Technos Acxel

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

via this auction

"I am the original owner of this 1989 16 voice Acxel. It recently came out of storage and does not boot up. There are several techs in the LA area who have serviced these and can probably get it working. If you own an Acxel and need spare parts ( Voice boards, Grapher ect ) You might want to check this out knowing how rare they are to find. This instrument comes with all manuals, cables, disks, and a spare disk drive."

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Technos Acxel Rare Additive Resynthesizer Walkthrough

Published on Apr 18, 2019 Perfect Circuit

"In this video, we take a walk through the most important features of the vanishingly rare Acxel, a vintage additive synthesizer designed by Québécois company Technos in the late 1980s. The Acxel uses an array of over 2000 LED-embedded touch plates to allow users to visualize and control various aspects of a sound, and is capable of synthesizing sounds from scratch or resynthesizing recorded sounds from the ground up—an incredible feat for its time.

This article has more information about the Technos Acxel: https://www.perfectcircuit.com/signal..."

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Supporters of MATRIXSYNTH get %10 off at Perfect Circuit!

Perfect Circuit Technos Acxel posts

Rare Technos Acxel In Store Demo at Perfect Circuit Tonight in Burbank / LA

via Perfect Circuit

"Join us TONIGHT for a in-store demo with the Technos Acxel! Come and see this rare #synthesizer from 1987. It was truly ahead of its time with its unique touch interface, resynthesizing capabilities and more! #synth #burbank #losangeles"


See the Technos label for all posts featuring the Acxel including some demos. The creator of the Acxel was planning a new Acxel 2 but it was canceled in 2011.

Technos Acxel Additive Synthesizer Sequenced By Elektron Digitakt

Published on Dec 10, 2018 Perfect Circuit

"All of the sounds are coming from the rare and bizarre Technos Acxel additive synthesizer in multitimbral mode. Even the intro sound was resynthesized by the Acxel. We used an Elektron Digitakt as a sequencer to sequence six of the voices of the Acxel. The Acxel was designed in 1989 and was cutting edge technology at the time with its multiple voices which each have 32 additive "cells" and the ability to analyze four seconds of sound and resynthesize it.

Technos Acxel available here: https://www.perfectcircuit.com/techno...

Digitakt availabl here: https://www.perfectcircuit.com/elektr..."

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Supporters of MATRIXSYNTH get %10 off at Perfect Circuit!

See the Technos label at the bottom of this post for more. Pics and info via Perfect Circuit:

"The Technos Acxel Resynthesizer is an additive synth developed in Quebec, Canada during the late 1980s. Its architecture is based on sine-wave oscillators that are each assigned amplitude and pitch envelopes to form the component harmonics of a sound.

The major innovation of the Acxel was, according to Technos, resynthesis. The idea is to sample a sound and extract its harmonic content using the Acxelizer. This information is then used to assign parameters, including envelopes, to the oscillators.

The Acxel comes in two pieces: the Solitary and the Grapher. The Solitary contains the main guts of the machine, including the main CPU board, the oscillator boards, the sampling board, the Acxelizer board, the floppy drive, and the I/O.

The Grapher is the machine’s user interface and is what Technos highlighted in its advertising. It’s a vacuum-fluorescent display for status information and menus and a surface of touch-sensitive nodules, 2114 of which contain LEDs.

ACXEL FEATURES

256 ISC configuration, maximum 8-voice polyphony
Includes OS 1.099A and OS 1.12 disks
Includes copies of the original three Technos Sound Library disks
Includes Grapher to Solitary communication DIN cable
Includes flight case with casters for the Solitary"

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$30,000 Technos Acxel For Sale

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

via this auction

"The Technos Acxel Resynthesizer is an additive synth developed in Quebec, Canada during the late 1980s. Its architecture is based on sine-wave oscillators that are each assigned amplitude and pitch envelopes to form the component harmonics of a sound.
The major innovation of the Acxel was, according to Technos, resynthesis. The idea is to sample a sound and extract its harmonic content using the Acxelizer. This information is then used to assign parameters, including envelopes, to the oscillators.

The Acxel comes in two pieces: the Solitary and the Grapher. The Solitary contains the main guts of the machine, including the main CPU board, the oscillator boards, the sampling board, the Acxelizer board, the floppy drive, and the I/O.

The Grapher is the machine’s user interface and is what Technos highlighted in its advertising. It’s a vacuum-fluorescent display for status information and menus and a surface of touch-sensitive nodules, 2114 of which contain LEDs.

