Synth80s on the Marion Systems MSR-2

Synth80s posted the following on the Analogue Heaven mailing list. I thought it was worth posting here as there isn't much information on this short lived and rare synth by Tom Oberheim. I asked Synth80s if I could put it up and he gave the OK. via Synth80s:

"My two cents from having previously owned a MSR-2 for many years:

The MSR-2 is certainly not a do-all synth, but it has some strengths. For one thing, it's an 8 to 16 voice analog in a 1U rack format (if you have one ASM card inside or two), which is certainly not common. Because it's a 1U rack synth, it obviously doesn't have an ideal UI for quick tweaking (no faders, few knobs, etc.), but the OS is very logical and usable -- it's very similar to the eminently logical OS in the E-mu Proteus line. The modulation possibilities are fairly thorough and the filters are really interesting, especially using FM. The MSR-2 also has a DB-25 input for running external audio through the interesting filters, but I never tried it. I may be incorrect, but I recall that the pin-outs on the DB-25 didn't follow the Tascam standard that most other equipment used/uses, so I think one would have to make or have made a custom cable to use this feature. At least it's fully documented in the well-written manual.

The oscillators were deemed HROs (High Resolution Oscillators), which I understand to be DCOs that allowed waveshaping to bridge between the common waveforms (square/pulse, saw, etc.) My understanding is that they are DCOs with finer control than those in Tom Oberheim's previous design with his old company (the Matrix 6 / Matrix 1000, with which the MSR-2 shares a similar synthesis architecture). The HROs are a custom CEM part that's related to the current part used in DSI synths and I think the filters are CEM as well. A couple years back, I had a brief e-mail Q&A with Dave Smith about the analog synthesis parts in the DSI Evolver line -- Dave gave me permission to relay his description to the AH list, which I did back in 2007. In short, he said "the synth chips are an improved version of the Marion parts; the originals had some nasty oscillations and noise in them. Plus we drive them with much faster update rates and precision from the DSPs, so the overall quality of sound is much better. Cheers, Dave." I'm not sure if the same chips are used in the P08, but it would make sense.

Regarding the envelopes, this is from memory, but I recall that the early units had some issue that caused them to be very slow, but that the issue was fixed later in the production run. I also recalled that Tom Oberheim offered to fix the earlier units at no cost (I don't know if the fix was hardware, software or a combination), but I think the reputational damage had been done because the early review and demo units all had slow envelopes. My unit had the faster envelopes which were still not what I'd call fast, but also not slow enough to be an issue.

One solely practical negative: the power brick is beastly and proprietary with a MIDI-like DIN connector, but with a few more connection points than a MIDI cable as I recall. It had to be tethered to something or placed on top of the unit to avoid pulling the connector out!

So, given all that, my opinion is that the MSR-2 is definitely not a great synth for basses, percussion and strong, beefy analog sounds, but it's very good at deep, complex, evolving sounds. The oscillators can be made to do very interesting things with PWM and other modulation of the waveshaping features, though the effects are subtle. The best feature is the interesting filters which can do all kinds of nonsense using resonance and FM. Oddly, if you're good at programming digital devices with menu-based OSes, it's a good programmer's analog synth -- very capable and deep, but not immediate.

I think the MSR-2 biggest problem was the timing of its release. Who was buying new analog in 1994? Who was even making new analog in 1994? ;-) As I've said before, I thing the MSR-2 was a "synth out of time," out of step with current trends of the day, but more valuable than people may have given it credit for at its time of release. Lastly, FWIW, my MSR-2 recently sold for $775 on eBay including U.S. shipping.

-Synth80s"

Followed by:

"With regards to architecture and sound quality, I agree that the Matrix 6 / 1000 and MSR-2 are substantially similar, but the MSR-2 oscillators sound significantly different to my ears. I'm not saying they're a lot better (maybe they're worse to some ears), but they're different enough to be worth noting. The Matrix 6 / 1000 always sounded a little more generically mid-80s' DCO to me. The MSR-2 is hard to put a finger on -- it does sound different than anything else I've played. While still soft sounding, the HROs are fairly rich and a little grainy in an interesting way. I don't recall how the filters sound on a Matrix.

Lastly, with regards to price, I'm sometimes shocked at what the market will bear for certain items as well, but I think the value of the MSR-2 may be driven in part by its relative rarity. For better or for worse, it's one of the only analog synths of its era and it was produced in low numbers by one of the all-time legends. I just wish the first model had been more successful for Tom so he could have expanded the company in other areas -- the MSR-2 chassis is modular and was intended to eventually incorporate other models of sound generation, but that never materialized.

Some good links:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/mar94/tomoberheim.html
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/dec94/marionmsr2.html
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1995_articles/nov95/marionsynth.html"