Korg 770 Vintage Analog Monophonic Synthesizer SN 770872

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Korg 770 Analog Synthesizer

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"Unique sounding synth with an amazing set of functions: Two analog oscillators, ring modulator, tunable noise circuit, multiple lfos that can drive the filter and/or the pitch, bend effects, portamento, high pass and low pass filters with extra expand controls. Nice set of waveforms and the oscillators can be tuned or detuned at intervals.Also has an external audio in jack..."

Happy New Year! The Year in Synths 2013

Happy New Year Everyone!

What a busy year it has been in the world of synths.

This is going to be one doozy of a post, so bear with me. This post is a review of the year in synths for 2013. We begin with Tributes to Those We Lost This Year, followed by New Manufacturers & Makers, Older Manufacturers Added to the Site, New Gear Announcements, Top 10 Posts by Traffic,  My Standout Posts for the Year, and finally This Years' Synth Events. I did my best to keep things as short and concise as possible.

Let's begin with the hardest part of the post.

Tributes to Those We Lost This Year

RIP Bernard Parmegiani - Electronic & Acoustic Composer
Lou Reed RIP
RIP Dick Raaymakers aka Kid Baltan
RIP George Duke - DreamWeaver
RIP Ralph Dyck, Sept 28, 1941 – May 20, 2013
RIP Ray Manzarek

All missed and never to be forgotten. Take a moment to remember them.

------

New Manufacturers & Makers

Starting last January, I decided to keep a running list of every new manufacturer and maker introduced to the site during the year.  This is something I haven't done before and I thought it would be interesting to see how many there were in the year.   It's easy to focus on the big synth announcements throughout the year, but what about all the new makers and brands? I shouln't have to go considerably into the significance of new designers on the scene, so I'll just say two things regarding them.  One, the number of new makers is a direct reflection on the interest in our scene, and two, these are the creators of new gear which directly translate into new designs not previously available to us.  Think about that for a moment.  These are makers and designs that did not exist before.  They are part of our synth history.  So what is the total count of new synth designers for the year? A whopping 113. Think about that a bit. One hundred and thirteen new synth designers and brands this year alone.

Here they are (note a handful date back to 2012, but 2013 marked their momentum and availability):

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Korg 770 Vintage Analog Synthesizer SN 770260

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"Perfect working condition, very good to excellent cosmetic condition for its age aside from the usual wood panel scratches and wear. This is a VERY unique sounding synth with an amazing set of functions. Two analog oscillators, ring mod, tunable noise circuit, multiple LFOs that can drive the filter and/or the pitch, bend effects, portamento, high pass and low pass filters with extra expand contols. Nice set of waveforms and the oscllators can be detuned or tuned at intervals and there's an audio in jack (I tested it and it works). From what I've read on the internet, only 500 were made. It came out after the K-2, but before the MS-20, so I think this is somewhat of a late 70s missing link. Korg had their own unique approach to analog synthesizers in the mid-70s and this is a particularly interesting example..."

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Korg PE-1000 Vintage Analog Synthesizer, K-4 Polyphonic Ensemble SN 780191

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"Korg PE-1000 (also called K-4) analog synthesizer

Fully functional, cosmetically near mint condition other than some dust and very minor scuff marks. Comes with original case (a cover which attaches to the synthesizer) which probably explains how it survived the past 35 years in such amazing condition. All switches and knobs are present and work 100% with smooth travel and response - no unusual sounds or instability.

There's a lot of info about this unusual synthesizer on the Internet; here's some of my thoughts. Korg had their own unique approach to synthesizer deigns in the 1970's (miniKorg, MaxiKorg, Korg 770, etc) , and this synth is another great example. This is polyphonic, and to achieve polyphony Korg went ahead and installed 60 individual oscillators - one dedicated to each key! This approach is unique to say the least - the oscillators are completely stable, but they're also incredibly easy to access and tune. The front plate is removed with four screws and the tuning screw for each oscillator is located adjacent to each key. Using an electronic guitar tuner you can then tune each note - no need to bring this in to a shop for tuning/scaling, because it's that easy. This arrangement also enables the user to experiment with unequal temperament scales (arabic scales for example). I don't know of any other analog synthesizer capable of doing this. The controls are very self-explanatory and easy to program. This synth offers some great analog preset sounds, but also lets the user tweak them with the legendary Traveler filer, an EXCELLENT LFO with speed and depth and an interesting detune knob. The detune knob is able to do its thing because of the 60 seperate oscillator arrangement. Setting the sound selector to CONTROL lets you build your own sounds using the basic waveform building blocks along with the filter controls. There are a LOT of filter controls and their all very useful - this is another example where Korg was experimenting with synthesizer design rather than just copying everyone else. This is a K-4, which shows its historic place as a successor to the K-1, K-2 and K-3 synthesizers..."

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Korg 770 SN 770860 Analog Synthesizer Restored with Kenton Mod

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"Up for sale, Korg 770 analog synthesizer. Has been serviced, recapped cleaned, all switches and sliders cleaned and lubricated everything works the way it should 100%.

This is really a special synth, has a unique sound, 2 analog oscillators, ring modulator, filter is really nice, and as a bonus has the Kenton Hz/v gate and filter mod installed. You can control it from a sequencer or your DAW..."

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KORG 770 Vintage Analog Synthesizer Univox SN 770110 with Cover

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Korg 770 Analog Synthesizer SN 771008

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"2 VCO's with Envelope generator and VCO modulator.

