V.A.I. 55 Elka Wilgamat / Multivox MX-3000

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"Another spin with these twooddbalss: The Elka Wilgamat and Multivox MX-3000.
The Elka Wilgamat is probably a bit familiar to our viewers by now - an Italian auto-accompaniment machine with three sections:

1. Analog drum machine section
2. Bass section with 2 sounds and variations
3. Chord section with 3 sounds

Harmonically controlled by a two-octave keyboard with a fill-in bar on top, it has a great warm sound that's unmistakably mid-1970s to our ears, the drum machine alone sounds great.

The Multivox MX-3000 is a pretty rare Japanese string machine and monophonic synth combo.
A bit similar to the Farfisa Soundmaker or maybe Solina String Synthesizer (the BIG one - not the regular String Ensemble) or the Crumar Composer but with a more complex polyphonic - or rather Divide Down - section.
Lots bells and whistles here.

It basically has three separate sections:

1. A bass synth section with multiple preset sounds and attack, decay and tone controls.

2. A polyphonic section with preset sounds that are modifiable in quite a few ways with a very nice and aggressive filter section, attack/decay, two different choruses, two glide modes and more.

3. Single Oscillator monophonic section. No presets but a few different wave forms, a very nice filter, portamento and the usual mono stuff for great leads, basses and even some space effects.

The Polyphonic filter and choruses are very cool on these, maybe that's what we got it for initially but it's turning in to our desert island machine, there's really a lot going on here, it's a versatile instrument with quite a unique and somewhat rustic sound.

They're famously hard to service due to lack of a good set of schematics.
The build-quality is strangely bad for late 1970s Japanese keyboards so they somehow always break down.
Vintage Audio Institute is a studio and gear vendor in the hills of Florence, Italy."