Comes with printed manual, sound disks and latest OS. The Solitary sits in a transportable rack case. Serious buyers only. This is the holy grail and strictly for synthesizer collectors."


See the Technos or Acxel label below for more posts including videos.

Someone needs to make a watch version! ;) Sorry, when I first saw the image in this post it was a bit smaller and reminded me of a Casio watch.

Octatrack MKII meets Technos Acxel

Published on Oct 20, 2017 Daniel Troberg

"The Octatrack plays drum breaks with heavy parameter modulation and probability sequencing. The Technos Acxel is MIDI sequenced from the Octatrack with equal methods and the audio is fed back in to the Octatrack. No additional mixer or effect is used.

www.danieltroberg.com"

The Technos Acxel is one rare synth. If you aren not familiar with it, see the Technos label for previous posts. The creator of the Acxel was going to release a new Acxel II software version, but I'm not sure what happened to it. If you do, let us know!

New Technos Acxel Preset Demos

New demos of the Technos Acxel Resynthesizer have been added to this post. A working Acxel Resynthesizer is about as rare as it gets, so do not miss these.

Rare Technos Acxel Resynthesizer Demo/Jam

Demo video added to this post. Do not miss it. A working Technos Acxel Resynthesizer is about as rare as it gets. This is a special treat for us in the synth community.

The image to the left here is just a screenshot to make sure you don't accidentally scroll by this post w/o seeing it. You can click the image or the link above to get to the post with the video.

Technos Acxel Resynthesizer Demo Videos

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.
Published on Nov 28, 2016 Perfect Circuit Audio

Playlist:
Technos Acxel Resynthesizer Demo/Jam
Technos Acxel Disk 1 Presets
Technos Acxel Disk 2 Presets Part 1
Technos Acxel Disk 2 Presets Part 2
Technos Acxel Disk 3 Presets

via this auction

And that is about as rare as it gets. Between the last three posts, I can't believe the CS80 is on the bottom. The prices reflect the rarity and the market. Essentially, these are for the 1% only, whether you belong to the 1% financially or not... These are the 1% of the synth world.

If you are not familiar with the Technos Acxel Resynthesizer, see the Technos label at the bottom of this post. A working version is extremely rare.

Note: MATRIXSYNTH members get a %10 discount at Perfect Circuit Audio (other discounts excluded). See the membership page on how to sign up!

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The Technos Acxel Resynthesizer Overview Videos

Published on Mar 5, 2014 Kevin Kelley·2 videos

"This is the full length video demonstration for the Technos Acxel re-synthesizer from around 1988. There are two parts to this video"

Technos Acxel part 2


This one is in via Kevin Kelley who let me know he will be uploading some user demos in the future as well. Can't wait! The Acxell Resynthesizer has only been featured on the site a handful of times. It is a rare synthesizer sold between 1987 and 1990 according to Wikipedia. Their is a new Axcel2. You can find information on the main Axcel2 website here.

On the original Axcel via Wikipedia:
"The word Acxel is short for 'acoustical element' (as pixel is short for "picture element".)
The Acxel consists on 2 components: The "Grapher" (graphic console) and the "Solitary" (Rackmount containing the Synthesis and Analysis hardware). Standard - 256 Oscillators (8 voices), up to 1024 Oscillators (32 voices).
Instead of having an LCD or CRT screen, the Axcel has a bank of 2114 LEDs mounted behind finger-sized conductive sensors (a smaller number were also used on the Technos 16\pi synthesizer main panel). All data readouts, and a lot of data input, are processed using this innovative method.
The 16\pi is the Acxel ancestor (1984 - never in production, 4 unit delivered at that time), introducing the concept but limited to 64 Oscillators, including a keyboard.

The Acxel never found mainstream favour and was never a commercial success, due to its high cost, and relative difficulty of use. As a result of this, Acxels today are very rare (about 35 were sold from 1987 to 1990), obscure and expensive, and they never did replace traditional sampler as was their intention. Their legacy, however, lives on in modern-day resynthesizers such as VirSyn's Cube, Camel Audio's Cameleon 5000, and Image-Line's Harmor."

Be sure to see the Technos channel link below for previous posts.

Octatrack meets Acxel

YouTube Uploaded by erasemusic on Jul 9, 2011

"Technos Acxel gets sequenced by the Elektron Octatrack, lfos controls different arpeggiator settings. the sound from the Acxel gets routed back into the Octatrack for some effects mangling.

www.danieltroberg.com"

Technos Acxel Track - FRACTASTIC VOYAGE (To Infinity and Beyond) Part 1

YouTube via DonGarbutt | October 06, 2010

See the Acxel label at the bottom of this post for all posts on this unique synthesizer.
"Stunning fractal images have been added to a piece that was made back in 1988, using the Technos Acxel. Dense, random clouds of evolving sound emanate from the Canadian-made Acxel-1 (Acxel-2 is in development and is coming soon). Make sure that you watch part 2 as well."

