Poly 61 hardware midi editor (Tauntek upgrade)

video upload by Craig Barnes

"I quickly built this encoder based hardware editor for Tauntek upgraded poly 61 boards, it's fairly simple and uses an ESP32 Dev board and io port expanders."

Kawai SX240 8 Voice Polyphonic Hybrid Synthesizer SN K-8963 w/ Extras

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via this Reverb listing

Pics of the inside below.

"With Extras:

Tauntek O/S
Real Walnut side panels (very nice)
Pro-Serviced with new CR2032 battery this month (9/25)
Clean & pristine a true 9.9/10
Hard Case (case condition is Fair). not pictured
There were only a few hundred ever made of these!"

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Akai AX73 w/ Stereoping Controller and Tauntek OS Firmware CPU

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via this Reverb listing

"Fully tested, perfect working condition. Has some cosmetic imperfections including 'Family Bible Church, San Jose' etched on top panel (see photos). Priced accordingly."

Additional CONTROL Listings

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Oxford Synthesizer Company OSCar w/ Tauntek MIDI

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via this Reverb listing

"FRESHLY SERVICED! keybed cleaned, all pots cleaned, new battery, Tauntek MIDI added.

This is hands down my favorite mono synth of all time, such a unique instrument! Designed by Chris Hughes who also designed the WASP and several products for Novation among other things, IMO OSCar was his greatest product. I am only selling as I have two otherwise I'd never let it go! Hands down the best analog dual multi-mode filter in existence! There's additive synthesis in the way of building waveforms by adding harmonics, there's presets, there's an amazing sequencer and arppegiater, there's duophonic functionality. You can get all kinds of crazy vowel/vocal sounds."

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1979 Vintage Oberheim OB-X 8 Voice Analog Synthesizer SN 804305

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via this eBay listing

"This baby has had a full overhaul. Completely recapped from start to end, not just the electrolytics but all the tropical fish caps too as they were starting to crack with age. Keyboard has been completely re-bushed, new battery installed, swathes of old logic ICs replaced (everything socketed) This was a 6 voice model, but has been fitted with an additional 2 voice cards from RosenSound to make it a full 8 Voice. Fabulous Encore electronics MIDI kit is installed. ORIGINAL Service manual AND USER Manual included. Every single aspect of this timeless classic has been gone over, she's a beauty. I'm happy to provide a video demonstration or answer any questions you may have.

This one will also inadvertently help out the community forever more.. During the restoration, it was displaying some janky weirdness that we couldn't get our head around for months. (turned out to just be bit rot in the eprom) We had been searching for the original diagnostic eprom for a long time and never found it, but the awesome Bob Grieb of Tauntek worked with us and he actually wrote an entire test suite to replicate the diagnostic software from scratch. He's now made that free to the public also! just search Tauntek up on the web to find it.

I truly believe you won't find a better OB-X on the market today."

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MOscar fully restored (except knobs)

video upload by Craig Barnes

"First test of the restored MOscar synth. It came to me quite dead with a loose MIDI board and a dead -5v rail, along with quite a few weird pots and strange wiring. Anyways I think it's back to normal now with a Tauntek MIDI upgrade as well."

Fixing up a 1985 Oscar clone

video upload by Craig Barnes

"This is the repairs to my 1985/86 hand made Osc Oscar clone, the famous Moog Oscar from Sound on Sound June 2004. I finally received it back after around 38 years apart. It's had some refurbs and mods and travelled extensively. Europe and the states and eventually wound up in Berlin. I received it dead with no boot. MIDI board was loose, but it couldn't be that simple. No sound from the synth and after getting it to the panel mode and tweaking a few knobs I eventually got it to make a weak sawtooth sound. Lower half of the keybed was dead so I replaced the 5x 4051 chips that read the keyboard and the 7 that read the front panel. Then I removed the aux input mod and upgraded to the Tauntek midi board. A little scratchy in places but nothing that can't be fixed."

