Exploring the Wersimatic WM 24

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"We thought there wasn't really anything decent info out there on this rarity so here's a video that sheds some light on the Wersi Wersimatic 24 A & B units.

Wersimatic 24 is an analog drum machine, bass / chord arpeggiator generator similar to the Elgam Carousel, Elka Wilgamat, Godwin Drummaker 45 and Böhm Solist units, The Wersimatic 24 was manufactured in Germany in the early 1970s.
These were also part of various model Wersi organs of the era, such as the Helios that featured the "Wersimatic II" auto-comp section and they seem to be identical in controls and sounds.
The Wersimatic 24 is a bit different than your regular auto-accompaniment machine since the keyboard is a separate instrument: it holds the circuit boards and sound generators for the melodic section and sports its own volume slider and audio jack output.
The keyboard is powered by the drum machine unit via a DIN cable though, and the tempo is regulated on the drum machine as well.

24 drum patterns with 8 mutable sounds
12 rhythmic chord/bass/arpeggiator patterns
Bass section with one sound
3 chord sounds
2 arpeggiator sounds (the second arpeggiator sound is not functioning at the moment)

The bass covers two octaves, which is rare for this type of machine (the Elgam Carousel, Elka Wilgamat has a one octave bass section only) and can generate almost synth like arpeggiator patterns.

We like this machine a lot, especially the bass section and the drum sounds are really raw and industrial sounding.

Sorry for dirty fingernails, it's black paint residue - not dirt - promise.

Vintage Audio Institute is a gear vendor and studio in the hills of Florence."

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