Publison Infernal Machine + LinnDrum / Jam 2

video upload by Valmont

"Here's the second (more conventional) part of the previous jam, featuring a fully restored Linndrum for a client along with a Publison Infernal Machine reissue, hand-built by my friend Valentin :)
You can watch the first jam here: • Publison Infernal Machine + LinnDrum / Jam 1 [posted here]

In addition to copy/pasting the same description, I’ll also add a few details about the process!
The Infernal Machine itself is in the racks. In this video you only see the remote, with a few occasional close-ups when I tweak it. The LinnDrum is raw ; I’m just using the left main output straight into the console (a BiAmp Model 42). From there I send the signal into DSP A (mono), pan it slightly to the left, then route that channel via a second aux into DSP B (stereo).
DSPs are mixed back into the console. A hint of U-He SATIN, Pro-Q, and Pro-L on the master… and there you go :)

LINNDRUM - This one came with a fun issue: the snare would trigger the side stick, and the toms would trigger the congas. Apart from various CMOS quirks of that kind, I rebuilt all sliders/faders (volume + pan), the trigger buttons and replaced the pots with custom clones made by my friend Manfred from VintageSynth&Co. I also swapped the audio caps for polypropylene ones and rebuilt the power supply. During the process, the CPU card failed so I had to debug the sequencer - turned out to be a bad address latch and a dead bus gate (no idea what caused that). All in all, a serious overhaul!

INFERNAL MACHINE - A very special device. The IM90 was originally designed by French engineer Philippe Petitdemange between 1983 and 1984, with development continuing until the final DSP update in 1989. Publison devices are infamous for their opacity: components were often stripped of references, making repairs impossible. No schematics were ever published or even formally documented, which made the Infernal Machine both exceptionally rare and subject to extreme prices (I’ve seen one listed around 20k€!!!)
Following Philippe’s assassination in 2019, much of the design knowledge risked being lost. Jonathan Prager was designated as the official Publison legacy/maintenance technician and undertook the task of redrawing schematics based on the original archives he bought to preserve these machines. Meanwhile, Valentin, a French expatriate living in Japan, independently carried out his own reverse-engineering and successfully built a true 1:1 clone. His version (named the Celestial Machine) fits the strictest definition of a clone: an exact replica running the original code, featuring a beautifully recreated remote controller and using NOS components throughout ; except for a new OLED display (co-designed with Bob Grieb of TaunTek).
This special Publison-badged unit was sent to me for testing and demonstration to original Publison co-founder D. Dean - more info soon maybe :)

By the way! If you’re curious, I wrote my master’s thesis on Publison, it was published in French (deal with it lmao) : https://www.ens-louis-lumiere.fr/wp-c..."

Publison Infernal Machine + LinnDrum / Jam 1

video upload by Valmont

"Have you ever wondered if a Linndrum could sound... Not like a Linndrum?! Here's a first jam featuring a fully restored one for a client, along with a Publison Infernal Machine reissue, hand-built by my friend Valentin, aka “Vintage Standards” :)

LINNDRUM - This one came with a fun issue: the snare would trigger the side stick, and the toms would trigger the congas. Apart from various CMOS quirks of that kind, I rebuilt all sliders/faders (volume + pan), the trigger buttons and replaced the pots with custom clones made by my friend Manfred from VintageSynth&Co. I also swapped the audio caps for polypropylene ones and rebuilt the power supply. During the process, the CPU card failed so I had to debug the sequencer - turned out to be a bad address latch and a dead bus gate (no idea what caused that). All in all, a serious overhaul!

INFERNAL MACHINE - A very special device. The IM90 was originally designed by French engineer Philippe Petitdemange between 1983 and 1984, with development continuing until the final DSP update in 1989. Publison devices are infamous for their opacity: components were often stripped of references, making repairs impossible. No schematics were ever published or even formally documented, which made the Infernal Machine both exceptionally rare and subject to extreme prices (I’ve seen one listed around 20k€!!!)
Following Philippe’s assassination in 2019, much of the design knowledge risked being lost. Jonathan Prager was designated as the official Publison legacy/maintenance technician and undertook the task of redrawing schematics based on the original archives he bought to preserve these machines. Meanwhile, Valentin, a French expatriate living in Japan, independently carried out his own reverse-engineering and successfully built a true 1:1 clone. His version (named the Celestial Machine) fits the strictest definition of a clone: an exact replica running the original code, featuring a beautifully recreated remote controller and using NOS components throughout ; except for a new OLED display (co-designed with Bob Grieb of TaunTek).
This special Publison-badged unit was sent to me for testing and demonstration to original Publison co-founder D. Dean - more info soon maybe :)

By the way! If you’re curious, I wrote my master’s thesis on Publison, it was published in French (deal with it lmao) : https://www.ens-louis-lumiere.fr/wp-c..."

Yamaha CS30 and the Publison Infernal Machine 90 - Foleytronics Demo

video upload by foleytronics fx repair

A Deep Analysis of the Publison DHM 89 B 2 and the Prophet 5

video upload by foleytronics fx repair

"Peter's demo of the Publison DHM 89 B 2 and the Prophet 5."

Ahead Of Its Time: Publison DHM89B2 (1978)

video upload by HAINBACH

"The French Publison DHM89B2 with its FB2000 keyboard controller is a stunning instrument for its time. Released first in 1978 (keyboard in 1980) it quickly made its way into the electronic music studios of the experimental avantgarde, such as INA GRM and SWR Experimentalstudio. For the time it offered incredible fidelity of pitch-shifting and sampling, surpassing the more famous Fairlight with ease. Pop stars like Prince used it extensively, and it became the go to vocal doubler / harmonizer for many years. This particular unit belonged to Manuel Göttsching (E2-E4) and resides now at the Akademie der Künste Berlin. Robert Henke (Monolake) and Dave Hilowitz joined me there to explore it."

