via this auction
Video in the listing previously posted here.
"A super rare DK-700, the Siel flagship synthesizer released in 1986, equipped with a DIY Arduino interface to control all the synth parameters in real-time using TouchOSC on Android/iPad. The machine has been recently serviced by a professional technician and actually looks and sounds great.
Released in 1986, the DK-700 is the best and last synthesizer produced by the Italian SIEL right before the joint-venture with Roland Corporation and its subsequent turning into Roland Europe. The DK-700 has been on the market for less than one year so only few hundreds units were sold and this inspiring synthesizer never received the love it actually deserved.
The SIEL's flagship synthesizer is characterized by a big front panel plenty of parameters info and stripped of everything but a handful of buttons and knobs. This design philosophy, also implemented in Crumar Bit synthesizers, had both marketing and functional reasons. The lack of knobs gave it a then-modern (digital) look while allowed to easily make all the synth parameters accessible and controllable via MIDI SysEx.But its minimalistic design hid an unusually powerful synthesis engine. Totally based on SSM analog integrated circuits, the DK-700 is a six voice polyphonic synthesizer where each voice features 2 digitally controlled oscillators with analog waveforms, a 4-pole resonant analog filter, an analog envelope generator assignable to VCA and/or VCF and 4 modulators (3 LFO + 1 S&H) providing parallel modulations of pitches, pulse widths and filters.
The magic of this marvelous machine actually lies in its unusual modulation capabilities. Instead of the classic attack/intro time, the 3 parallel LFOs of the DK-700 implement an initial level and a fully dedicated ADSR envelope. This unique feature, together with the special pseudo-chorus effect obtained by modulating the PW, allows to create spectacular pad sounds that put many better-known instruments to shame. And these features, in addition to the advanced Master Keyboard mode, make the DK-700 a completely different beast compared to its predecessors Opera 6/DK-600.
The DK-700 is a very inspiring machine with a massive, bold sound. It can generate a wide variety of sounds ranging from huge resonant sweeps to incredibly thick brasses, classic analog basses, stabs and organs but it does its best when pushed in the pad arena where it can easily produce dark deep drones, ethereal pads and complex space sounds.
The touchscreen Controller
Programming new patches on the DK-700 is not painful but it's certainly a bit time consuming and less intuitive than using knobs. But the lack of knobs can be efficiently compensated using the included Arduino interface that allows control all the parameters in real-time. You just need to install TouchOSC on your Android tablet or iPad, load the dedicated DK-700 layout and use the Arduino interface as bridge to send and receive the synth parameters.
Programming the DK-700 and modifying its parameters using the TouchOSC layout is very intuitive and fun, you basically have a touchscreen controller linked to an authentic analog beast. This Arduino Interface is based on a project by Baloranfr () and I will provide the MIDI cables required to make the system work. The tablet is not incuded!
Specifications
6 voices polyphony
Velocity sensitive keyboard
73 User Patches
Master Keyboard Mode with advanced MIDI features
Oscillators : 2 DCOs per voice with analog waveforms
Oscillators : 3 Waveforms (Saw - Pulse - Saw+Pulse)
Oscillators : Octave - PW - Tuning - Volume
VCF : one 4-pole resonant analog filter per voice
VCF : Cutoff - Resonance - Keyboard Tracking - EG Level
ADSR : one Envelope Generator per voice
ADSR : ADSR to VCF / VCA / VCF+VCA
ADSR : Velocity to ADSR / Attack / Attack+ADSR
4 Modulators : 3 LFO + 1 S&H
LFO 1/2 : Freq - Final Level - Initial Level - ADSR
LFO 1/2 : LFO to DCO A / DCO B / DCO A+B
LFO 3 : Freq - Final Level - Initial Level - ADSR
LFO 3 : LFO to VCF / PW DCO A / PW DCO B / PW DCO A+B
LFO 3 : Waveform Saw - Pulse - Saw+Pulse
S&H : Freq - Depth - S&H to VCF / DCO B / VCF+DCO B"
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