DELTA DP-900 (1985) - the synth no one knew existed - HD

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

This appears to be the first post to feature the DELTA DP-900.

00:00 Pre - Introduction
00:38 Introduction
01:14 Flutes and Strings
02:05 Auto Accompaniment
04:42 MUSICAL INTERLUDE 1
06:00 Poly Voices
08:36 The Mystery
09:02 Synth Voices (Monophonic Synth)
12:02 Drum Machine
14:12 Outro

"DELTA DP-900 - 1985?

It happens that an instrument surfaces that no one's heard about or even seen before.
But it rarely happens that no one hasn't even heard of the manufacturer of that instrument.

Delta - what kind of brand was this?
Where were they?
Is this the only thing they developed?

After some research and a couple of phone calls our dear friend Marco Molendi had some information.
Developers and engineers that had previously worked at other italian instrument manufacturers (Welson, CRB and Solton / Ketron) established a small brand when they were laid off.
And it seems the only synth they developed was this one.
It was also released as Welson DG-21 and Delco 61, in slightly different forms but with quite similar specifications and guts.

We're unsure of the production year of this unit, but we're looking into to finding out more about this mysterious brand called Delta.

The DELTA DP-900 looks like a large hobby keyboard. Think of an early 1980s Casiotone for instance, but this one is a lot heavier and crammed with circuitry.
The drum section and monophonic synthesizer is fully analog (the mono and poly section is CEM filter based) and it definitely sounds more vintage than it looks.

The 4 speakers (2 up facing and 2 underneath) aren't amazing but they for sure help to get the weight up to 23,5 kilos (!).

Most of the specifications are in the video as text already so please watch the it and read the text - a quick roundup would look like this :

The instrument consists of mainly 6 sections :
Drum machine
Auto Accompaniment section (bass, chords and arpeggiator)
Poly Voices (polyphonic presets)
Synth Voices (monophonic synth)
Flutes (organ footages)
Strings

There are only minor modulation possibilities, like decay and vibrato, on hand.

Some features don't seem to work.
This is most likely due to the keyboard not being properly finished, the MIDI connectors for instance, that aren't actually hooked up internally.

If you're into rare Italian synths and drum machines you can subscribe to our channel and please check out our other videos of rare gems, but you might also enjoy the V.A.I. website, a photo book and encyclopedia Italian Vintage Synths and Drum Machines:

https://www.vintageaudioinstitute.com/"