FRACTASTIC VOYAGE (To Infinity and Beyond) Part 2

DonGarbutt | October 06, 2010

"Explore the wonderful world of fractal art. A fractal is "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole,"[1] a property called self-similarity. Roots of mathematically rigorous treatment of fractals can be traced back to functions studied by Karl Weierstrass, Georg Cantor and Felix Hausdorff in studying functions that were continuous but not differentiable; however, the term fractal was coined by Benoît Mandelbrot in 1975 and was derived from the Latin fractus meaning "broken" or "fractured." A mathematical fractal is based on an equation that undergoes iteration, a form of feedback based on recursion."

Technos Acxel Resynthesizer

Three images via Kevin of Synthmuseum.com

Update: note a new Acxel is coming from iDarca Audio

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Jacques Chabot and the Acxel Resynthesizer

http://www.myspace.com/jacqueschabot

"In the course of the second phase, I acquired an Acxel resynthesizer, which at last enabled me to make the most of the composition and interpretation method I had designed with less performing equipment. In some ways, my new album “Des musiques de fous” is both continuity and a culmination as regards this method. It also marks the starting point of a third phase, “Les installations instantanées” that should result in at least a new album in 2009.

COMPOSITION AND INTERPRETATION: TECHNICAL NOTES

I have been using an extraordinary device for several years: an Acxel resynthesizer. This musical instrument serves as a synthesizer with subtractive synthesis and additive synthesis as well as a resynthesizer, and has an unparalleled capacity (256 independent oscillators that are programmable in real time). Québec engineer Pierre Guilmette created it. About ten or so working Acxels can still be found worldwide.

Thanks to this device, I developed an interpretation technique that enables me, each time I play a piece, to add improvisations to it while keeping its “essence” intact. The Acxel is so powerful that I no longer need sequencers and I merely use the keyboard as an “On-Off” trigger. After I play some notes, I activate the sustain mode and interpret the music by “sculpting” the sounds on the Acxel’s touch screen. Each sound therefore becomes a complete music that can hold several melodic or noise-like themes. In addition, in order to increase tenfold the power of the device, I sample the sounds that do not need to be modified in real time.

I developed this composition and interpretation method some 13 years ago. However, putting it into practice before owning the Acxel was far more limited."

More info on the Acxel at: Technos axcel

iDARCA Audio Updates

iDARCA Audio

updates include a forum, rare pics, and history of the original acxel 1

You might remember from this post that a new Acxel resynthesizer, the Acxel II, is coming.

You can find more info on the history of this rare and unique synthesizer as well as the new Axcel II on the iDARCA Audio website.

Technos Acxel Resynthesizer For Sale

Go here and scroll down. The only other one I knew that went up for sale was this one. Click on the Acxel label below for more.

via electro-music.com where you will find some discussion on this.

Update via an anonymous reader:
"I wrote to the guy last year,and u can buy the unit for between 3500-4000e.
Its one of the ex Boman M. Acxel systems.

Comes with only 1 card,no multi-out support,way to expensive and certainly now with the new Acxel II comming.

here one more Acxel for sale:
http://synthsfl.tripod.com/keys.html

i searched to death last year in my Acxel-trip on the web,and if u search very well there are another 2 units for sale.

then more info on various stuff can be find here,Ircam,4X,Synclav etc..:
http://jbemond.free.fr/?cat=4"

Nearest launching of the Synthesizer - Acxel II

Press Release
Quebec, Canada - on March 26, 2008: Idarca-audio division of Idarca Inc. is proud to announce the nearest launching of the synthesizer Acxel II - which makes profitable the original Acxel legacy (early 90's) and of a revolutionary dynamic architecture parallel processor - patented by Idarca - the RPP. With its unique characteristics, Acxel II will set new standard of real time synthesis and audio processing.

Acxel II proposes 3 synthesis modes (with integrated sound processing):
• Acxelink made up of cells (256 to 1280) independently parametrical: Amplitude, Frequency, Phase, Filter, Waveform. Cells-cells links, signal Inputs integration and processing and many other characteristics including macros.
• Additive synthesis
• Analog synthesis

Acxel II integrates unique functions on sound resynthesis and processing with full scalability:
• Real TIme Resynthesis: The Acxelink and Additive modes allocate without compromise a complete access in real time to all elements (Envelope, Midi, Modulation) of a timbre, created from scratch or configured with Analysis (integrated into the system).

