RITM-2 Synthesizer (1982) - 1 OSC Clone Moog Prodigy

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"According to information that is actively circulating and being replicated on the Internet, the RITM-2 synthesizer was created in 1982 by Viktor Anatolyevich Nikulin, an engineer at the Kirov Musical Instruments Factory, at the request of a musician friend.

The device was well-received by the company's management, and in 1984, it was put into mass production, which continued for 10 years. During this time, the instrument's design underwent three further improvements. It was the only Soviet synthesizer where all components and controls were housed on a single printed circuit board.

Functionally, it consists of one tone generator, a noise generator, a sound signal mixer (triangle, saw, rectangle, noise), a low-pass filter, two full-format envelope generators (attack, decay, sustain, aftertouch), and a low-frequency modulation generator. It is a portable keyboard instrument weighing approximately 9 kg, housed in a plywood case with a lid.

The front panel had two versions: black and white. The main feature of the instrument, which determined its character, long life, and fame in the professional environment, was its unique and harsh sound.

The production capabilities of the enterprise were quite modest, and only about three thousand instruments were produced over the course of 10 years. RITM-2 was produced exclusively on orders from the administrations of houses and palaces of culture, as well as from leading communist enterprises that had their own musical groups.

During the Soviet period, it was impossible to purchase a rare instrument on the open market, and the RITM-2 was not widely known among musicians who were not affiliated with amateur groups. It was not until after 1993, when the Soviet government's support for amateur music, along with the cultural palaces and the Soviet government itself, ceased to exist, that the RITM-2 synthesizer began to find its way into the hands of professional musicians both in Russia and abroad.

The electronic musical synthesizer Rhythm-2 is a single-voice
keyboard instrument designed for solo, ensemble, orchestral performance of musical works of various genres, as well as for educational purposes and obtaining new sound effects. It can be used both in pop orchestras and at home in conjunction with an amplifier-acoustic device having an input sensitivity of no worse than 0.775. It is possible to use a low-frequency amplifier of a radio receiver, TV, tape recorder. The sound quality of the synthesizer will depend on the quality of the amplifier-acoustic device used.
On the Rhythm-2 synthesizer, it is possible to imitate the sound of classical musical instruments (keyboard, string, reed, percussion) with a certain degree of authenticity and create original sound effects (wind noise, the sound of a passing train, the sound of a sea wave, a shot and the whistle of a bullet).

The synthesizer can be used to play melodies with randomly changing pitch or timbre."