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video upload by Juicythedj
"Quick demo of this pretty rare Japanese drum machine."
video upload by Senti mental
"Demo of the Hillwood Super Variation, a Drum Machine fro around 1977-79. Made by a Japanese company who apparently was a supplier for Roland until they decided to start their own product line in the market. Not much info around. The cool feature of the Super Variation is the metal bar on top, that allows you to switch the machine on and off. Has also quite slow rhythm speed. Other than slight EQ-boosting on the low end frequencies, no processing.
Best listened to on good headphones or decent stereo equipment. Filmed on Fuji-XE2 with 4/9cm Leitz Elmar lens."
0:00 Intro jam
0:57 Keytar History
2:30 Musical Interlude
3:24 What is The Liberation?
7:23 Impact and Summary
7:57 Sample Pack
8:20 Outro jam and Patron Shoutout"
"This is probably the rarest and strangest bird I've met. You may think it's a kind of simple monophonic analog 1 oscillator synth like the Roland SH 2000, but there is more than meets the eye. It took me some time to understand what's going on and to this day I am still not sure exactly how it works but it looks like the oscillator is a kind of very early FM based oscillator. Check the video, especially the "bell" presets and you'll know what I mean.
Tone is shaped by 3 faders labelled "Fundamental", "Overtone" and "Brillance", and these are interconnected. There is a simple envelope which works as attack decay (labelled "attack" and "sustain") by default but can be switched to attack release by the push of a button ("sustain long"). Funny thing is the attack fader is inverted compared to classic synth topology: when raising the fader the attack gets shorter. All the presets have their own envelope setting and depending on the presets the attack and decay faders do not behave exactly the same, ie the envelope faders do not totally overide the presets envelope. You can also have the envelope assigned to the filter by switching on "VCF expand", and control the envelope to VCF amount with the "Expand" fader. The "Expand Envelope" seems to invert the VCF envelope. It's quite efficient on some presets and not on others. "Touch portamento" switch is actually a key retrigger option. When activated envelope retriggers on every key stroke (low note priority) otherwise the envelope is legato. So it has nothing to do with the "portamento" fader which is indeed a portamento effect. "Gride" is basically a pitch bend (upwards only). "Growl" switch adds... growl: it adds a kind of brassy attack to the sound. Not efficient on every preset but can add to the realism of the sound on others. There is also a LFO which can be delayed (it's more like a slow attack then a proper delay), consisting of either pulse or triangle wave shape, that can be assign to "vibrato", "wow", "chorus", "tremolo", and you can have the envelope repeat on the lfo speed thanx to the "repeat" switch. And finally there is a noise generator with dedicated fader level and a "Noise only" switch that is self-explanatory. This makes for a uncommon and interesting monophonic synthesizer. Very expressive in my opinion, once you managed to tame it.
I did service this one as much as I could but without any information and service manual it's hard to be sure it's sounding as it should. There are like 15 trimpots inside to calibrate the synth and you definitely can hear most are changing tone and harmonics. Anyway it seems to fully function, it's scaled and tuned and it sounds great but again I can not be 100% sure it's sounding as it was intended.
Cosmetic wise the synth is in good condition, especially considering the rather cheap build quality. But of course it has some scuffs here and there."
"Vintage late '70s analogue monophonic bass synthesiser in a organ foot keyboard format. Features 3 'preset' sounds with tone and sustain controls and 'variation' mode with envelope and filter controls. Made in Japan. Includes original vinyl/plastic soft cover."
"This is the original Japan made Hillwood Pulser M75 Dual Voice Synthesizer also known and marketed in USA as Multivox MX-75 Dual Voice Synthesizer. This analog beast sounds really unique.
Unlike other Pulser/Multivox/Hillwood synths you never seem to see the rare M-75 for sale.
This one is in great working shape it has been completely professionally serviced, tuned, calibrated and cleaned inside out. This synth has some scratches on the case but other than that is all-original and in 100% working condition. It sounds amazing.
Its in really nice cosmetic condition. All knobs switches and buttons work perfectly. All keys are shining white."
"Keyboardists have wanted to go portable for way longer than you might have thought! Come along with Syntaur’s Sam Mims as he chases the fascinating history of the keytar, or strap-on synthesizer, and talks to some of the people who made these inventions happen. And watch the Syntaur crew bring a smashed Roland keytar back to life!"
Synth Wizards 7 Behind the Scenes: Strawberry Fields on Tubon/Mellotron
Published on Jun 1, 2019 Syntaur
"Sam and Eddie show you how the Strawberry Fields Forever audio for Synth Wizards Episode 7 was created."
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Note the Moog Liberation contains the guts of the Realistic MG-1 made by Moog for Radio Shack.
"Made in Japan from 1977 to 1980 forthe American market. Very rare.
The Multivox MX-65is six voice polyphonic keyboard.
Six voices: piano, strings, clavichord,honkytonk, string, and organ.
Weight: 16 pounds. Width: 29 in. Depth: 10 in. Height: 4 in.
Using the endless combinations ofthe MX-65's modifiers for Volume, Pitch, Filters, Envelope Generator (3 shapes),LFO (vibrato effects) and Ensemble (3 modes) you have unlimited sound possibilities.
The sound is a warm analog sound,but for me, too unconventional and bizarre."
"Vintage analogue monophonic bass synthesiser in a organ foot keyboard format. Features 3 'preset' sounds with tone and sustain controls and 'variation' mode with envelope and filter controls. Made in Japan. Has been modified to have the volume pedal removed. Includes custom made flight case."
Note it only has a single Tone knob from Soft to Hard on the left, and a vibrato switch on the right. Interesting piece of kit.
"Hillwood PO-500 Combo Organ Rare 70's Japan Vintage Analog Synthesizer - This unit has some scratches and paint chippings, but fully operational and functional in pretty good condition. We have maintained this unit, tested all keys, switches, knobs, in / outputs works perfectly."
I believe this is the first one to be featured on the site.
Presets: Piano, Honky Tonk, Cembalo, Brass, and String.
"Up for sale is super rare RD SONIC Electronic Piano 801 / EP801 vintage analog electronic piano made in Japan by Hillwood.
The unit appears to be working reasonably well, I noticed 1C# and 4C# keys not responding with 2C# key having slightly bad contacts, but otherwise all the presets sounds and rhythm patterns play fine as I gave it a test. I have not tested the MIC input as I don't have a microphone to test with"
