"The device was produced in Zhytomyr in early 1990s. It was not a mass-produced product, so this device is very rare.
It has 64 rhythms. You can change the tempo of each of them
Also, it has a «second pattern» mode that can add 8 additional drum brakes between drum loops
The drum machine has 10 sound turning on by pushing the buttons: timbale, tom, clap, rim, snare 1, snare 2, tom 2, closed hihat, crash (the crash does nor works)
You can control the sound of snare with a fader
Also the device has and «avt» button. By pushing it together with drum buttons you can add them to the sequence in auto mode.
Very rare synth for sale! only 50 pieces were produced
Fully working condition. The video of the work of this device is included.
The device was made by author of famous Polivoks Synth Vladimir Kuzmin.
Synthesizer Arton VS-34 (Vocal Synthesizer 3-octave 4-voice) is a modification of the Maestro synthesizer, designed specifically to imitate the timbre of the human voice.
Synthesizes the vowel sounds "A", "O", "U", "I" of the male and female voices by the formant method, can create articulatory effects. It has the same arpeggiator as the Maestro, as well as a controllable filter and a choir sound device. The joystick allows you to achieve a special expressiveness of the timbre of the voice."
Auction to be held at Musician's Hall of Fame & Museum, Nashville, on November 19
An incredible collection of more than 450 artifacts from the life and career of Florian Schneider, co-founder of the pioneer electronic band Kraftwerk."
Pics and videos featuring some of the gear below, and his Lederhosen for good measure (thanks greg!).
Update: the post has been fully updated with all the synth related gear. This may just well be the longest post to be featured on the site. I wanted to capture all the pics for all of the details including notes, scuffs, and of course serial numbers. It's an interesting look into what he used, the condition he keped his gear, in some cases, how he actually used his gear. Note the phonetics on the keys of the Casio CZ-101 and DX-100. Note the Midi Switch Box with a built-in speaker? What's that about? Note the camouflage key strap on the Korg RK-100 Remote Keyboard. Did he pick it out himself or did the keytar just come with it? Note the repeat midi controllers and the MIDI saxaphones. Wind was his primary instrument. You'll find a ton of the acoustic gear he used in the other listings. This is a fascinating insight into both what and how he used his gear.
Side note: there is no affiliate compensation for this post. The note at the top automatically shows for all posts with the Auction label.
Rack Mount Sennheiser VSM-201 Vocoder
Starting Bid
$5,000
Estimate
$20,000 - $40,000 USD
A late 1970s Sennheiser VSM 201 Vocoder with no serial number from the personal studio and collection of Florian Schneider of Kraftwerk (see images). While it’s said that only a few dozen of these Vocoders were produced, a few examples made it into the hands of forward-thinking musical artists including Herbie Hancock, Daft Punk, and of course, Kraftwerk, who used a VSM-201 like this on their albums Man Machine (1978) and Computerworld (1981). The VSM-201 has an intelligible sound that has not yet been bested by modern gear. Includes power cable. This VSM-201 has been removed from its wooden enclosure (which bears the serial number plate) and modified with a metal rack mount casing, presumably for live use. Requires 240v, IEC power cable not included.
Dimensions: 19 x 9 x 9 inches
Category: Kraftwerk, Equipment
Provenance: PROVENANCE From the Estate of Florian Schneider
"Soviet Analog Synthesizer Ambient (SASA) space launched!
Thanks to our great master Alex Taber for advices, Repair, midi mods and tuning for this lovely old USSR machines.
Maybe it's a first time in history when these rare machines are collected, restored and played and filmed in one authentic video.
By Nick Klimenko
We want to show that Soviet analog instruments Are not odd or noisy unfinished boxes, but perfect and beautiful instruments with its own spirit and history.
This cosmic ambient soundtrack played and recorded with:
"Russian synths are awful and making terrible harsh and strange sounds?
If you think so, then this will surprise everyone who is familiar with those synths. This is really fat, warm, beautiful sounding real analog, preset string machine.
It's a string machine with 5 preset sounds: Piano, clavesin/Harpsichord, Alto, Violin and Brass.
Alto and Violin are exactly same sound but violin is one octave higher than alto, so you can make "string orchestra" sound.
Mainly I discovered this to be like Crumar Orchestrator/Multiman-s clone. Piano and clavesin/harpsichords are pretty identical sounding, but... Strings aren't typical "Italic" sounding which can be found on all crumar and some others string machines, Neither european (solina) or american (Moog opus) sounding.
They are Unique! They are Fat! They are Warm! They are very beautiful sounding strings. Well... comparing to others, solina is the closest sound to it.
Brass is also pretty identical to Crumar Orchestrator, but it have identical filter from Crumar Performer (very weak resonance). Too bad because in orchestrator it could make such a great sweeps, but this cannot do same. But the cutoff is powerful.
