Ultra-rare Waldeck 70s US Synth

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via this VEMIA listing

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VEMIA is Peter Forrest's auction house. He is the author of The A-Z of Analogue Synthesizer Books.

Pics of the inside below.

"One of the rarest synths ever - this one is serial number 7 out of about 10 that were built. They were designed in the late 70s by Steven Waldeck, professor at the Art Institute of Chicago. Although there are so few of them there is a good deal of information gathered at the excellent matrixsynth site: https://www.matrixsynth.com/2016/05/more-info-on-vintage-waldeck.html?m=1 We had this example imported from the USA with the aim of having Dani at Hideaway do her magic - but sadly she has too many other projects on the go, and could give no idea of how many hours it would take - and how economically viable it would be. She did check it for electrical safety: 'If it was a 240V piece I'd say it would need some serious attention to detail and most definitely grounded - at 120V, I would say at the very least it should be checked over properly and some addition of sleeving/insulating sheet of the mains wiring on the transformer, fuse and switch terminals.' Bear that in mind along with Mark Verbos' honest appraisal of another example from the matrixsynth page, and consider it a fascinating project, inspired by the VCS3 but definitely not a VCS3. Good for sound effects and weirdness, but not accurately pitched notes. Dani's general verdict as it stands: 'This was clearly intended to be aimed more at making sound effects than to be used as a well calibrated and stable musical instrument - the whole thing is extremely drifty with very narrow usable control ranges on the oscillators - there is a fair amount that doesn't work but I still had some fun making some sort of recording with it to mark the occasion.' https://soundcloud.com/hideaway-studio/1978-waldeck-on-the-waldeck/s-2j3HAUd60BE (corrected URL!)"

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Waldorf Micro-Wave 1 Rev A OS 1.1 Synthesizer SN 900602

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via this auction

"It is running OS 1.1 (not the latest OS). The latest OS V 2.0 is inexpensive and can be found on eBay."

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Waldeck Synthesizer from the 1970s - Some Addiitional Notes

See the update towards the bottom of this post for some additional notes. If anyone wants to see it at Moogfest leave a comment there.

More Info on the Vintage Waldeck Synthesizer from the 1970s

The first post on the Waldeck synthesizer went up back on May 1 here. MATRIXSYNTH reader Adam wrote in to let us know he tracked down and interview with the creator of the synth, Steven Waldeck, on the School of the Art Institute of Chicago website. Steven Waldeck was actually a professor at the institute starting in the 1960s.  He picked up an EMS Putney VCS3 for his department and and built his own synth, the Waldeck.

Pictured: "Duncan Green (left) and other Time Arts students working with a synthesizer, 1979"

From the interview:
"Waldeck: My philosophy was to offer technical assistance to any students from any area of the school. As an interest in 'sound' grew, and a school budget finally appeared for supplies, I bought a sound synthesizer called a Putney for my area. I also developed and built an electronic sound synthesizer of my own, called Waldeck.

Eventually, the interest in sound became too overwhelming for me to handle, so I asked Dean [Roger] Gilmore to consider hiring someone to handle this direction, and the SAIC Sound area was born. My area of kinetics also experimented in light and explored neon and holography, later to become separate entities. The Time Arts area was created at SAIC as a response to my written proposal sent to Dean Gilmore outlining and defining this conceptual area."

Update: some additional info from Adam who picked it up follows:

"I only had a few minutes with it and limited RCA cables to patch it up (that's how it patches).

I opened it. It is signed and labeled 'tested' and is hand dated by Steven Waldeck. The year is 1978.

There are two main boards...one seems to house the three oscillators, while the other contains most of the effects. There is a cool small reverb tank.

I couldn't get sound out of the third oscillator, but I think it won't be a big deal to fix.

I got some very EMS style sounds in just the five minutes I had with it before work. I have a VCS3, but haven't been able to 'side by side'/ A/B them.

I also found an old blog post by - I think - Mark Verbos. You can ask him. He might have one, as well. He says the build is crappy. It is kind of Sears-like. It is, but it has a nice panel, and with a little TLC, this one will be 100%.

I am not much of an electronics guy. I can solder and fix broken things, but I couldn't say where the circuit designs came from, or whether they are closely modeled to anything else.

That's all. I might bring it to Moogfest if anyone wants me to."

Update2: and some notes from Mark Verbos here:

"The Waldeck has a nice veriety of modules: three oscillators, a noise source, a ?envelope? (actually a combination amplifier and envelope like the Putney), a ?volume-pan? (this is a cool module), a ring modulator, a bandpass filter with resonance, a lowpass filter without resonance, a preamp, a spring reverb, a mixer-amplifier, and a meter with the mysterious ?trig? button. The oscillators have two waveform outputs: a pulse with variable width and a saw. The noise source is just white noise. The ?envelope?, as it is called, is dumb as there is no way to mod the filter with the it, because it can only mod the amplifier. Too bad. The ?volume-pan? module is cool for voltage controlling the mix between two oscillators. There is something like this for the Serge, that?s the only other place I?ve seen anything like it. The ring modulator is not very nice. The sound is more mushy than my Putney. The bandpass filter has resonance, labeled ?response-osc?, and is only marginally useful. The only controls being cutoff and ?response-osc?. The only mod input is the cutoff input. The meter is a joke. The window is about the size of a dress shirt button. The ?trig? button, I don?t understand."

Vintage 1970s Waldeck Sound Synthesizer Semi Modular Desktop Synth

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via this auction

[Update: more info posted here.]

Here's one never featured on the site before. A Waldek Sound Synthesizer. If it is indeed from the 1970s, I'm curious about it's history and why it never came up before. The following is the description from the listing. If you know more, feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email. Note the listing has it as Waldek, but you can see it is Waldeck on the bottom right.

"Talk about weird gear! Are you brave enough for the WALDEK modular synthesizer? I’m working on a demo for you guys but obviously with nothing to go except what you see, this will take an evening or two. Unit is labeled as a "Waldek Sound Synthesizer". There is no manufacturing date or city/country of origin (I believe it to be US Made). The Instructional manual and connecting cables are missing, although they appear to be RCA style. It has 3 separate channels of Oscillation. And has controls for, Ring, Noise, Pre-amp, Envelope, Bandpass & Lowpass Filters, Pan and Reverb. The unit powers up as indicated by the pilot light. Beyond that there is no certainty of operation and the buyer is buying this with this full knowledge. The unit is hand signed on the back,"Weldek- Z. Waldek ATW Technology". My research has failed to identify this company or individual through an online search engine. Although, other individuals who own the same unit, seem to date it late 60s early 70s but have no further information beyond that. This unit may be a genuine relic as an example of early synth history, or it may be adapted to experimental uses in unconventional instruments other than Keyboards. Either way the mystery and intrigue is worth the price of admission."

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