MATRIXSYNTH: Synthorama Matrix


Showing posts with label Synthorama Matrix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Synthorama Matrix. Show all posts

Saturday, March 23, 2024

SYNTHORAMA PPG Showroom 4K


video upload by peter m mahr

"PPG Showroom at Martin Hollinger's SYNTHORAMA synthesizer museum in Luterbach, Switzerland.

https://www.luterbach.ch/anlagenplaet..."

And a 2022 video from Torsten Abel:

Synthorama Synthesizer Museum Switzerland
video upload by Torsten Abel

"In March 2022 I visited the Swiss synthesizer museum "Synthorama" in Luterbach. I had a very nice chat with the owner Martin Hollinger and he gave me his kind permission to film this round trip. Most of the instruments are fully working and in a good shape. Visitors have the ability to play with all that gear. Only a own headphone is needed for the headphone amplifiers under the tables.

If you are planning to visit the Switzerland, make a stop in Luterbach and support Martin Hollinger with a visit. Opening hours are regulary the first Saturday a month 10am - 6pm, but if you contact Martin you can ask him for a private tour."

-- See the Synthorama and Synthorama Matrix labels below for more. The Synthorama Matrix label will bring up posts from my visite back in 2008.

Friday, July 25, 2008

One of the Rarest Moogs


No not the modular or the vocoder. The little synth on the floor under the modular - the Minitmoog. This image was taken at the Synthorama synthesizer museum in Luterbach Switzerland. Click on the synthorama tag for some updates sent in via Martin Hollinger, the curator of the museum. If you asked a question or took the time to comment in any of the prior posts, you should find some more info.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Synthorama - Synth Museum Walkthrough - Parts 1 - 5


YouTube via matrixsynth.

This is the walk through of the Synthorma synthesizer museum in Luterback Switzerland. Before you watch this video I want to make a few notes. First of all, be sure to click on the synthorama label/link below to see all posts on my visit to the museum. Second, this set of five videos is literally walk through the museum. If you have been following the posts you will know that the majority of synths are hooked up to headphone amps. There is a very good reason for this - you are encouraged to explore and listen to the individual synths without the disturbance of others doing the same. Because of this there is obviously no synth audio in this set of videos. The purpose of this post is to give you an idea of what is there and to give you a sense of what it would be like to walk through and see all of this before you put the camera down and start playing. :) There is no background track as you walk along. Just a ton of synths you want to explore.

For those of you that get camera sick watching videos like this, apologies ahead of time, and there are plenty of shots of the museum in my prior posts if that works better for you. Hopefully the vids aren't too bad.

That said, enjoy this set of videos, or not. Remember you can mouse over the video and click on the forward and backward links to move on to the next video if you do not have the time to watch all five in one shot.

Thanks again to Martin Hollinger for hosting such an incredible synthesizer asset for the community and a special thanks to swissdoc for not only driving me to the museum with the great synth talk, but also for dropping by the music shop and brockenstube on the way there. I couldn't have dreamt of a better synth fix on my vacation. Thank you.

Synthorama - MISC Shots


click here for the last set of images of the Synthorama synthesizer museum in Luterbach Switzerland. The set includes that last random shots I took of the museum after completing a tour of all the synths. Next up, the video tour of the musuem. Click on the synthorama label below to see all the posts of my visit.

Synthorama - Yamaha Room


click here for images of the Yamaha room at the Synthorama synthesizer museum in Luterbach Switzerland. Click on the synthorama label below to see all posts in this set. An EMS Hi-Fli is also in this set.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Synthorama - KORG Room


click here for images of the KORG room at the Synthorama synthesizer museum in Luterbach Switzerland. Click on the synthorama label below to see all posts in this set. An EMS Hi-Fli is also in this set.

Synthorama - Drum Machine Room


click here for images of the drum machine room at the Synthorama synthesizer museum in Luterbach Switzerland. Click on the synthorama label below to see all posts in this set. An EMS Hi-Fli is also in this set.

Update via Martin: "Around 60 Rhythm Machines are not placed and also all 90 Electro-Harmonix Effects are stored. You can see that the Synthorama has really a big space problem :-)

Synthorama - Roland Room


click here for images of the Roland room at the Synthorama synthesizer museum in Luterbach Switzerland. Click on the synthorama label below to see all posts in this set.

Update via Martin: "In the Roland room there are only a few synths from my stock. From Roland I have a lot of other models but there is no space left to expose them."

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Synthorama - Moog Modular, Voyetra and Oberheim Room


images here

Some notes on the room:
Upon entering the area, on the left is a massive Moog vocoder and the Moog modulars. Yes, plural. In the far left corner is a Buchla Music Easel. From what I could tell it was not hooked up or working. To the right of the Buchla along the back wall of the room is a Steiner-Parker modular (hooked up and working) and to the right of that were two Voyetra 8s with keyboard controller, also working. On top of the Voyetra 8s was a Gleeman Pentaphonic not hooked up or working as far as I could tell. To my surprise the Gleeman's knobs felt rather light and cheap. For some reason I expected them to have a bit more weight to them. On the right wall of the room, opposite the Moog modulars, were the rest of the Octave Plateau synths followed by the Oberheims. See the images for the specifics.