Condition: This Korg has some cosmetic wear, but plays great and is full of warm, awesome analog goodness. It is in working condition . VCOs work great independently or together. Envelope generator works fine. All keys are smooth and stick free. Some of the keys have some dings and scratches, but this does not affect playabillity. The panels on the sides of the keyboard are made of wood and have some dings and marks. All the pots are in great shape, and work perfectly. This Korg will provide endless hours of fun to the tweaker inside us all. It is full of amazing sounds perfect for any type of music..."

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Korg 770 Vintage Analog synthesizer

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Korg 770 - Analog synthesizer

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"The Korg 770 is a dual oscillator mono synth from 1976. It has an external input so you can use it as a Filter or Ring modulator, along with the LFO you can get some really interesting sounds. This unit has all new capacitors about 60 in all. The pots and switches are fine and all the keys work. The unit powers up and makes all kind of sounds. The wood sides are not the original plywood, the new one's are solid babinga. This wood is used in guitars and looks great. The 770 has serial # 770008 that makes this one of the first ten made."

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Korg 770 Vintage Analog Synthesizer SN 770220

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"FOR PARTS NOT WORKING"

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Korg 770 vintage analog synth synthesizer

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See the seller's other items for more.

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Jen SX-2000 analog mono synth

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"Extremely rare Jen SX-2000 analog mono synthesizer. Built in Italy around 1980, appears to be inspired by the early Japanese synths with a preset section and a manual section. Extremely resonant and wet filter, somewhere between a Korg 770 and Roland SH series low pass filter. I sought this synthesizer out because I had played one in a pawn shop about 5 years ago and was struck by the fact that it had the thickest and richest square wave bass I had ever heard. This is not hyperbole, everyone who plays this synth agrees it has the deepest bottom end they have heard."

Update via Flemming in the comments: "This synthesizer was also build into one of JEN's organs called the CAROUSEL C-450. I have seen it a couple of times and I actually considered buying the organ just to get the synthesizer (the organ itself is rather boring). But they weigh a ton and are too big to get into my car.

Flemming A.K.A. Organfairy"

KORG 770 ANALOG SYNTHESIZER UNIVOX

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"It has a very unique "Traveler" filter design with stacked high and lowpass filters that can be manipulated together with one hand. Also features a ring modulator and an external input for filtering external sound!"

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Korg 770 Analog Synthesizer

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"This vintage, monophonic and fully analog synth keyboard features:
LFO
VCO 1: w/ pitch, octave and mode parameters
"Traveler" sliders:unique controls for Low Pass and High Pass Filters
VCF: On, Norm, Rev
VCO 2: fine and coarse tuning w/ a Ring Modulator
External Audio input for processing(!)
Pink Noise
White Noise
Scale Noise
VCO Modulator
Attack and "Singing" levels
Vibrator
and more!

The sound of this keyboard ranges from massive, thick squarewave bass to spacey ring mod'd melodies. and the external input allows you to apply every filter to the source sound, a very cool feature. The traveler sliders allow you to make smooth filter sweeps w/ the hi pass and lo pass simultaneously!"

Sold For: US $610.66

Korg 770 Vintage Analog Synthesizer

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KORG 770 Univox Analog Synthesizer

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"There are lots of unique and useful features to be found, like a "chorus" waveform setting for OSC 1, "pitched noise" on OSC 2, two LFOs--one of which only applies to the pitch of OSC 1, and the other only effects the filter and speed of the chorus waveform. Intrigued? Well how about autobend on OSC 1, with extensive control (speed, delay, bend up/down), or two ring modulator settings on OSC 2? The filter is magical, with Korg's first version of the resonant highpass/lowpass combination. Another amazing feature is the ability to run external audio through the filter and/or the ring modulator, which is one of the best 70's ring mod sounds ever. Truly a stunning synthesizer, the 770 rivals its more famous Korg siblings in sound, design, and features."

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Univox Korg 770

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"Vintage Portable Univox Korg 770 Analog Synthesizer circa 1977. Specifications:
# KEYBOARD: F-C 32 Keys
# VCO-1: Scale (64', 32', 16', 8', 4', 2'), Waveform (triangle, square, sawtooth, pulse, PWM, External Signal), Pitch Control, Vibrato Switch (Normal/Off/Delay), Vibrato Depth, Vibrato Speed, Pitch Bend Switch (Up/Off/Down), Delay Time, Bend Speed, Portmento Switch (Fixed/Off/Control), Portamento Control
# VCF x2: Traveler (High Pass, Low Pass), Bright Selector, Expand Switches x2 (LP+HP, Off/Normal/Reverse), FcM Switch
# VCA + ENVELOPE GENERATOR: Attack Time, Singing Level, Range Selector, Sustain Selector, Envelope Mode Selector, Trigger Mode Selector
# LFO: Speed Control (Repeat+FcM)
# VCO-2: Coarse Tuning (16'-1'), Fine Tuning, Mode Selector (sawtooth, Ring 1, 2, Scale Noise, Pink Noise, White Noise)
# TOTAL: Mixing Selector, Mixing Volume, Power Switch/Volume
# DIMENSIONS: Approx. 22"(W) x 8"(H) x 13(D) mm
# WEIGHT: 9 kg
# POWER CONSUMPTION: Voltage (Local Voltage, 50/60Hz), Wattage (15W)"