get the arrangement, sounds, and mix as close to the original as possible WITHOUT USING ANY SOUNDS FROM THE ORIGINAL. Everything you're hearing here was done from scratch- there's no samples from the HL original recording. For now I've just made a quickie video with some screenshots, but if I have time I'll try to make a tutorial video on how I put this together.
Usually when I do one of these re-makes, I'm stuck with the original mix of the song, plus any remixes, surround mixes, or any sort of audio trickery I can muster to hear the individual parts more clearly. In this case, the job was made much easier by referencing the original stems of the song, which have been available on the web for years. Now, that didn't make it "easy" per se, as many of the stems have different parts mixed together, but it certainly made it alot easier than it would have been, as this is a very dense and busy arrangement. There are no less than four different bass patches that play in different parts of the song, and there are many different chord parts all mashed up together.
Most of the musical parts were fairly straightforward to work out, but a few were a bit tricky. The first part I tackled was the funky rhythmic synth chords that play in the verse and chorus. On the original this sound was created by feeding a live guitar into the envelope follower of a Roland System 700 modular, which provided articulation for the synth, which was playing a type of chord pad. So it's like a mutant funk guitar pattern. I got reasonably close by sidechaining a funk guitar loop along with a hi-hat to the synth pad track. It's not exact, but you'd never really be able to get it exact anyway- it's pretty organic for a synth part. Interestingly, there's a mistake on the original recording, where this part is slightly out of sync during the first chorus. It plays three 16th notes ahead of the beat. So I re-created that mistake faithfully. In the second chorus, it plays correctly, as it does in the original HL track.
Speaking of musical mistakes, there's a fairly glaring one that I can't imagine was intentional. Either they overlooked it, or just liked how it sounded and left it in. Just before the chorus, there one bar where three different synth parts are playing chords. Two of them are playing a B minor chord, but the other one (the stabby brass sound panned right) is playing a B diminished! So, if you've ever wondered "what the hell is that chord anyway?" now you know. I'm not even sure what to call it, technically. I put in a little text to point out this chord the second time it occurs.
Anyway, I guess that's about all I have to say about this one right now. Instead of fading it out, I opted to preserve the cold ending that you hear when listening to the stems. I also made a mix of this with the original lead vocals layered in. Maybe I'll post that version some other time."
"Recently I was asked to make an instrumental version of Wall Of Voodoo's 'Mexican Radio.' Since I was not allowed to use any samples or audio from the original, I figured if I could nail the weird synth loop you hear at the beginning of the song, the rest of it would be fairly straightforward. I found that by slowing down the original to half speed, I could hear enough details in terms of the notes, oscillator tuning, and timbre that re-creating it was quite simple. The original was apparently done with a Minimoog and an Oberheim sequencer, with the Minimoog run through a guitar amp. Here I'm using a Sequential Circuits Pro-One with its own onboard sequencer. At the end you can hear a bit of the final product, with FX applied (via plugins). I'll post the full version of the final result soon, but for now I figured this little detail of the song might make for a fun mini-tutorial."
You can find an unboxing video by peahix for another unit in the listing and previously posted here. Note the seller is not peahix.
"The MicroComposer can accurately adjust various production elements and sound effects of a synthesizer, such as VCO, VCF and other voltage controlled components, which is almost impossible to perform manually by an interpreter. The MC-8 was designed to work with large complex modular synthesizers such as System 700 and System-100M. It could also be used during a live performance to control the lighting using preprogrammed and timed pulses and programmed and preprogrammed voltage levels.
Perfect for those who currently work and compose with analog synthesizers from the 70s.
While only 200 units were sold worldwide, the MC-8 was a revolutionary product. It provided storage for analog sound production variables, synchronization capability for multichannel recording (the time code could be recorded on a spare track), sufficient capacity to record complete compositions, editing capabilities and fast access time. The MC-8 provided eight control voltage outputs and eight gate outputs, as well as a six-bit multiplex output with a seventh special bit reserved for portamento control."
"I recently had my Roland MC8 Microcomposer repaired by Synthchaser (http://synthchaser.com/), and in order to give it a good test, I fired up the old data file of ODD RHYTHMS (previously seen here: [posted here]), and this time I hooked it up to an Arp Axxe, which provides all the different sounds you hear in this version (via multitracking each monophonic part). There's no EQ or any other effects applied- just pure Arp!"
"Found this in my old box of 45s and figured I'd stick it up here since it doesn't seem to exist on YouTube as of this date."
