MATRIXSYNTH: 1970s Unassembled PAIA OZ 3760 Synth Kit


Monday, September 24, 2018

1970s Unassembled PAIA OZ 3760 Synth Kit

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"Here is a SUPER RARE find - a totally unassembled DIY synth kit for the famous PAIA OZ 3760 synth! Comes with everything pictured, including the original speaker, manual, pitch pad, and everything else you should need to put this bad boy together!

Note: Because this is an unassembled kit, we cannot guarantee that it will work when fully assembled. Therefore, it is being sold as-is. Please let us know if you have any questions before purchasing.

The kit is in very good cosmetic. condition, minimal noticeable wear to the individual pieces. Some of the components are in their original packaging.

Additional description:

OZ is a ploytonic with over 6.5 octaves total range from it specially manufactured 1.5 octave keyboard. A built in speaker and amplifier make OZ a truly self-contained instrument. Large Scale Integration and CMOS technology allow batter operated portability.

OZ has a single tuning knob (no internal adjustments) and a mixing input that allows other instruments to play through the amplifier. Output jack and switch selective step or multi pulse trigger provides simple synthesizer interface, LEDs indicate: power on, octave setting and trigger status. A unique pressure sensitive pitch bender chromatically transposes single notes or whole chords up to a full ocative. The entire package closes into an extremely portable, rugged vinyl covered wood case.

"Paia's Oz turned out to be a big hit. Its controls were minimal, but with its touch-sensitive plate and small size, its reputation grew as a polyphonic keyboard source whose sounds could be modified, enhanced, and mixed via other modular synthesizer gear."

[from an interview with John Simonton, PAiA Electronics, Inc.]
'I see the Oz keyboard only had a range of an octave and a fourth - from C to F. Was an 18-note keyboard the smallest you could find?
'No, as a matter of fact we could have gotten a smaller keyboard than that. It just seemed like a convenient number. At the time, Marvin Jones was working with me on a good many things, and that was his contribution.... If I had been left to my devices, it most likely would have been a smaller keyboard.

'The problem being addressed here was the monotonic [monophonic] nature of synthesizers at that time. There really weren't any built-in microprocessors to control multiple signal-generating chains, so every synthesizer work was monotonic. And when you found synthesizer work that was polyphonic, it was done with multitracking. So one of the purposes of the Oz was to give a polytonic [polyphonic] front end, something that could do chords that then would be processed by the rest of the synthesizer chain - filters and so on. One of the tricks on Oz was that it had a little pad that you could push to bend the note, or bend the whole chord for that matter.... It had a gate signal out or a trigger signal out..."

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.

PREVIOUS PAGE NEXT PAGE HOME


Patch n Tweak
Switched On Make Synthesizer Evolution Vintage Synthesizers Creating Sound Fundlementals of Synthesizer Programming Kraftwerk

© Matrixsynth - All posts are presented here for informative, historical and educative purposes as applicable within fair use.
MATRIXSYNTH is supported by affiliate links that use cookies to track clickthroughs and sales. See the privacy policy for details.
MATRIXSYNTH - EVERYTHING SYNTH