via Brian Kehew of The MOOG Cookbook. Only two Conbrio ADS 200s were ever made. See the links in Brian's message below for more info on this rare digital synth from the past."Hi guys - this is a quickie announcement - we're rushing to prepare an exhibit for this year's annual (and final) "VINTAGE COMPUTER FAIR"!
Why? This Con Brio synthesizer I've had for a decade is finally going to make noise in public again. Just this week we heard it for the first time - maybe the first one of these has been used in 20+ years...
http://www.synthmuseum.com/conbrio/conads20001.html
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/10/my-favorite-retro-synth-conbrio-ads.html
It's been a legendary beast - mostly because of how it looks (of course). But until this week, we didn't know it was really GOOD. As a slightly outside observer, it was truly amazing - the design and interface are superb - you can fly on this thing and work very quickly. They implemented the synthesis with some REALLY tricky methods, as well as writing their own disc drive code, things like that. It sounds like other digital synths of the era - but with much better fidelity, its basic tone is pretty great. I am now gonna try and reunite the designers (one of them is coming along for the show and may give a talk). I will probably soon do a detailed web page showing some of the clever ideas and history. ANd my goal is to lend it out to some people, who can take it for a month and do ONE piece on it - so I can make some kind of "ALL Con Brio" CD so people can finally hear it. I don't think it's ever been on a commercial record release...
The FAIR and the MUSEUM: Sat/Sun 10-6 pm!! Exhibits from 2-6pm!
http://www.vintage.org/2007/main/
So - if you're interested in coming by (Mountain View, CA) I'll be there with it. PLEASE pass on the info to your techie-geek friends who may also appreciate this or a roomfull (museum nearby) of vintage computers; Altair, Digital Equipment Corp., Timex, Commodore, early Apple, etc."
Update via Brian in the comments:
"Well, I would think so too, but that's not true exactly. The three guys who did the Con Brio are serious computer experts; the one seen at the show makes his living manufacturing THE fastest RAM you can buy today. He says the way the Con Brio works (which is not a microprocessor counting to create "oscillators") would still be hard on a typical modern computer. If it were done by a microprocessor running numbers, yes, a modern computer would have it beat, but the speed of the Com Brio lies in the "dumb logic" way the waveforms are done, which allows it to be driven a light-speed type rates - "doing the math" with a microprocessor is harder and takes more power. They were far ahead of their time and finding unique solutions to the problems they had.
You mention the comparison between the 16 oscillators and Bill's 136 - actually the Con Brio does run 16 oscillators on each voice/key; TIMES its sixteen voices, so this is actually 256 simultaneous "oscillators" running.
On the 6 different configurations on a DX7 being adequate for what sounds are needed; to do the simple Hammond organ patch with "all drawbars out" is impossible with that limited set - and that's just 8 sine waves, no overtones per harmonic: the 6-operator setup won't do it. There is capability there with so many configurations - and how it's used is up to the user. Same for the Minimoog - Moog engineers felt that more than 3 oscillators made very little difference in the sound. Serious modular synthesists would disagree.
Not to mention - analog hardware. ALL digi synths have it for output - and the choices made there by designers can drastically affect the tone of the output - otherwise all CD players would sound the same playing the same Pink Floyd record, and we know they don't! Yet another reason a Nord Modular doesn't sound like a Doepfer or Buchla... You "can do it" in software, but it will not sound the same."
The Con Brio is the only synth I have ever really wanted.
ReplyDeleteI think the name 'Con Brio' is also a great name for a hair gel product.
Does anybody know what kinda stand he's using? I want one.
ReplyDeleteAmazing. I would LOVE to use this.
ReplyDeleteThat and the McLeyvier would be an amazing duo of synths.
By looking at the specs, it looks like this synth would sound like a Crumar GDS/Synergy.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds a LOT like the Synergy (well-spotted!) but actually has better tone. I have a Synergy 2+/MIDI and it's great. But the sound quality of the Con Brio is nicer. One of my friends came over and noted exactly the same, and he has a Synergy as well...
ReplyDeleteThat keyboard stand in my studio. I can't tell you where to find one, but its SO helpful. I got it when a movie prop house was closing, so it was used. But it's strong and bolts to the wall. I bet they are available (or were) for music stores.
The Con Brio certainly looks marvellous. All the 70s computers and synths look fantastically futuristic. You really have to wish that current synth/computer designers had 1/10 the design flair of the guys who cranked out the 70s synths and computers... I mean, c'mon, doesn't the Commodore PET look like a real supercomputer? Disregard for a moment that it's a piece of total crap (as far as computing power) -- it looks awesome. And the Atari ST. A hunk 'o junk by today's standards, with grossly inadequate memory and disk storage (hey, I own an Atari STE with 4 megs, and it still runs), but, boy, it sure looks futuristic.
ReplyDeleteAlas, all these older synths like the Con Brio or the Synergy can now be duplicated in software with dCsound or Supercollider or a program like Reaktor with much better fidelity. 24 bit sound, 96 khz sampling rate. Or, if you're hardcore enough to want to roll your own DAC + DSP on a wireboard prototype, you can use SynthKit:
http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=6532
16 oscillators which can be configured in additive or FM patches isn't much different from the DX7II. Granted, the DX7II has only a limited set of configurations, but, honestly, how different do those configurations really sound from one another?
