MATRIXSYNTH: SMS 2000 - New Flickr Shots


Thursday, June 29, 2006

SMS 2000 - New Flickr Shots


Update: Be sure to read the updates below and do not miss the links. Looks like we finally have a contendor to the Bahn Sage. Elhardt, you have some competiton. Is it or isn't the SMS 2000 real?

flickr set by synthfanKH.

Looks like we are on a "dream synth" roll this week.

Update: Click images for much larger shots.
Update: Looks like these shots got traction on AH. Word is that it's a fake which I guessed as well. Via Mike Fiction on AH: "As a photographer I can tell you the second photo is 100% a fake. The depth of field is way too great. It's an indoor shot, light would have been low so even with a fast iso it would have been impossible to get such great depth of field with a fast enough shutter speed to have frozen things like the womans hair. There would have been motion blur. The A in alesis is just as in focus as the black pole at the far side of the tent."

Update: Some still think it could be real. If you blow up the second shot you will see the name tag reads, Mr. Kirikax (click for more info).

Via Nick on AH:
"I'm still of the opinion that it's some new prototype synth by Seekers, the Japanese company (formerly Sky Soundlab) who made the Voice Spectra vocoder (seen on the left in the photo with mics attached). They were trying to build a full featured and pricey monosynth about 6 years ago.



Gakki.com who's name is on the poster on the poster on the wall is a dealer or distributor of the vocoder which is apparently back in production and FiveG is another of their dealers.

As for it looking fake, who knows, maybe the pictures they shot looked terrible and someone fabricated something to look more "professional" so they could use it for publicity or something.

nick
http://technopop.info"

via Mike Kent on AH:
"If you assume this is not a fake, what do you know? It looks like it is being demonstrated at a exhibition of some kind. We see Mr. M. Kirikax who has some connection to Five-G in the picture and on his site:

He appears to be the creator of the VoiceSpectra vocoder on the table.

Seekers has (had?) distribution ties to mickey at drummachine.com

The girl in the picture is holding a brochure with Roland SH-201, so it must
be a recent event.

There seems to have been a Seekers SMS1000 made in Japan:
http://www.keyboardmuseum.org/ar/s/seek/sms1000.html
http://www.analogue.org/network/sms1000.htm
SMS1000 was discussed in the year 2000:
http://piza.2ch.net/dtm/kako/967/967138353.html


I think it's real. It looks like a boutique synth or prototpype to me. If
it's a hoax, it's a cute one with some supporting websites.


Regards,
Mike."

Update via Dave Manely on AH:
"His translated profile says he worked for a company named at Five-G
Music and then Sky Soundlab learning about vintage synths and developing
a vocoder. He started a company called ??? that was developing an analog
synthesizer named the SMS 1000. The company went broke. Perhaps he has
continued to work on it and the SMS 2000 is a next gen version of the
SMS 1000."

19 comments:

  1. Looks like a moderately well done Photoshop mock-up. The keys on the top picture really give it away.

    ReplyDelete
  2. yeh the face of the guy on the left looks brushed over. Im also not sure how that synth would sit well, it looks top heavy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The face does look a bit odd, but when I get the large image from flickr and zoom in, it looks fine. The guy obviously has a real head like every human. No reason to touch it up unless he's got a bad case of acne.

    Don't see anything wrong with the keys in the upper large flickr image either. Maybe it's crude image scaling on this site.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well the thing next to it with the mics is almost definitely a Seekers Voice Spectra vocoder (once badged as Sky Soundlab in the mid 90s, Probably MAM killed any export sales they had hoped for. It sounds very SVC-350-ish but without the per-band sliders). They are apparently back in production. Gakki.com who's poster is on the wall has them. If I had to guess then it would be some kind of new synth since the model starts with SMS which could very well be Seekers Music Systems or something.

    ReplyDelete
  5. that bottom picture doesnt look real at all

    ReplyDelete
  6. oh great elhardt's at it again.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Got to love those "wheels" though!

    ReplyDelete
  8. where did these pics of the sms 2000 been take ?
    It seems super-real to me.
    It's no fake.
    But ths synth is still a beautiful mystery.
    May be a unique prototype...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Funny, Elhardt came to mind as well. I swear I saw the SMS 2000 shot somewhere before, but I can't remember it and I didn't put up a post so I'm guessing it was before July of 2006 if I did see it. But who knows, could be my mind playing tricks on me - it's all becoming a blur with all of these posts going up.

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  10. UMM, You'll notice you can't actually close the case without crushing things.

    That, and the two halves are not halves.

    ReplyDelete
  11. lol, yeah I noticed that. Quite the design. : )

    ReplyDelete
  12. It will not be possible to crush the knobs and the modulation weels. It will have Rolls Royce withdrawing emblem like knobs and the upper half has some kind of elastic push-in sides. In fact it will be foldable to the size of a creditcard which also can be used to pay bills inthe most expensive Indonesian Hotels. Seekers is also thinking about an option, which will be user installable, to make it wash your dishes to. But this last thing is not confirmed by the manufacturer

    ReplyDelete
  13. You guys are torturing me. I was going to buy a Voyager. Then this thing comes along which looks a lot better, and it might even cost less, but you guys keep saying it's fake. It still looks real to me. I don't see how you can say it is fake. But I want a datasheet with details, and a place to buy it. Maybe I should ask the Moog list about it. Maybe somebody there knows.

    And I'm sure the control panel folds backwards like a Minimoog. Not forward like a Buchla. The entire synthesizer looks kind of like a Voyager, but with more stuff. It even seems to have a MuRF built in.

    ReplyDelete
  14. See, here is a fake computer image. See how flat and fake the case and keyboard look. Shadows are missing and some of it looks a little like a cartoon. Compare this to the SMS2000 picture and you will see the SMS2000 is real. It has to be real, because I want one.

    http://static.flickr.com/78/179581063_9e10ed4900_o.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  15. Yep, that's a render alright. The first shot of the SMS 2000, looks real. General consensus is that it is real. But... The second shot looks horribly fake, so you are left wondering. Remember if this is a hoax, the point of it would be to make the shots looks real. The VCS 2 wasn't meant to be a hoax, but a discussion piece for a new synth. The source of that image is known. No one has come out to say anything about the SMS 2000, which is odd. Either the manufacture is staying quiet to wait for an announcement or it's a hoax and the maker of the hoax is just watching it all play out.

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  16. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  17. It does look a litle 'not right' but it should be noted that you can and I have taken HDR photos that come out looking like this.

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  18. fake synth or now, that vocoder is the real deal and I'd just about kill for one at a decent price...

    ReplyDelete
  19. Yes I too would LOVE to have a Sky Soundlab aka Seekers "The Voice Spectra" Vocoder!!!

    I have a Roland SVC-350 Vocoder, and it ROCKS!!!!

    ReplyDelete

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