In Memoriam of Kevin Kelley of The Audio Playground

Amy Kelly, wife of Kevin Kelley, wrote in to let me know of her husband Kevin Kelley's passing in 2024. You might remember Kevin Kelley mentioned directly in numerous posts here on MATRIXSYNTH going all the way back to 2007. Kevin ran the Audio Playground aka keyboardmuseum.org which was created back in 2000. (Note keyboardmuseum.org is no longer active, the link takes you to posts referencing the site).

The Audio Playground was a synth museum in Winter Park, Florida. One of the great things I loved about the site was that Kevin hosted samples of the synths featured, including virtual sound sheets, so you could get an idea of what they sounded like. Back then that was actually quite rare.

Kevin was also an owner of the uber rare Technos Acxel synthesizer. You can see it pictured below as well as in previous posts featuring Kevin.

Included below are some pics of Kevin with his daughters and his cats sent in by his wife Amy.


"He was a wonderful and brilliant man as well as a great dad and husband. His three daughters and I miss him tremendously." - Amy

Amy still has his Technos Acxel and is working on bringing it back to life. I've sent her a few leads, but if anyone out there can help with the following, please feel free to reach out (matrixsynth@gmail.com).

"The system successfully powers on and initializes the Grapher console, but it is currently hanging at the initial splash screen ('Forget Technology, think music'). I suspect the data sectors on the original 3.5" boot floppy have degraded over time. I am looking to write a fresh sector-by-sector image to a healthy 720KB DD disk to isolate the issue.

My hope is that someone out there might have a raw disk image (.img or .hfe format) compatible with this era of the hardware."

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Technos Acxel Resynthesizer, HxC, AS SEEN

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

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. "This potentially wonderful instrument is silent at the moment. We have had it here for two years or so, but time has run out and it needs to go to another person who can finish off the process of getting it 100% again. It had power supply and disk drive issues. We have replaced the disk drive with an HxC drive, which contains everything that was on the floppies. Most of the OS floppies seem to have been corrupt or non-functioning. There is more work that needs to be done to the power supply / supplies. Both supplies are switchable 110/240V. The gas struts which should support the Grapher at an angle have given up holding up anything, and need to be replaced.

Cosmetically there is one superficial scratch above the Grapher's LED matrix, and the Solitary case front is not in brilliant cosmetic order.

It is serial number 990-0004-151. As there were apparently less than 40 of these made, I'm not sure why it has a long serial number. It has its original manual, original floppy disks in a case, the stunningly solid (military-grade?) custom flightcase, and the redundant (faulty) disk drive.

We believe this version is a Studio System, with eight voices (all with individual outs) and including the all-important Acxelizer for control and creation of voices.

There is some good info online. For instance EMEAPP published this great rundown: https://emeapp.org/2019/11/19/the-technos-acxel-resynthesizer/"

See this post for demos from the creator of the Acxel Resynthesizer. Also see the Technos label for additional posts including demos.

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Lyre Inc. FDSS Studio Additive Synthesizer + Resynthesis

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

via this auction

This is the first post to feature both Lyre inc. and the FDSS Studio Additive Synthesizer. It was spotted and sent in via M Me. The listing, images, and info is from Synthmaster.de, posted here with permission.

Details from the listing:

"I am offering my ultra mega rare Lyre FDSS Studio.

The FDSS is an additive synthesizer with analysis and resynthesis function from 1987

The technical data is on the last picture in the web, you can find almost nothing about it

Ultra rare , as far as I know less than 50 devices have been built , only three have been delivered to Europe .

This synthesizer was available as an 8 or 16 voice version,
The 8-voice version was always the basic version, which could be expanded to include a further 8 voices out of 16.

Like the famous Technos Acxel synthesizer, the Lyre
FDSS synthesizer also designed and built in Quebec / Canada.

You had to operate it via a terminal, similar to the

Synclavier, Synergy or Kurzweil K150FS.

Software was and is included for PC and Apple Mac

Mac could be connected directly and with the PC you needed a card (ISA is included)

price, no idea.....

with such rare things "whatever someone is willing to pay" applies :-))

or exchange for vintage synthesizer?"

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Technos Acxel

Note: links to listings 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 Axcel - vidéo de démonstration

MuStudio

Super rare resynthesis synthesizer. See this post for demos from the creator and this post for demos from Perfect Circuit. See the Acxel label for additional posts.

Description for the video above (Googlish below): "Cette vidéo a été retrouvée dans les archives de Michel Geiss, j'estime qu'elle a été enregistrée vers 1988-89.

La qualité n'est pas extraordinaire car la vidéo était enregistrée sur une cassette VHS au format NTSC et elle commençait à présenter de signes de fatigue, je l'ai numérisée moi-même.

Mais le plus important, c'est la rareté d'un tel document. En plus, c'est suffisamment rare et exceptionnel qu'il soit en langue française - québecoise."

Googlish:

"This video was found in the archives of Michel Geiss, I believe it was recorded around 1988-89.

The quality is not extraordinary as the video was recorded on a VHS tape in NTSC format and it was starting to show signs of fatigue, I digitized it myself.

But the most important is the rarity of such a document. In addition, it is sufficiently rare and exceptional that it is in French - Quebecois language. "

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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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."

via Perfect Circuit

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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: links to listings 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: links to listings 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 Perfect Circuit

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.

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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

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"

Acxel II

Remember the Technos Acxel Resynthesizer (pictured)? I just read this post on Music Thing. Apparently the creator of the Acxel, Pierre Guilmette, is working on a new version. Check out Music Thing for a letter from Pierre.

You can find his website, iDarca Audio here. You'll find a bit of info on resynthesis and some audio samples.

Update some more info on the Acxel:

"Don Garbutt writes: Freaky, obsure, expensive, unique, weighs a lot, robust construction (lots of VLSI chips inside). This machine is impossible to find, although I have one. Lucky me!!! Graphical interface is totally intuitive, and tell me if you know of any other machines that are resynthesis- based, as this is , if you care to use it in this fashion. Digital filter emulation (oscillator # filter) is unequaled.

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