Remember to click on the "All Sizes" link for each shot you'd like to see full size in the set. Click on the synthorama label below for the full set of posts on my visit to the Synthorama synthesizer museum. Note all images are going up including the "bad" ones.

Update: some notes on the Gleeman and Buchla via Martin: "The Gleeman Pentaphonic Clear also works properly. I have it not connected because I am still searching a better place than it has now. This synth earns a better place !!

Also the Music Easel is working fine. Actually it is not connected, I know. In the whole museum there are not a lot synths which do not work. Some of them have bad keyboard contacts or noisy potmeters or sliders but they are working."

Synthorama - Moog Keyboard Room


images here

Note the first shot in the set is the stairway down to the bottom floor of the museum.

Again, be sure to click on the synthorama label below for all posts of the visit. I don't really need to say this, but be sure to check out the full sets as there are some real rarities at the Synthorama synthesizer museum.

Next up, the Moog Modular room and more.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Synthorama - Emu Modular


Click here for images of the E-Mu modular at Synthorama. Be sure to click on the Synthorama label below for previous posts on my visit to the museum. More will follow so be sure to check back. The E-mu actually sits in somewhat of a hallway between rooms.

Update via Martin:
"The EMU Modulars are both working completely. In one of them I have to
replace a broken potentiometer. And I had to build a new VCO. I copied one
original VCO (1201 ?) and now it works fine. Also I have replaced the complete wiring with the DIL-plugs and remade them all new with high quality DIL-plugs."

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Synthorama - ARP 2500


YouTube via matrixsynth.

See the synthorama label below for more posts on this visit.

Apologies, no significant audio of the beast - this is more for the visuals - too much to see and too little time to absorb it all.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Synthorama - Sequential Circuits and ARP Room


This is a follow-up to yesterday's post on Synthorama, the synthesizer museum in Luterbach Switzerland. Click here to check out shots of the Sequential Circuits and ARP room. Note that this is a separate room from the ARP and EML room posted yesterday. It is adjacent to that room. Remember to click on the "All Sizes" link when you get there for the full size shots and click on the synthorama label below for all posts. Note the wall keys. They didn't do anything as far as I was aware of when I pressed them. How knows, maybe they took some pictures of me. :) Below is a mod on an ARP Odyssey Gold an Black version.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Synthorama - ARP and EML Room


As mentioned in these prior posts, I was fortunate enough to visit Synthorama, the synthesizer museum in Switzerland. Each room in the museum has a theme based on manufacturer, and the majority of synthesizers are playable including this ARP 2500. You can find images of the ARP and EML room here. As always be sure to check out the images full size by clicking on the "All Sizes" link when you get there, and check out prior posts by click on the synthorama label below. Apologies for some of the blurry shots, but as I said before I decided to put them all up.

Update: some info on the lone module from Martin: "This ARP module is very rare I think. It is a prototype of an early digital sequencer. I bought it from the Museum of Synthesizers in England, which does not more exist. I don't know if it works because I don't know how I have to connect. This is the reason that I don't have mounted it in the 2500 itself."

Monday, July 07, 2008

Synthorama - Entrance Room


This is the next post in a series featuring the Synthorama synthesizer museum in Luterbach Switzerland. See the Synthorama label below for prior posts.

The museum is organized into different themed rooms organized by manufacturer and/or region such as Russian synths. This will become more apparent as I begin to put up the themed flickr sets followed by the walk through videos of the museum.

For now you, click here to see a flickr set of what awaits you when you walk through the entrance of the museum.

As you enter, the Airböurne Synthesizer is directly across from you and to the right. Throughout the room are some synths waiting to be repaired and or on display. In one section of the room are a number of theremins. This is actually the theremin section of the museum.

There is an EMS Spectre Colour Video Synthesizer [pictured], a PPG Commander, PPG 380 Event Generator, Digilab [pictured], and more.

Through a window you can see the ARP room, all just a glimpse of what's about to follow.

Synthorama - Airböurne Synthesizer Videos


YouTube via matrixsynth.

As promised here are the Airböurne Synthesizer videos from my recent trip to Synthorama. Seven videos in total. The first video was literally the first video I took when entering the museum so I strayed just a bit, but I do quickly come back to the Airböurne. There is some discussion from Martin Hollinger, the creator of this modular and the curator of Synthorama. There is audio of the modular. Also note the huge white matrix sequencer on the floor to the left of the Airböurne. This is Martin's current project. Be sure to click on the Synthorama label below for more posts on the visit including more info on the Airböurne Synthesizer.

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Synthorama - Airböurne Synthesizer


Click here for the first set of images from my trip to Synthorama.

