Circuit Bent Psychedelic OMNICHORD OM-27

via this auction
video here
See squidfanny on eBay for more.

"The OMNICHORD is a unique Analog (Analogue) Synthesizer originally built in 1981 by Suzuki. It's part Electronic Touch Harp, Part Chord Organ and Part Analog Drum Machine with Rhythms with Accompaniment and a built in speaker. It's been used by David Bowie, Jarvis Cocker (from Pulp) and Flight of the Conchords.

There is nothing quite like an Omnichord.

Needless to say, this very special machine has had some stunning modifications and is now capable of producing a whole range of other-worldly sounds previously un-imagined by the original engineers......

Each Section of this Omnichord synthesizer has been modified in the form of Upgrades, Expanded Features, New Sounds, Additional Modulation and Expressive Control.

This includes 35 Metal Touch points, 10 New Knobs, 28 New Switches (including Rotary Knobs) & 27 Beautiful Psychedelic LED lights......

METAL TOUCH POINTS -
An array of Metal touch points allow a whole new way of playing the Omnichord. Use fingers to connect the points on the Right of the machine with any of the points on the left of the machine for bleepy Squarewave tones, Bass tones and Chord Tones. The tones are harmonically arranged in a similar way to the Harp.
The top row of 12 points are fixed tones. The centre Row of 12 Points will change according to which Chord is being played, and will always stay in tune with the chord, in a similar way to the harp. The Bottom Row of 5 Points are Bass tones, and will modulate when using the Omnichord in Accompaniment mode.
5 Points on the right will connect the tones through various parts of the Omnichord's analog circuitry, and produce different effects, ranging from straight amplification, crunchy Distortion and Ring Modulated & Filtered synth tones.
To the right of the Harp plate are an additional pair of Touch points which can be used to modulate the Omnichord's pitch. These provide really expressive control and can be used for similar results to a whammy bar on a guitar and will produce Hendrix-esque mind-bending.....

FLASHING LIGHTS -
Beautiful modern LED lights indicate various activity within the Omnichord's circuitry and flash along with the sounds.
The LED Lights also serve to divide the metal touch points and make performance more accurate.
Pink Lights represent the Drums & Chord sounds.
Green & Blue Lights Indicate the LFO rate.
Purple Lights indicate the Bass

ANALOG DRUMS (left Photo Above) -
The Omnichord has a built in Analog Drum machine, and provides warm punchy Rhythms with Chord / Bass Accompaniment. There are 6 preset patterns (Rock, Latin, Swing, Etc.). These patterns cannot be edited, however I have installed 6 Metal Switches above the rhythm buttons which allow these preset patterns to be combined with each other. This allows a whole range of unique & complex Rhythmical Structures to be created.
5 New Soft-Touch Knobs Allow the Analog Drum sounds to be tweeked. Controls affect Decay and Filtering for the Bass, Snare, Claves and Hats. Yellow knob provides Decay for the Chord when used in Accompaniment mode.

SONIC GLITCH (Right Photo above) -
This is a very special new feature for this Omnichord, which produces a staggering array of unique techo-esque sounds from the Omnichord's preset Harp / Chord & Bass.
Sounds range from Bubbly Echos, Sweet Arpeggios & Syncopated Modulation to De-tuned Notes, Dark Ring Mods & Watery Dis-chord.
Use the Rotary Knobs to select the required 'Glitch', and the metal toggle Switch to active the effect. Each Rotary knob can be used individually or all 3 Knobs can be used at once for increasingly dramatic results....
Once the required effect is selected, the switches can be used as part of a live performance.
There are a total of 27 Sonic Glitches which are spread over the 3 Silver Rotary Switches.

LFO Modulator -
Additional LFO circuit has been installed in this machine to allow a whole range of very impressive modulation capabilities..... The Large Knob is used to alter the LFO RATE, the signal can then be used to drive the Omnichord's Pitch, which will affect the Chord, Bass, Harp and Touch Points. It will not affect the tempo or the rhythms, which makes it a very useful feature for performance. A soft-touch knob controls the LFO Pitch depth when turned fully anti-clockwise will turn the effect off.
A pair of metal toggle switches allow the LFO to be used as a Gate / Chopper for the Chord & Bass.
Another Soft-Touch Knob allows the LFO to act as a Linier Volume Gate and can create a nice basic rotary speaker effect.
LFO Circuit has a Switch (above the large Rate Knob) to turn the circuit ON/OFF.
The LFO also has a small flashing Green LED Light which indicates the Rate.

Additional controls in the photo above are -

A pair of Switches which are used for cutting cirtain elements from the Bass Accompaniment.
Bass Volume Knob (Red Knob) can also be used to completely mute the bass.
Master Pitch (yellow knob) is used to tune / de-tune the machine.

New controls are all arranged in a logical and instinctive order, with juist a little practice you'll quickly understand their functions."

More pics at the auction.