Also, this string machine isn't commonly available. I don't know how many was produced, but the original retail price was $1500!!! So maybe this is indeed very rare, uncommon at least. These were made about in middle or end of 80's.
See these virtual soundsheet of Crumar Orchestrator and peformer. The sounds of Orchestrator's piano and clavesin/harpsichord and brass is identical to this TOM-1501. And the filter from Crumar performer is also identical."
"Fully serviced, recapped, and upgraded with MIDI and modern jack connections.
A rare Soviet-era preset synthesizer — same analogue filter core as the Polivoks.
Now ready for any studio setup:
🔹 6.3 mm Audio Out
🔹 MIDI In
🔹 Headphones Out (3.5 mm)"
"(c)2007-25 by RetroSound
supported by UVI: http://bit.ly/retrosound-uvi
❤️ Support #RetroSound channel: https://retrosound.creator-spring.com
Theme From A Summer Place by Percy Faith (1959)
Written from Max Steiner
I used my old soviet trio RMIF Opus string synthesizer, Elektronika EM-26 vocoder/strings, Alisa 1377 analog synthesizer and some orchestral samples from my Emax sample library.
This cover song series contains my own recreations of my favourite songs from the last 50 years. The original music from which I take inspiration belong to their respective owners. I recreate tracks only for personal passion and to pay homage to these tracks.
My intention is not to create covers that sound exactly like the original (if you want to hear identical sounds, please listen the original). It's more of an inspiration with my sounds from the old synthesizers from the past and of course the great appreciation for the original performers and producers."
"In this demo, the RITM-2 Black shows its character with pulse-width modulation driven by the LFO, while the filter adds those cool low wobbles.
A modern VG LINE take on a Soviet classic – raw, alive, and expressive.
"Sometimes referred to as the Murom Aelita, the Aelita is a monophonic analog synthesizer manufactured in the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
Although its design seems inspired from American and Japanese synthesizers of the previous decade, with a dark aluminum body[3] and near vertical control panel, the Aelita's looks are distinctive in the details.
They feature large colored plastic sliders instead of the more common rotary dials, and round or rounded push-buttons instead of flip or rotary switches. The vertical sliders are oriented so that their maximum labelled value is at the bottom, instead of the top as is more common. A sole red LED lights up when the instrument is on.
Its hinge-mounted upper control panel can be shut like a piano keyboard's lid, thus protecting the buttons and sliders and preventing accidental settings changes during transportation, and changing the general shape of the instrument to one that is not playable but more transportable.
The keyboard is 3.5 octaves wide and made of 44 unweighted, full-sized plastic keys ranging from F to C.
All controls are labelled in Russian, using Cyrillic script.
The Aelita has 3 oscillators, each with 3 fixed waveshapes (Saw, Pulse and Square), plus a 4th oscillator only active in unison mode, amplitude cross-modulation, a low-pass filter with resonance, one LFO and two envelope generators, all arranged in a fixed architecture typical of subtractive synthesis. It has a maximum range of 7.5 octaves.
It is monophonic, meaning that it can play only one note at a time (although detuning of each oscillator makes it possible to play fixed intervals or chords instead of notes)
It has two special modes: the unison mode creates an unison-like effect on each oscillator (reducing the range as a tradeoff), and the strings mode creates a vibrato-like effect independent of the LFO.
Although of a sturdier construction, it lacks several features commonly found on American and Japanese brand synthesizers at the time, such as: velocity response, portamento, pitch and modulation wheels or levers, settings memory, and (from late 1982 on) MIDI implementation.
Its output is monaural.
Sonic character
Its sonic qualities have been consistently qualified as "fat". Other reviewers also call them "impressive",and sometimes "aggressive".There is audible background noise at the output, resembling oscillator bleed."
"According to information that is actively circulating and being replicated on the Internet, the RITM-2 synthesizer was created in 1982 by Viktor Anatolyevich Nikulin, an engineer at the Kirov Musical Instruments Factory, at the request of a musician friend.
The device was well-received by the company's management, and in 1984, it was put into mass production, which continued for 10 years. During this time, the instrument's design underwent three further improvements. It was the only Soviet synthesizer where all components and controls were housed on a single printed circuit board.
Functionally, it consists of one tone generator, a noise generator, a sound signal mixer (triangle, saw, rectangle, noise), a low-pass filter, two full-format envelope generators (attack, decay, sustain, aftertouch), and a low-frequency modulation generator. It is a portable keyboard instrument weighing approximately 9 kg, housed in a plywood case with a lid.
The front panel had two versions: black and white. The main feature of the instrument, which determined its character, long life, and fame in the professional environment, was its unique and harsh sound.
The production capabilities of the enterprise were quite modest, and only about three thousand instruments were produced over the course of 10 years. RITM-2 was produced exclusively on orders from the administrations of houses and palaces of culture, as well as from leading communist enterprises that had their own musical groups.