This set includes images of the Airböurne modular synthesizer by Martin Hollinger, curator of the Synthorama synth museum. Martin has been working on this one of a kind modular for the last several years. The design is 100% his. It is a fantastic sounding modular. I asked Martin if he planned to produce these for sale anytime soon. He said it consists of over 10,000 components so it would not be easy. He does hope to show it at the Musikmesse.

Check out the patch cables. The tips are very similar in look to the patch pin tips used by EMS, but they are much smaller. I asked Martin why he chose them. He said mainly for size and quality. The quality of them is apparently very high - better than the patch pins he showed me for EMS. The one risk however is that if too much pressure is applied at an angle, they can break. If they were to break off while patched in the modular, it could be difficult to remove them. Because of this he is not sure if he would use them again. I can say, they are very attractive and add to the overall character of the modular.

Note the blue patch cable in the shot to the left. You can see what they look like unplugged.

As for the individual modules and what they can do, check out each image in detail. I tried to capture what each can do.

In my previous post, you might remember the shot of the skateboard. The significance? Note the name. :) Also take a look at the Airbourne logo in the bottom left of the last shot below. If you look closely, you will see that it's a skateboard! Pretty cool. Martin had a collection of skateboards as well.

A note regarding the shots: not all of them are the greatest, but rather than filter the bad shots out, I decided to put everything up. I sometimes hate the way images look when using a flash - glare sometimes shows and you lose the effect of the natural lighting. So... some of these shots will be blurry because of that. You will need to use your imagination to get a sense of what the setting was like for some of these shots. I do promise you there are some great detailed shots though. There are different reasons for each, some functional, some to capture mood, and some to capture the grandeur. As always be sure to click on them for the full size. You can click on the "All Sizes" link in flickr. Feel free to grab the shots for your personal use. If you have a website, and you want to use them, do so, just be kind and provide a courtesy link back to MATRIXSYNTH.


Update
: videos of the Airböurne coming up. Check back soon.
Update: Actually, the upload is being extremely slow. I'll put up a new post letting everyone know when the Update: videos have been added to this post.

Saturday, July 05, 2008

MATRIXSYNTH Visits Synthorama

I recently had the privilege to visit the Synthorama synthesizer museum in Luterbach Switzerland. My synth buddy Georg Muller, aka swissdoc was gracious enough to pick me up from my hotel and take me to the museum where I met the curator, Martin Hollinger. Thank you Georg! I also want to thank Martin for his hospitality and for making such a place available to the public.

The experience was overwhelming to say the least. I have never seen so many rare synthesizers in one location. The museum is impeccable and the majority of synthesizers are hooked up and ready to be explored. I of course took pictures and video. Unfortunately I did not gather much audio for three reasons. First, time was limited; my visit was approximately for four hours and trust me that was not enough. Second, I have a Flip Ultra video camera which is very convenient for travel, however there is no audio in. And third, the majority of synths in the museum are not hooked up to monitors or amps. There is a VERY good reason for this. The synths sit on tables and visitors are free to explore all of them. Too many visitors playing synths over speakers and monitors.. well, you get the idea. You instead use headphones to listen them. This is very nice as you can surround and isolate your listening to one specific synthesizer at a time.

As for the images, I will be posting sets over the next few days as time permits. Being the synth obsessive I am, I took 756 images, that's approximately 1.44G of photos. I took about 40 minutes of video. The video is a literal walk through the museum. I'll explain more when I put them up, but first the photos. Note that I created a synthorama label below specifically for the posts I plan to put up. I will of course continue to put other posts up. As I finish sets of posts for a given run, I will upload another set or two as time permits. I will put Synthorama in the title of these posts for easy identification as well. If you are into synths, you are in for a very special treat.

BTW, I need to call out the enormity of synths on display. I went in expecting to spend a few minutes capturing the synths on video and taking pics followed by digging in. I ended up spending TWO HOURS taking the pics and video (oh, what I sacrifice for you, my readers... :). I had two hours after that to play. If you plan on visiting the museum, I strongly recommend you come prepared, give yourself enough time, and be patient with yourself if you plan to take pics, video and/or capture audio. It is overwhelming.

Martin is an extremely gracious host. He makes you feel more than welcome and he encourages you to just go off and explore on your own, at your own pace, and for however long as you like. Note that the museum is only open on the first Saturday of every month and I believe the doors close around 4PM, so be sure to check with Martin on the hours before you go, or just show up knowing you have until roughly 4PM or so. I like to think there are a few synth meccas out there - places where if you truly appreciate synths you must go at least once in your lifetime. Synthorama is definitely one of them.

To close this post, I want to again thank Georg (swissdoc) for taking the time out to take me there and of course Martin Hollinger for his hospitality and of course for making such a fantastic place even possible.

P.S. A quick note on the images and video. In general, I will be putting them up in the order that I took them to give you a sense of the time-line for my journey. The file names of the shots are numbered so if you are OC like me you can see them. As for this last shot, Martin also appreciates skate boarding! How cool is that? There's actually a cool synth connection coming up.
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