"ASE" Vintage DIY Modular Remains a Mystery

Back in 2011 this post went up on  a custom DIY modular synth with the letters ASE on the upper right of the main cabinet. It was questioned whether this could have been an early modular creation from Mario Maggi, the man behind the ASE MCS-70 (see here and here), and later, the Elka Synthex.

It turns out this system is not his.  If anyone out there has more info on the system let me know.  You'll find more pics and info in the original post here.

Preset Editing on the KORG PS3200

via Tom J Carpenter of Analogue Solutions on Facebook: "One little known thing about this synth is most of the knobs have built in pull switches enabling you to edit your presets"

According to another comment in that thread: "There is a flaw in the design though. You can edit your patch, but if you try and save it, it records ALL the current knob positions and not just the ones you have tweaked, thus erasing your patch."

The PS3200 came out in 1978.  If you are curious what was the first programmable synth with editable patch memories, see this post. Update: added another early programmable preset synth to that post, the ASE MCS-70.

The PPG 1003 "Sonic Carrier" - World's First Programmable Synth?

via Wolfgang Palm on Facebook
Be sure to see the video below.

"This was the first programmable synthesizer (1977)."

Programmable as in patch memory. The 1003 was a programmable monophonic synth with two oscillators, digitally controlled keyboard, and it was duophonic.

But was it the first?

Excerpts via Part 4 of the PPG Story:

CLICK FOR MORE »

More Info on the ASE Modular

See the red update in this post. There is an Elka Synthex connection.

Rare Vintage ASE Modular Synthesizer

In the history of the site there has only been one other ASE post. That post from August of 2006 was on Automat and the ASE MCS70. The ASE MCS70 was a knob laden keyboard synthesizer. In the post you will find a link to Synthmuseum.com with some additional info.

This Monday, Patrick Hopewell posted the image to the left on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge with the following: "Can you identify this machine? I believe this to be a kit from the early 70's." At first I didn't recognize it and I read "ASI" instead of "ASE" on the top right, so a search came up empty. After mentioning this to Patrick he said it looks like ASI in the pic, but is actually "ASE" and he received an offer to pick up the system. It was in a garage for 30 years before now. Patrick currently has it in possession. He put up some pics here including some of the inside. The following is what he had to say.

"I finally took the back off and documented every circuit. There are some issues with the synth but nothing that can't be resolved. I have been chatting with Norman Leete and he says that everything looks good but I still should go through and test every circuit before I try to power it up again. I have sent the guy I bought it from an email to see if he has the contact info for the guy who built this thing in the 70's. I will keep you posted as I find out anymore information. Feel free to post anything you find interesting. I would like to see if any of your readers recognize any of the circuits. I did find out from Norman that the pots are the same ones used in Moog modulars."

If anyone has any insight feel free to leave a comment here, on Facebook, or email me directly and I'll forward it along.

Update: some additional info from Florian Anwander on ASE (note per Update2 below this modular is not from the same ASE):

"As far as I remember ASE was a kind of 'one man show' company by Mario Maggi, later engineer for various Italy based musical instruments companies like Elka (the man behind the Synthex).

There is an interview with M. Maggi on http://www.synthesizer.at (german) [Googlish here], which says 'The world heared already around 1970 from Mario Maggi, when he built his first monophonic synthesizer. It was in the style of an ARP Odyssey and Minimoog [translaters remark: in opposite to modular synths]. This synth still works today. Musicians like Enrico Olivieri, Roberto Turbitosi, Mario Natali and others used it.'

I have seen in the early 80s an ASE in a studio in the outskirts of Frankfurt which looked similar (same black glossy panels, same kind of various knobs), but to my memory it was smaller than one of Patrick Hopewell."

Update2 (6/12/2014): I have confirmation this is not from Mario Maggi.  The designer remains unknown. If anyone has any insight to the maker of this system, feel free to contact me or leave a comment.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Automat and the ASE MCS70

Another via Frederic. Automat is an old electronic album from 1978 that featured the ASE MCS70. You can read more about the album here where you will find a number of samples. You can find more on the MCS70 on Synthmuseum.com where the image below was pulled from.

via the Automat page:
"When I saw my incoming mail box in 2000/October/01 I had a great surprise. A message from Mario Maggi (the man who idealized and constructed the MCS70, the sinthesizer used to do "automat"). Once again, my thanks to Sergio A. Simões. He found the Mario Maggi´s e-mail, contacted him, and told him about my page. To receive a message from Mario Maggi and all creators of "automat" is one of my great objectives. Naturally, I had (and still have) thousands of questions. We change a few messages, and I´ll continue changing. Now you can see a few questions. The first message was from Mario Maggi to answer questions for Sergio. The main subject is about MCS70, but there is a lot of information regarding 'automat'." Thanks Frederic!