images via this auciton"super rare vintage 1979 Roland SPV-355 analogue pitch to CV monosynth module... Absolutely awesome sounding analogue module. Can do some really crazy stuff and is extremely flexible. Definitely one for the creative experimentalist in you. Can be used as a crazy guitar synth, voice synth, whatever-you-put-into-it synth, Pitch to CV converter i.e. you can control all your other CV/gate synths too with a guitar or another keyboard using this, or can simply be used as an analogue keyboard module by using it's CV and Gate inputs. Feed your boring drum machine through it...feed an 808 or a 909 into it etc etc. Ideal to use with the VP-330 vocoder synth. Sounds similar to the the Roland Promars and Jupiter 4 as it uses very similar architecture:
The Promars shares its unusual oscillator structure with just one other synthesizer. This is another Roland: it's the SPV355 rackmount synth. Designed as a guitar or wind synth, the SPV offered pitch-to-voltage conversion (hence the name) and an envelope follower that, in principle, allowed you to play it from other sound sources. However, in common with other instruments of the era (such as the Korg MS20) it was never very successful in this role, so it's fortunate that the SPV also offered CV and Gate inputs and outputs. This makes it an ideal expander for the modern analogue studio, and for this reason you will probably find that the SPV355 now commands a higher price than the Promars itself.
The features are all pretty well explained below but I would like to add that effecting the VCO pitch or VCF cutoff is very easy by using the LFO from your Kenton Pro Solo or pro 2000 or other MIDI to CV converter and also by hooking it up to the Pedal Control section. You can do so much with this analogue module that other synths won't do and it does most of the usual mono synth stuff very, very well."
Click here for a review on Sound on Sound.
I had one of those and sold it. As a pitch-to-voltage and envelope follower, it's OK, although it does not work well with a bass, but imho it's rather lacking as a monosynth. I doubt it's worth $1K.
ReplyDeleteI think its an absolutely amazing sounding monosynth...very very similar to the Promars in sound..Agreed it doesn't track bass well but that's because it was never designed to track bass, in fact the manual states it's not designed to track below 70hz. I doubt most vintage analogue synths and drum machines are actually worth what they currently go for but the fact is they do go for these prices..think the last one we saw on matrixsynth went for $900.
ReplyDeleteI have one and I love it! It combines with my Juno 6 very nicely since i can now utilize the (limited) CV on the juno. Especially fun when tracking percussive tracks and triggering the Juno's arppegiator... pretty classic old Roland sound and a fun oddball unit for the collection. Bought mine for $500 Canadian, had a few scuffs and missing a few of the white plastic caps but seems like it'll outlast my lifetime.
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