I would imagine the lack of MIDI is probably also a serious issue for the Con Brio, ditto the McLeyvier.
So while older synths like the Con Brio and the Synergy II certainly prove wonderful as a nostalgia trip, there just isn't anything very special about 'em in terms of pure sound. Today's softsynths have got a lot more power and a lot more configurability. Bill Schottstaedt did a test and found that Common Music, for example, gets 136 oscillators in real time running on a laptop running a Pentium Core Duo. Compare with the Con Brio's 16 oscillators. Note, also, that Common Music uses LISP to configure the oscillators! LISP offers orders of magnitude more flexibility than the McLeyvier's music processing language. For instance, you can use LISP to change the oscillator configuration on the fly, per-note, as well as using LISP code to structure entire compositions from the individual note level to the phrase to the entire section. Truly, we've gotten jaded. We just don't realize how fantastically powerful and flexible our free software music tools are nowadays.
So while these older synths enjoy a certain retrotech cachet (and speaking as someone who owns a Synergy II+ with MIDI), time has passed them by. You can get a lot more configurability and a lot better sound than a McLeyvier + ConBrio by installing linux on a cheap desktop box and setting up Planet CCRMA. And best of all, the total cost of that high-powered music software today is...zero. Ain't open source great?
Well, I would think so too, but that's not true exactly. The three guys who did the Con Brio are serious computer experts; the one seen at the show makes his living manufacturing THE fastest RAM you can buy today. He says the way the Con Brio works (which is not a microprocessor counting to create "oscillators") would still be hard on a typical modern computer. If it were done by a microprocessor running numbers, yes, a modern computer would have it beat, but the speed of the Com Brio lies in the "dumb logic" way the waveforms are done, which allows it to be driven a light-speed type rates - "doing the math" with a microprocessor is harder and takes more power. They were far ahead of their time and finding unique solutions to the problems they had.
ReplyDeleteYou mention the comparison between the 16 oscillators and Bill's 136 - actually the Con Brio does run 16 oscillators on each voice/key; TIMES its sixteen voices, so this is actually 256 simultaneous "oscillators" running.
On the 6 different configurations on a DX7 being adequate for what sounds are needed; to do the simple Hammond organ patch with "all drawbars out" is impossible with that limited set - and that's just 8 sine waves, no overtones per harmonic: the 6-operator setup won't do it. There is capability there with so many configurations - and how it's used is up to the user. Same for the Minimoog - Moog engineers felt that more than 3 oscillators made very little difference in the sound. Serious modular synthesists would disagree.
Not to mention - analog hardware. ALL digi synths have it for output - and the choices made there by designers can drastically affect the tone of the output - otherwise all CD players would sound the same playing the same Pink Floyd record, and we know they don't! Yet another reason a Nord Modular doesn't sound like a Doepfer or Buchla... You "can do it" in software, but it will not sound the same.
nice, but since this thing is very very rare most of us will never ever get the chance to hear even ONE sound out of it, right?
ReplyDeleteso, will you post some audio stuff exploiting the con brio to it's limits?
congrats to getting one! if it does not sound it still has it's special look ;)
how many were made? 2? or something like this? we will never really be able to learn about it's real advantages as long as no1 is using it on an album etc..
I believe there were only 2 of the ADS 200.
ReplyDeleteand has any1 ever heard even ONE sound from one of those?
ReplyDeleteI guess we never will. sad but true.
Actually there was some audio of Brian's Con Brio. Click on the Con Brio link and look for the video.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment, the only sounds we can hear are presets from the first year. The Con Brio sold (only one sold) to a composer - who was not a synthesist; he bought it because it printed music scores. However he did not do "sounds" on it. So you have some talented computer guys making sounds on it, but they are beginners at synthesis. Some of the sounds are great and some are dull.
ReplyDeleteUntil we get the keyboards fixed (to play sounds) all we can do is play sequences and sounds from "the old days". While you can adjust and program it, you can play a key while you do - no way to hear the sound you're working on!
Yes, there are some sounds via YouTube, but they don't do much justice to the sound QUALITY of it; there is a pipe organ that everyone swears must be a sample, and bells with incredible high-end clarity that also sound "real" compared to today's synths. In one week (SO busy this week) remind me to put up some samples of these...
This is not a great example, but you can "hear it" here, via a videocamera taken at the Vintage Computer Fair....
ReplyDeletehttp://youtube.com/watch?v=nwi5I0ZPyes
thx Brian!
ReplyDeleteNice to have the chance, well over here in europe we need to watch it all remotely so thanks for sharing it!
If you are interested in more details. I was one of the three founders of Con Brio and I own the second unit.
DeleteDefinitely interested. Email me at matrixsynth@gmail.com.
DeleteThe years around 1980 was a golden era of "Ultra rare-Expensive-Exclusive-Advanced-Ahead of it´s time"-synths:
ReplyDeleteCon Brio
McLeyvier
E-mu Audity
Technos 16pi
Sort of concept synths all of them. Imagine this quartet together :)
Other instruments from the same period worth mentioning are:
NED Synclavier II
Fairlight CMI
Rhodes Chroma (with an Expander)
Not ultra rare, just almost and definately not every man´s toy.