During the Soviet period, it was impossible to purchase a rare instrument on the open market, and the RITM-2 was not widely known among musicians who were not affiliated with amateur groups. It was not until after 1993, when the Soviet government's support for amateur music, along with the cultural palaces and the Soviet government itself, ceased to exist, that the RITM-2 synthesizer began to find its way into the hands of professional musicians both in Russia and abroad.
The electronic musical synthesizer Rhythm-2 is a single-voice keyboard instrument designed for solo, ensemble, orchestral performance of musical works of various genres, as well as for educational purposes and obtaining new sound effects. It can be used both in pop orchestras and at home in conjunction with an amplifier-acoustic device having an input sensitivity of no worse than 0.775. It is possible to use a low-frequency amplifier of a radio receiver, TV, tape recorder. The sound quality of the synthesizer will depend on the quality of the amplifier-acoustic device used. On the Rhythm-2 synthesizer, it is possible to imitate the sound of classical musical instruments (keyboard, string, reed, percussion) with a certain degree of authenticity and create original sound effects (wind noise, the sound of a passing train, the sound of a sea wave, a shot and the whistle of a bullet).
The synthesizer can be used to play melodies with randomly changing pitch or timbre."
"Sometimes referred to as the Murom Aelita, the Aelita is a monophonic analog synthesizer manufactured in the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
Although its design seems inspired from American and Japanese synthesizers of the previous decade, with a dark aluminum body[3] and near vertical control panel, the Aelita's looks are distinctive in the details.
They feature large colored plastic sliders instead of the more common rotary dials, and round or rounded push-buttons instead of flip or rotary switches. The vertical sliders are oriented so that their maximum labelled value is at the bottom, instead of the top as is more common. A sole red LED lights up when the instrument is on.
Its hinge-mounted upper control panel can be shut like a piano keyboard's lid, thus protecting the buttons and sliders and preventing accidental settings changes during transportation, and changing the general shape of the instrument to one that is not playable but more transportable.
The keyboard is 3.5 octaves wide and made of 44 unweighted, full-sized plastic keys ranging from F to C.
All controls are labelled in Russian, using Cyrillic script.
The Aelita has 3 oscillators, each with 3 fixed waveshapes (Saw, Pulse and Square), plus a 4th oscillator only active in unison mode, amplitude cross-modulation, a low-pass filter with resonance, one LFO and two envelope generators, all arranged in a fixed architecture typical of subtractive synthesis. It has a maximum range of 7.5 octaves.
It is monophonic, meaning that it can play only one note at a time (although detuning of each oscillator makes it possible to play fixed intervals or chords instead of notes)
It has two special modes: the unison mode creates an unison-like effect on each oscillator (reducing the range as a tradeoff), and the strings mode creates a vibrato-like effect independent of the LFO.
Although of a sturdier construction, it lacks several features commonly found on American and Japanese brand synthesizers at the time, such as: velocity response, portamento, pitch and modulation wheels or levers, settings memory, and (from late 1982 on) MIDI implementation.
Its output is monaural.
Sonic character
Its sonic qualities have been consistently qualified as 'fat'. Other reviewers also call them 'impressive',and sometimes 'aggressive'.There is audible background noise at the output, resembling oscillator bleed."
"(c)2007-25 by RetroSound
supported by UVI: http://bit.ly/retrosound-uvi
❤️ Support #RetroSound channel: https://retrosound.creator-spring.com
Do you like Cyberpunk?
Inspired by the Doom Soundtrack by Mick Gordon
Featured with Formanta Polivoks Synthesizer , Made in USSR 1982
This cover song series contains my own recreations of my favourite songs from the last 50 years. The original music from which I take inspiration belong to their respective owners. I recreate tracks only for personal passion and to pay homage to these tracks.
My intention is not to create covers that sound exactly like the original (if you want to hear identical sounds, please listen the original). It's more of an inspiration with my sounds from the old synthesizers from the past and of course the great appreciation for the original performers and producers."
"(c)2007-25 by RetroSound
supported by UVI: http://bit.ly/retrosound-uvi
❤️ Support #RetroSound channel: https://retrosound.creator-spring.com
One of my favorite tracks from my favorite soviet/russian music group KINO.
For You and I (Нам с тобой) from the Black Album (1990)
Featured the Alisa 1377 Analog Synthesizer and the E-MU Emax SE Sampling Synthesizer
This cover song series contains my own recreations of my favourite songs from the last 50 years. The original music from which I take inspiration belong to their respective owners. I recreate tracks only for personal passion and to pay homage to these tracks.
My intention is not to create covers that sound exactly like the original (if you want to hear identical sounds, please listen the original). It's more of an inspiration with my sounds from the old synthesizers from the past and of course the great appreciation for the original performers and producers."
"1980's Formant Polivoks synth. Includes original power cords as well as a power converter from the original european cords it takes. Original case also included."
"The device was produced in Zhytomyr in early 1990s. It was not a mass-produced product, so this device is very rare.
