godwin 849 string symphony

via this auction

"bought this brand new in 1982 from Dougies music shop in northwich, cheshire.. a few months before roland realeased the juno 6.... oh well!, there is not much info about this on the internet or anywhere, but i can tell you it is fully working , all buttons, lights, sliders, everything is fine... the only downside is the front panel is starting to rust slightly, and the handle on the flightcase has broken off. by the way this thing sounds fantastic, especially the chorus/tremelo unit, this synth is built like a tank, and weighs like one too!.. this synth is the much posher version of the godwin string concert.. is it rare let me know. this auction is deffo pick up only sorry"

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Godwin Supersonic Digital Synthesizer

flickr by Mark Cochrane via bunker on the forum: "Here are some images of my poorly Godwin digital Synth. Its currently built into an SC600 organ but I intend to build it into its own case. I ve never seen one before let alone found any info on the net. It seems to be a hybrid with a digital oscillator and patch storage combined with VCF, non VC HPF, VCA, 2x ADSR, aftertouch, good modulation options and some SSM chips. Problem is no waveform and poorly trigger and gate signals. The microprocessor is an 8035 and I think the problem lies here. I've got some on order at the moment so we shall see. From what I can gather the same micro was also used in the Jupiter 4 amongst other synths, as well as the Donkey Kong arcade game!. If anyone needs one of these chips let me know. they are brand new unused and not pulled from something else."
some additional info from bunker on electro-music.com: "I have a Godwin Digital Synthesizer built into my Godwin SC600 organ. The day after I took delivery the synth died or more precisely the oscillator died. At first I was expecting the synth to be built around the m110 chip that was used in other Italian synths of the time such as the Jen SX1000 and Siel Mono/Cruise. However on closer inspection the synth is made up of 9 seperate PC boards that slot into a motherboard. The basic features are Square/Sawtooth waveforms, LFO controlling vibrato, tremolo and filter, A Low Pass VCF, a High Pass filter (not VC), ADSR's for both VCA and VCF, repeat function, manual control of PWM, spring reverb and a crude form of aftertouch called sensitivity control which affects pitch and VCF. The only digital part seems to be the 8035 microprocessor which controls keyboard scanning, preset control and gate and trigger signals.

Ive poked around and when the board with the 8035 on is removed I get the frequencies that the schematic tells me I should be getting from the oscillator output on the Master Generator board. The oscillator looks to be built around 74132 logic chip and 4558 op amp which, I guess makes it a digital oscillator? With no 8035 however I have no gate or trigger hence no sound. When I replace the board the osc. freq. drops from the 200 odd kHz in the schematic down to About 1kHz. there is a wave form generator that is fed from the osc and this must divide the freq down to normal audio. The gate seems to be "stuck" but with no sound. The filter will self oscillate and the mod controls affect it as does the repeat function so im guessing its the 8035. There is A UV EPROM on the same board but my guess is that this is for storage of the preset patch controls and as all these seem to be okay, albeit with no sound, I dont think this is the problem.

I am still learning my was around repairing and building synths so please be gentle! I want to rehouse the synth in a custom case and modify it with maybe a VCO or two along side the 8035 osc. there are SSM 2020 and 2040 chips on the VCA/VCF/HPF board and there looks to be some scope to really mod this synth or maybe turn it into a fully analog instrument.

If anyone has any ideas or has even seen/played one of these before please let me know. I can see this baby in a cherry or oak case sat on stage being played!" This is only the second Godwin synth posted on MATRIXSYNTH as of this post. Click on the label below for Godwin 849 String Concert.

"Block diagram of the synth [Supersonic] functions "

Godwin 849 String Concert

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via this auction

Details:

"There doesn't seem to be much information about Godwin keyboards available online, except that they're good, and they're not very common. Here are a couple of the mentions I've found on the String Concert series:

"Logans and other string machines that use this system (such as the Hohner String Performer and the Godwin String Concert) are, in my opinion, vastly superior to more famous paraphonic designs such as the Solina, the Rolands, and the Omnis."

Sound on Sound
"A very beautiful and appealing early string synthesiser, warm, sweet and dirty. The chorus and tremolo swirl and make every sound beautifully analogue. Beats the Solina and that says something."

Sonicstate
A Godwin 249 String Concert recently sold on Ebay for £530 (see past listings for Godwin Synth.) This is its big brother, the Godwin 849 String Concert (Symphony). But unfortunately, it's not working. The string sounds are all so quiet as to be practically inaudible, though if you turn the volume on the amplifier fully up you can hear that the controls and sliders do have an effect. The volume slider doesn't do anything though. In the past I seem to remember wiring up an amp to some part of the circuit-board and getting full volume, and concluding that some component might have gone in one of the effects sections, but I don't really know anything about electronics or vintage keyboards.

There's also a brass section which currently doesn't seem to be working at all, though it has worked intermittently in the past, churning out the odd punchy analogue brass sounds.

One of the selection buttons is broken, and I've dismantled another to see how it worked, but that shouldn't be too hard to put back. All the other keys and buttons seem to work, insofar as they light up, make faint noises, etc. Cosmetically, it's not too bad really, with no broken notes, and the sheet-holder still tucked into a clip inside the case. (These things come built in to the bottom of the carrying case. They're fairly chunky and heavy, and look quite cool in a retro way.)

Controls are: String Volume, Brass volume, Cello, Viola, Violin, Organ, Brass 1/2/3/4/Wah/Woh, Cello level, Violin level, Viola level, Bass, Treble, Chorus, Tremolo, Envelope Attack/Sustain/Volume, Vibrato Depth/Speed/Delay, buttons for Classic/Concert/Brass/Vibrato/PolyTrig/Octave, Expression pedal input, High/Low output.

The internal circuit boards are all present and it hasn't been raided for spares. In the right hands, this could be restored into a collector's item. But since it's not presently working, it's £15 with no guarantees and no reserve."

via Rob.

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