OB-1 Resurrected

This one in via Brian Comnes.

"There has been a burst of Email recently on AH list extolling the Bay Area's synth tech Greg Montalbano aka Klosmon so I thought I'd get you in the mix. I was so happy that he brought my OB-1 monosynth back to life from leaky battery hell a couple of months ago that I put together this little graphic to commemorate the event. The battery damage was like the Eveready Bunny, it just kept going and going and going.....but then Greg kept replacing and replacing and replacing, and voila - phatt bass lines redux."

PEK Demo on YouTube

Title link takes you there.

Florian Schneider's Roland System 700

"The unit up for action was formerly owned by electronic music legend Florian Schneider of Kraftwerk (proof available). It has recently been fully calibrated, restored, and cleaned by analog synthesizer specialist Sebastian Niessen (SND)." Title link takes you to shots pulled from this auction. Via Moogulator.

Details of auction saved for posterity:
They don't come any nicer or more prestigious:
You are bidding for Roland System 700 Main Unit. The System 700 was Roland's flagship synthesizer in the late 70s and early 80s and is probably the most elaborate modular synthesizer ever made.

The unit up for action was formerly owned by electronic music legend Florian Schneider of Kraftwerk (proof available). It has recently been fully calibrated, restored, and cleaned by analog synthesizer specialist Sebastian Niessen (SND).
All modules are in pristine, near perfect condition and fully original (no modifications). The case and its tolex is also in very good condition (no cuts, only a few very minor scratches).
The red and white toggle switch caps have been removed for purely aesthetic reasons, as has the red envelope trigger button, which was replaced by a black one. The original parts are included and can easily be put back into place.
The system's configuration is fully original and contains the following modules (some of which are grouped together):
3 voltage controlled oscillators (full range)
2 voltage controlled oscillators (low frequency)
1 clock oscillator
1 reference oscillator
1 noise generator

1 voltage controlled low-pass filter (24dB/octave, voltage controllable resonance)
1 voltage controlled multimode filter (12dB/octave, low-, band, and high-pass)

2 voltage controlled amplifiers (for insiders: the good ones using the BA662 chip, not the CA3080)
1 ring modulator

1 voltage controlled phaser w. lfo
1 spring reverb

1 3-channel stereo output-mixer
1 3-channel audio/cv-mixer w. bipolar outputs

1 preamplifier
1 envelope follower
1 lag processor
1 sample & hold
2 multiple jacks

The unit's power supply is currently set to 240 volts. It can internally be switched to 100, 115, 220, and 240 volts. Serial number is 090173. For more information check vintagesynth.com/roland/sys700.shtml.


Shipment worldwide, please ask me for shipment fee BEFORE bidding. Shipping and insurance is not included in the price.

This is a private auction. There´s no warranty and I won´t take it back again! Happy bidding!

AHNE 2006 Shots

Title link takes you to some pics via Steve from this year's AHNE.

You are looking at a shot of some homebrew drums. Click for a bigger image. Absolutely gorgeous work.

Via this post on the-gas-station.

Update: The following are notes via Steve on AH. I thought the Buchla 200e comment was kind of funny.

" Highlights for me..
-Getting a sound out of the 200e
-Using the spectacular JKJ CV3 MIDI/CV to finally let my P3 and modular play together. : )
-Seeing some amazing DIY work. circuits, panels, cabinets.. bravo guys!
-20 solid minutes of EMS AKS patching/tweaking. Now I serioulsly want one of these!
---Wish I could have patched the Serge a bit!! aargh, maybe next year."

The Breadboard Band

Another via Brian Comnes. "The Breadboard Band is a performing band that uses breadboards made of freely constructed electronic circuits to play music. We produce audio and visual expression through the most minimal, fundamental elements in the form of showing the electronic components of an instrument while directly touching and forming the electronic circuit by hand." Title link takes you there.

Siel DK600

Just a shot of the Siel DK600 sent my way via Brian Comnes. I always wanted one of these for some reason. Brian also pulled the following from the sale details. "The DK-600 is Siel's unique Italian take on the mid-eighties programmable polysynth with MIDI implementation (badged as the Opera-6 in the UK). Just like the Juno-106 and Poly-61 of the time, the Siel is a 6 voice synthesizer with straight forward programming, simple effects and digitally controlled analog oscillators (DCO's). However, the Siel, having dual oscillators per voice sounds thicker than the Juno or Matrix because it's got 12 oscillators! And because they're DCO's, you know they'll always remain stable and in-tune even though they are analog in nature.

The DK-600 has many other nice features such as complete MIDI implementation. There are 3 LFO's for extreme modulation. Both the filter and amplifier have standard ADSR envelope sections. And like similar synths, all the sliders and buttons are intuitively placed on the front panel for hands-on real-time programming."

Sounds thicker because it has 12 oscillators? Um... Yeah... It's still only two per voice. The Matrix also has 12, two per voice, and the 106 has a sub osc, although you can't detune the sub osc.

Waldorf Microwave I Samples and Manuals

Title link takes you to a page with a ton of samples of the Microwave I by Dr. Georg Müller. You can find the manuals courtesy of Georg here.

Shot of the limited green Microwave

Shot via this post via sequencer.de.

Pro One Modifications

Title link takes you to more details, pics, and samples. Do listen to the samples. That Sample and Hold one is absolutely sick.

"Modification Summary:

Replaced the white noise source with a new circuit that provides white, pink, red, and infra-red noise. A rotary switch selects the noise colour.
The new noise source can act as a modulation source in addition to its role as an audio signal. A pot sets the noise level fed to the buses. A rotary switch selects whether the noise signal feeds the Direct or Wheel modulation buses.
Added a Sample & Hold circuit. The new noise source is the signal input to the Sample & Hold. The LFO square wave is the clock. The Sample & Hold output can be used as a modulation source.
The pulse width of the LFO signal can be adjusted from 0% to 100% with a pot.
The LFO signal can be inverted. A rotary switch selects LFO non-inverted, LFO inverted, or Sample & Hold as a modulation source.
Added a triangle wave for oscillator A. A pot allows manually mixing between the triangle and sawtooth waves.
Filter resonance can now be used as a modulation destination. A rotary switch selects from either the Direct or Wheel modulation buses as a source.
The filter envelope can be inverted. Inverted and non-inverted envelopes can be applied to filter frequency and the Direct or Wheel modulation buses via two slide switches.
The filter frequency signal from the Kenton MIDI interface can be assigned to the Direct modulation bus. A pot sets the signal level fed to the bus."

Guess the Synth on Sunrise.de

This one sent my way via Dr. Georg Muller. I remember this back in 2002. Title link takes you to a page with 33 samples of the same type of sound playing the same thing. Warning: if you click on the answer for a given sample you will be taken to all the answers. Forget about the challenge unless you are into that sort of thing. Instead, just check out how these synths compare to eachother for a given sound. Synths include Andromeda, CS-50, CZ-1000, D-550, DW-8000, EHX Mini Synth, JV-1080, K1r, K3m, Luna Blue Synth, Luna Miniscope, Luna Modular, Luna Pro One, Luna Saturn, Luna uknow 007, Matrix-1000, micro Q, MKS-70, MS 20, MicroWave, MicroWave II, Pro 52, Pulse, Rack Attack, Reason Substractor, Sid Station, Soundforum Synth, TG77, VL-1, VZ-1 into 4 Pole.

Racked Juno 106

Title link takes you to shots pulled from this auction.