• Open architecture: Acxel II allows, in real time, to introduce external sounds (for example a guitar) into the synthesis elements, for simple effects or extended processes or sound fusions.

• Scalable: The Acxelink mode integrates all of the elements to emulate and combine existing or original synthesis modes: Physical modeling, Wave Tables, FM, Wavelets, Vocoder, etc.

Acxel II will be available in 2 versions:
• Acxel II - PCI: Sound Card (PCI) with software PC/MAC
- Deliverable in 4 to 6 months.

• Acxel II - SAS: Stand Alone System with “preset” use for scenic performances or in Workstation (with PC or MAC)
- Deliverable in 8 to 12 months.

• Touch Sensitive Graphic console available in option
- Deliverable in less than 12 months.

For more information on Acxel II: www.idarca-audio.com

Computer Music Journal

click here. via peterwendt in the comments of this post on the Acxel Resynthesizer. I will add this to the Synth Books section on the right.

"Computer Music Bibliography
Acoustics, Psychoacoustics, and Music Perception
Additive Synthesis and Sampling
Analysis/Resynthesis (FFT, PV)
Anthologies of the Computer Music Literature
Composition with Computers
Computer Music Representation and Models
Computer-Based Musical Analysis
History of Electro-Acoustic and Computer Music
Interactive Performance Systems
Interactive Signal Processing
Mathematics and Digital Signal Processing (DSP)
MIDI
Multiple Wavetable, Wave Terrain, and Granular Synthesis
Music Languages
Nonlinear Distortion and Waveshaping Synthesis
Physical Modeling
Reverberation, Auditory Localization, 3D Sound
Speech/Formant/LPC
Subtractive Synthesis
Synthesis Using Distortion Techniques
Synthesizer Design and Theory
Textbooks/Sound & E-A Instrument Design
Wavelets"

Q&A on the Acxel II Resynthesizer and the Sogitec 4X

The Sogitex 4X is mentioned in the Q&A below. You can find more info on the Sogitex here. The following is some info from that site: "The Sogitec 4X digital synthesizer at IRCAM during the 1980's, was the direct result of Luciano Berio's demand that live electronic sound ought to consist of at least a 1000 sinewave oscillators (1), in order to be interesting for the composer and the audience alike. It was the last huge hardware, that IRCAM instigated before it turned to the ISPW and subsequently to software solutions in the shape of jMax and Max/MSP. The 4X's eight internal custom-built processors were capable of altogether 200 MIPS (2), which being the equivalent of 1000 sinewaves, 500 filters or 450 second order filters (3). Each processor contained a data-memory, an address-memory, a microprogram-memory and a function-memory. For calculations it used 24 bit fixed point units consisting of a multiplier, a arithmetic and logic unit. It also had 256 internal (programmable) clocks and a large dual buffer for recording and playing. The algorithms were cross developed on DEC en Sun mainframes in Fortran and C. (4&5)."

Q&A on the Acxell II via an anonymous reader:
Q: If i understand well,its posible to acxelize a complex sound source from a pre recorded wav with the soundbuilder then use this resynthezized model in acxelink mode again to be able to control that sound it real time via an external audio input (1 or more?)( each one )

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Acxel II Preliminary PDF

Richard Lainhart was interested in the new Acxel Resynthesizer after reading this post. If you go to the new Acxel website, iDarca Audio, you will see a link to get more info where you can request a brochure. Richard did so and sent it my way. I wasn't going to put it up because I thought maybe Pierre Guilmette, the man behind the project would like to gage interest by having the requests come in, however what's out of site can become out of mind. I was interested myself but I was swamped so I was going to hold off until later, which probably meant indefinitely or until some news came in on the project. I was very happy when Richard sent me the PDF, because I was able to look at it in more detail. I thought I'd do the same for you. here it is

This really does look to be an amazing synthesizer. Some notes on the original from Richard:
"The original Acxel I saw demoed 20 years ago was an amazing machine, with a unique interface I've never seen equaled. It was much too expensive then for someone like me, but these prices seem pretty reasonable now - comparable to a Kyma system. If they can get the functionality of the original system and its interface at these prices (looks like around $5-6K, perhaps, and they're talking about a touchscreen interface for the rack system version too), it could be a hit, and a genuinely new paradigm in the synth world."