Sequential Circuits MAX Flexi-Disc Demo by John Bowen
Published on Dec 22, 2017 peahix
Not sure that's John's voice in this one. If it is, he sounds different! :) That is his voice in the Multi-Trak demo above. According to the flexi-disc, the music on this one, though, is his.
"Found this in my old box of 45s and figured I'd stick it up here since it doesn't seem to exist on YouTube as of this date."
"Here's an old song I rescued off a floppy from 1987 or so. An original piece of music I made for Activision's The Music Studio for the Amiga, back when I was in high school. It's being played on WinUAE here, but the sound is pretty authentic! The video is a slightly flickery/glitchy due to the compression of the codec I used, but whatever."
Amiga Demo - DYNAMIC DRUMS by New Wave Software Published on Mar 2, 2017 peahix
Thought this was interesting. It's a video demo for DYNAMIC DRUMS by New Wave Software for the Amiga. Notice anything familiar? The UI is a standard MPC style drum grid. Only thing is, according to this site, and the copyright date on the back of the box, this software came out in 1987. You can see the date in the image below. The first MPC to be released from Akai? The MPC-60 in 1988. This software predates it. Wasn't the MPC-60 supposed to be revolutionary for introducing the grid-based pad layout? Does anyone know of any earlier hardware or software that used this format? I'm sure there will be something I forgot and totally overlooked, but I'm drawing a blank at the moment. A funny side note: If this is the first time the classic grid-based drum pad layout came out, then virtual predated actual in this case.
Video description:
"Back in the late 80s I used to use this obscure drum machine program on my Amiga called Dynamic Drums (later Dynamic Studio). I noticed that hardly anyone else used this thing or remembers it, so I thought I'd make a little video of it playing its factory demo songs via WinUAE. I always liked the lo-fi punchiness of the built-in drum samples, and I used them on alot of tracks back in the day, usually synced to my Ensoniq ESQ-1. There's a glitch in the video which causes the screen to go black a few times, but I couldn't be bothered to go back and redo it so sorry about about that."
Pics of the box, description and discs for DYNAMIC DRUMS via Amiga Future.
Update via gwenhwyfaer in the comments: "The Boss DR220(A or E) had its pads in a grid layout in 1986. It may well not have been the first."
Two playlists, one featuring the Amiga Aegis Sonix synth above, and one featuring the Amiga Deluxe Music Construction Set below. Don't miss the first track and it's description below. It's pretty funny - some musique concrete for you. Many of you might recognize the name Peahix from one, his Optigan.com endeavors, and two some of his many videos and covers posted here on MATRIXSYNTH.
1. Amiga - Aegis Sonix - CARS - Gary Numan
"Here's a rendition of CARS by Gary Numan that I made on my Amiga around about 1987 or so."
2. Amiga - Aegis Sonix - BREAKER
"I don't know who created this track for Sonix on the Amiga, but I always liked it as a teenager, so I figured I'd share it here for posterity."
3. Amiga - Aegis Sonix - Little
"I don't know who created this track for Sonix on the Amiga, but I always liked it as a teenager, so I figured I'd share it here for posterity."
Published on Feb 22, 2017 peahix
1. 1987 Amiga Deluxe Music Construction Set - Music for Bloom County Contest
"Here's something I dug up today that I haven't thought of in years and figured was loooong gone. In 1987, Bloom County had a contest where you could submit your own original song for Billy & The Boingers, the band in the comic strip. Well, this is what I came up with on my Amiga. A couple of the sounds had gone missing, so I had to replace them with other sounds, but, well, I don't think that matters very much. Needless to say, I didn't win the contest."
2. Amiga Deluxe Music Construction Set - Fugue in D Minor
"This is an original fugue in D minor more or less in the style of JS Bach that I wrote on my Amiga when I was a teenager, around 1987. I wrote this before I'd had any formal music theory training, so I'm sure the counterpoint and voice leading is all wrong wrong wrong, but oh well, it sounded authentic enough to me back then."
"Vintage 1970s EML Electrocomp 101 Semi-Modular Analog Synth Synthesizer. This one is in average used shape cosmetically - study all pics closely for details. The stickers should be easily removable. Functionally it's in good working order, having been serviced by a qualified tech a few years ago. Since then the main issue is that the calibration has drifted, so that will have to be scaled in order to play standard in 12-tone equal temperament. This should be a relatively straightforward process for a qualified tech. The keys all play smoothly and trigger cleanly/correctly. Note that this is the earlier version without the "SEQ" (aka CV) input, and it doesn't otherwise have any mods to accept standard CV. I'm not aware of any other mods to this unit either. I'm not the original owner, so I don't know the full history of it.