Kawai / Teisco SX240 with Tauntek OS & New Memory Battery

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via this Reverb listing

Full Tuantek info & specs below.

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Akai AX80 Polyphonic Analog Synthesizer + Tauntek Firmware

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via this Reverb listing

"Fully working unit, fat analog sound. Strings, pads, basses sound oh so good. Look at those electric blue cash register displays. Has been upgraded with Tauntek firmware for sysex patch backup/retrieval. And many other wonderful added features. Has new battery for long term patch memory retention."

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Roland CR-78 w/ Tauntek CPU/MIDI Kit SN 852366

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via this listing

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Oberheim Matrix 6

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via this Reverb listing

"Oberheim Matrix-6 very meticulously cared for and only used in the studio. All of the button switches have been replaced, the memory battery is new and is easily swappable, and the latest firmware 2.15 (Tauntek) has been installed.

Couple of small blemishes and a small chipped key keeps it from looking like it came straight from the factory, but aside from those small nicks, it's in great condition and clean inside and out.

It sounds fantastic and it's by far the most affordable genuine Oberheim programmable analog synth from the 80's that you can get your hands on today."

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CRUMAR BIT 99 VINTAGE SYNTHESIZER — TAUNTEK FIRMWARE UPGRADE, NEW CAPS & MORE

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via this eBay listing

"This is without a doubt the nicest Crumar Bit 99 I’ve ever owned or seen. It looks beautiful and shows signs of only very light use. It’s been well cared for in its life.

Everything works as it should — zero issues.

I purchased this in 2023 from a 100% feedback eBay seller. He made the following updates:

- power supply electrolytic capacitors replaced

- voice board electrolytic capacitors replaced

- firmware upgraded with Tauntek one: you can now easily control and program the synth with any midi controller

- keyboard dismantled and contacts and bus bar cleaned

- meticulously calibrated

- panel board and case fully dismantled, cleaned and polished

PLEASE NOTE: This is a 220-volt unit. You will need a step-up transformer to use this in the U.S. or Asia. This auction includes the power cable with the Euro/U.K. plug as shown in the photos, but no step-up transformer is provided."

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Oberheim OB-1A early CV/gate monosynth

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via this VEMIA listing

Click the auction link on top when you get there for additional listings.

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

"Great early analogue monosynth, serial number 0723, actually called the OB-1A. This version has livery like the OB-X, and it's reasonable to assume that internally it is very much like an OB-X voice with much more individual control. It is in very good working order, with the keyboard re-bushed in the last few weeks. Cosmetically it has some minor paint scrapes - hence our calling it 7/10 cosmetically. An experienced restorer could probably spend a couple of hours and get it back to near-mint. This synth has one mod, quite neatly done on the sloping panel behind the keyboard: a switch to send pitchbend to the CV out, with a corresponding amount knob. Switchable voltage, currently set to 240V with a UK plug. It has the Tauntek CPU mod. Packing 15GBP."

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Oberheim OB1

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via this VEMIA listing

Click the auction link on top when you get there for additional listings.

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

"Rare Oberheim OB-1 from circa 1977. serial nr: 0523. In extremely good condition / close to mint. Fully working. Keyboard is newly re-bushed and plays like new. Has the Tauntek memory board installed, which expands patch memory to 64 editable programs in 8 banks of 8, (A huge improvement from the original 8 non-editable). -- An incredibly good and fat sounding monosynth with similar voice architecture to the OB-X but with extra features/ *Dual Sub-Oscillators. *Continuously-variable waveforms (can be modulated by Envelope or LFO). *Osc Sync (modulated by Envelope or LFO). *2pole & 4pole Switchable filter. -- European/UK voltage. Will be packed well for shipping."

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Kawai/Teisco SX-210 with TAUNTEK MIDI + Original Case & Manual SN K-4847

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via this Reverb listing

"A very rare Kawai/Teisco SX-210 with Tauntek MIDI mod!

