Today marks the 34 year anniversary of the Performance Music Systems Syntar. It was the first "keytar" with a built in synthesizer. Before it, keytars were merely controllers for external synths. The prototype was shown by it's creator George Mattson at the 1979 Atlanta NAMM show.
George Mattson currently makes modulars as Mattson Mini Modular. His latest creation is the Mattson SQ816 Sequencer with Scott Rise of Division-6. I've seen the sequencer in action and it works great. It is close to being released. You can catch a video of it here.
You can read up on the Syntar at Carbon111's Syntar page here, as well as my email exchange with George Mattson here. And of course see the Syntar label below for numerous posts that have gone up on the site including video performances. On a side note, you can find Syntar swag at Cafe Press here.
Below is a scan from the Idahonian newspaper from Moscow Idaho (photo credit: Randy Klisek) Oct. 03 1978. Pictured is George Mattson to the right and his brother Gregg Mattson in their studio also in Moscow, Idaho. The interesting thing about this photograph is that it was published the day before George came up the idea for the Syntar. The bottom pic is the same but with the caption. Further below is a recent pic of George Mattson playing the first production Syntar via Wikipedia, uploaded by clusternote on Oct 29, 2011, which would place this at the 2011 PNW SynthFest at Shoreline Community College.
No comments:
Post a Comment
To reduce spam, comments for posts older than one week are not displayed until approved, usually same day. Do not insult people. For items for sale, do not ask if it is still available. Check the auction link and search for the item. Auctions are from various sellers and expire over time. Posts remain for the pics and historical purposes. This site is meant to be a daily snapshot of some of what was out there in the world of synths.