Sequential Circuits Model 800 Sequencer

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"This is an extremely rare and amazingly intuitive sequencer. It belongs with someone who will use it more than i do. It's one of the finest Cv/Gate sequencers ever made due to it's logical layout and improvisational capabilities. More on that later...

There were only around 500 made, and they were hand made by Dave Smith himself. He started his entire company Sequential Circuits based on this round of sequencer sales, which then provided his business foundation for developing the Prophet 5 and other major musical instrument milestones .

And what's more is that of the 500, only the first 50 or so had the capability of working with both V/Octave standard AND Hz/V standard. This is one of them. It is serial number 0041, and presumably this capability was more expensive due to the pricier D/A conversion necessary for the higher resolution.

AND, what's even more, is that this is one of a small handful that had a mod done to the unit (by Dave Smith) that allows for musical rests to be placed between notes. One can add as many single beat rests as any sequence can fit.

Ok, so now for the depths...
HERE is my sequencer, as fully discussed by the technician who serviced it. Yes, this is THIS actual sequencer, serial 0041, so you can read all about it's technical restoration and performance: (google: modular synthesis sequential circuits 800)

There is not a lot of information about the musical performance on this sequencer on the internet, but Keith Murray has put together quite a nice site with this and other instruments. Here are two pages on the 800

(google: keith murray sequential circuits 800)

(google: keith murray sequential circuits 800 early)

Also he has posted some elaborately informative videos
(on youtube search: "synthesizer keith sequential circuits 800" and there are four videos)

But getting to my personal opinion on this sequencer.. The real magic behind this thing is the capability to move around from sequence to sequence in a gorgeously intuitive manner. You have 16 banks of up to 16 notes, and you can disengage or engage any you like, at any point in time. When the previous bank is done playing it will jump to the next logical place. It sounds simple but there really are NO other sequencers that do this. On the 800 you can set your sequencer flows and forget it. It just keeps playing all of the sequences one after another in a long cycle. Have an urge to remove one? Flip a switch. Next time around it'll skip it. This gets really cool when you only load one or two notes per bank. Suddenly you can use the whole set of 16 banks to make a short short sequence as a single musical phrase. The benefit of this is you can flip notes or short segments of the total sequence on and off to only remove say one note or two notes from the cycle. So cool and inspiring to have such subtle variation of cycling at your finger tips. If you only put one note per bank, it then is essentially a classic 16 step sequencer. But having up to 16 notes per bank means it performs both like these step sequencers and like a series sequencer such as on a Roland JX3P and other Rolands. The flexibility and musical performance improvisation is unparalleled. Needless to say there are a lot of possibilities with this unit. 16 notes x 16 banks equals 256 total note sequence, with beautiful live variability.

I also have included a custom cable for external clocking. The clocking works perfectly and is rock solid tight like other professional cv/gate sequencers.

The unit has a collapsable stand as well, allowing for propping up the face to be above a synth if you place this unit behind a synth on a table. It also allows for cabling to be tucked underneath.

Included are physical copies of all of the manuals and schematics, as well as pdf copies of all too.

The only thing to consider something to keep in mind in this unit is that it needs to warm up for a bit before pitch is perfectly consistent at all times. It functions wonderfully immediately upon powering up but once in a while it will go off pitch for a second. But after it's been warmed up it runs perfectly. Besides, this really doesn't change your sessions because you'll want to leave this unit on a lot anyways since it's the old school volatile memory type of sequencer.

Cheers, and let me know if you have any questions."