FULLY SERVICED by pro tecnician

100% perfectly working conditions

Almost mint aestetics conditions.

- Comes with its Original Kawai case and Manuals."

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Kawai SX-240 soundscape V - Gone away

video upload by MIDERA

"Tonight, my daughter called for me after I put her to bed. It's unusual that she calls for me now as she's gotten older. I used to find it so irritating to get these calls, sometimes 3-4 times a night ("Papaaaaaaaaaa... uhm, I love you"). Now it seems to happen once every few months and is usually something more serious (at least to her), so I run up. She's sitting up in bed telling me about how she was terrified I had "gone away." I think she was just afraid I was going to die (of course, we all are going to some day), but it was hard to get that out of her. Usually the harder days are the days she has the most fun, I guess (maybe creating a lot of memories?). I know we're slowly descending into fewer and fewer days to be together, fewer chances to snuggle before bed, to tell 'Kwazii stories.'

I did tell her that some day I will die - and that I hope that day comes long before her time comes. That I won't be feeling anything when I'm gone, and that I would be happier if it were me and not her. That, of course, didn't really make her feel much better. Me staring at her boogery nose and making a face did. She started giggling, and I knew I had cracked the sadness, which faded, and we could say our good nights.

If you remember me saying the other day I had a financial problem - well, it was that I plugged the Kawai SX-240 back in to play it and it was dead. Nothing would happen. I was miserable, because I was planning to sell it and of course it would die before I could! Well, I managed to fix it. If you ever look up the service manual for this thing, it's horrible. I didn't realize how bad it was until I messaged Bob Grieb about his Tauntek eprom update (thinking maybe a bad eprom was the problem). He said it wasn't likely the problem, but sent me his version of the service manual and you can actually see the traces on it (the online version is so bad it didn't even pick up half the traces!). From there, I could see there was a bad solder joint between Pin 3 of the EPROM (I was right, something was wrong with the EPROM!) and Pin 2 of an adjacent IC. And - well, I brought it back to life. Another successful repair.

Kawai SX-240 and Fractal Audio FM3 for FX."

Roland CR-78 CompuRhythm Analog Drum Machine w/MIDI Expansion Installed

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via this listing

"This listing is for one Roland CR-78 analog drum machine. It has been fully recapped and has the fantastic Tauntek MIDI mod that allows you to sync this unit to MIDI clock. It is in great shape and works well."

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Roland Jupiter 6 w/ Tauntek OS Upgrade

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via this listing

"Fully functional and near Mint cosmetic condition Roland Jupiter-6. I am hesitant to use the word Mint to describe any vintage synth but this is pretty damn close. It almost looks like it came straight out the box in 1983. It features a new Tauntek OS upgrade which improves upon the original JP6 firmware. Unlike Europa this is not complete rewrite, but an upgrade which adds:

MIDI sysex patch storage
MIDI CC parameter changes
New VCO toggling
And much more! Read about it on the Tauntek website.

This JP-6 has been serviced to preserve the reliability for another lifetime of studio use."

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Oberheim OB-1 w/ New Programmer Board w/ 64 Memory Slots

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via this listing

"Oberheim OB-1 Pro Serviced in January 2025!

Very potent and versatile vintage analog mono synth.

This particular OB-1 has the fantastic Tauntek programmer board installed.
That includes more cool features like 64 memory locations etc-etc.
It also completely replaces the sensitive and unreliable original programmer board.

The Oberheim OB-1 has a screaming resonance. The sweet analog filter is switchable between 2pole and 4pole."

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Vintage Roland Jupiter 6 61-Key Synthesizer SN 280707

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via this listing

"Absolutely mint condition vintage Roland Jupiter 6 analog synthesizer. You will be hard pressed to ever come across another as pristine as this one. Tauntek firmware upgrade installed. Works perfectly and is incredibly inspirational to work with. A collectors dream."

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