See the Publison label below for additional posts.

Rare GEM PK 4900 Synthesizer Demo

video upload by foleytronics fx repair

"In this video, we are displaying Kelly's working GEM PK 4900, a very nice-sounding and rare synth. In addition, feast your eyes and ears on Tom's Publison DHM 89 B2, Anonymous's EMT 250 and Ramble's Juno-6. We recorded the drums in my basement a couple years ago and bounced it to the Tascam portastudio, and we're running it all through the Opamp Labs console (for sale!).

The EMT in this video has been fully done up to the 9s with all new caps, a new 128k SRAM board to reduce heat and improve stability, and of course all digital logic problems solved."

Tim’s Mono/Poly and Michael’s Publison IM90

video upload by foleytronics fx repair

"Two of the oscillators in this Mono/Poly wouldn’t tune during calibration and ended up being a major pain in the tuchus. Meanwhile, this Publsion Infernal Machine had no output on channel A plus the garbled screen of ultimate despair. Figured both those out, plus recapped the tants, changed a couple broken XLR connectors and re-recapped the PSU as someone left it rather untidy. It sounds wild and is really fun to use.

Should you have a piece of vintage pro audio gear that needs some love, feel free to drop us a line:

https://foleytronics.com/contact-us/"

PUBLISON DHM-89 B2 Stereo pitch shifter Delay harmonizer

Note: links to listings are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"Here is a mega rare PUBLISON DHM89-B2 Expanded version with vibrato amount / speed controls! Highly advanced signal processor/sampler c. 1978. AMAZING machine... with an UNIQUE warm sound and effects combinations between sampling delays, harmonizer, advanced dual pitch shifter ect.. A very rare collector item with a sound so analog closer to tape than digital. It has been used by many popular bands like Cyndi Lauper, Rockets, Joan Osborne, The Fixx, The Outfield..

EXCELLENT cosmetic shape, very clean panel! Working conditions: control panels seems to be well working, all controls are ok as the led screens, but outs are extremely low, almost unaudible so I sell it in as-is conditions, it probably need of a sensible tech visit. It was perfect working in studio a lot of times ago.. never serviced, still has the original capacitiors, there are 3x mainboards inside.

It's one of the most AMAZING machine ever made... as its brother INFERNAL MACHINE!"

CLICK FOR MORE »

inti-fari : Under Mi synthi mt-40 . wicked digital and analog dub session

inti-fari : Under Mi synthi mt-40 . wicked digital and analog dub session . rmx Distilerz

Published on Mar 21, 2013 inti fari·46 videos

"Dub-plate Digital rub-a-dub steppa
Distilerz Production 2013
Free download mp3 :

soundcloud.com/distilerz-selecta
+
soundcloud.com/computer-dub
+
soundcloud.com/naturaljah"

Custom moded Casio MT-41, EMS SYNTHI, Roland Chorus Echo SRE-555, Publison DHM 89 B2 & some Egyptian synth art.

Also see: inti-fari EMS Synthi Reggae Dub

Update:

inti-fari : Clandestino dub " cool and deadly remix " manu chao inna Digital Distilerz style

Published on Mar 21, 2013
Distilerz Production 2013
Free download mp3 :

soundcloud.com/distilerz-selecta
+
soundcloud.com/computer-dub
+
soundcloud.com/naturaljah

Publison DHM 89 B2 Stereo Digital Pitch Shifter demo

YouTube Uploaded by scalenyc on Jan 12, 2012

"Demonstration of the Publison DHM 89 B2 Stereo Digital Pitch Shifter on voice, guitar and drum machine"

This was a Perfect Circuit listing

Side note: not sure if the one in the video is meant as a demo for an upcoming auction. If you see it, let me know. I couldn't find it. I was going to put the Onkloud auction up in a separate post but thought the pics would go good here.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Korg MS-20 and Publison DHM 89 B2

YouTube Uploaded by cms4f on Feb 27, 2011


via this auction

"Publison DHM 89 B2
Stereo Delay & Pitch Shifter
Late 70's Early 80's

It has seperate controls for sample start and end points, when they are reversed the unit plays the delay backwards. When you factor in variable pitch, feedback, speed, etc... you get mind numbing possibilities. Goes from standard delay to complete Arial Pink FX bananas, and still does everything in between like making a good pitch thickener for background vocals, like an Eventide H910. Can feel like a space Echo or Echoplex in many ways too...

Also, there is a multi pin connector which will allow for CV control of a lot of front panel controls. This can be modded to play samples pitched on a keyboard, which is what Tangerine Dream did to play samplers on the Firestarter Soundtrack."

CLICK FOR MORE »

Publison KB 2000

via this auction

"This is the keyboard controller for the Publison DHM 89. Both the KB 2000 and DHM 89 are incredibly rare. This unit itself is not self-powered and requires the DHM 89 to function."

See this post for an advert on the KB 2000.

CLICK FOR MORE »

The Publison KB 2000

via this auction

"Here is a vintage brochure original ( not a copy) from the French Synthesizer designed PUBLISON AUDIO PROFESSIONAL Paris France.

The brochure measures 8 1/2" x 11". The brochure is two sided in color. One side shows the Synth KB 2000 and the other side shows the audio computer model DHM 89 B@ Stereo unit. This unit has a dual digital delay, pitch shifting memory latch."

Update via Qwave in the comments: "Here is a scan of my original leaflet I got from an early eighties Musik Messe in Frankfurt.

I was a schoolboy then."