Vintage Audio Equipment

Title link takes you to Vintage Audio Equipment, home to a slew of vintage gear including synths and drummachines.

via brian comnes.

Roland MKS-80 and MPG-80

Title link takes you to shots pulled from this auction.

Details via the auction:
"A classic. One of the greatest synths of all time and the king of the MKS series. Made from 1984 through to 1987 the MKS80 is a rack version of the Jupiter series of keyboard synths. Some claim it's is a version of the Jupiter 8 and others a Jupiter 6. In reality it is somewhere between the two. The only MKS series synths with real VCO's was produced in 2 distinct versions. Serials number up to 511800 (OS Version 4) used standard CEM 3340 VCO chips. Most people claim that these early versions are disctinclty better.

Editing the MKS80 is possible from the front panel but most don't even bother to attempt without the partner MPG80 programmer. The MPG80 connect to the MKS80 using standard MIDI connections. A switch on the rear of the MKS80 let's it know a programmer is connected to it's input rather then a standard MIDI signal.

This is a Version 4 with curtis chips"

via blixton who is selling this pair.

Draw The Sound

"The general concept is the following. There are six key 'frames' which can be edited manually. It is possible to generate intermediate sounds by interpolation between the frames.

The overall duration of the generated sound is limited only by available memory and your patience (the calculation might appear time consuming): please note the Steps control which determines how many intermediate sound frames would be generated between the 6 given reference sound frames. Another point is that every frame might be as long as 10 seconds - that gives a minute if number of steps is 1, two minutes if it's 2, and so on."

Title link takes you there. Make sure to have the volume down if you try this out - read the warnings on the site and always, run these through a virus scanner before installing.

EMS Synthi AKS Tests

YouTube via 123synthland. Via this VSE thread.

Theiss CV to MIDI Converter

CV to MIDI. Title link takes you to the post on sequencer.de. If you have any more info on this, please feel free to comment.

Update via Moogulator in the comments:
"since I posted it earlier I left out the info..

it is triggered via s or v gate, 0-5V, if it's more you can attenuate it to fit into the range, the midi signal will be generated when triggered, ..

I have the (german) info on the site already, english added so far to understand what it is..

this is directly from theis, who sent me the info, so .. hmm, it's available via Horst Theis, see the adress on my older sections to get into contact.."

Swiss Synth Meeting Pics

Pic from sequencer.de, from a synth gathering in Switzerland. FPGA modular pictured.

Update via Moogulator in the comments:
"it is completely new, made by martin hollinger.. it is not ready today, but almost closed.. check for "FPGA".. digital based tech, really cool in sound..

I will put a post up somewhere later, but there are ppl that can tell more on the forum.. but since it is very new and somewhat limited to synth geeks, he brought it .. we will do some more on it when it is ready .. some german words can be found in our synthesizer-magazin "dummy" zero-issue which is just an excerpt..

well, there will be more in the next months.. (aka s.o.o.n)"

Update via swissdoc in the comments:
"It is a voltage controlled synth, but the VCO and VCF are internally digitally created and based on FPGAs, so you have an oscillator or filter done in real hardware with very high precission and clock rate. All ins and outs are analog voltages, as well as the pots, but they are digitized at high rates and then used to controll the algorithms in the FPGAs. The envelopes are done in SW by a PICT, the VCAs are modern SSM chips compensated for temp drift. The patching is done with real pro cables, small they are, indeed. Front panel is from special multi-layer paper, not conductive.

It is a no compromise design, stable, no trimmers internally, well 2 for the whole synth.

I was impressed by the concept and the build quality for a DIY synth.

Well, Martin is a PRO, working on this kind of things on a daily basis in his professional life.

Georg."

Fun with a Buchla 200e - Samples by Chris Muir

"Each of these was recorded live in a single pass. Some were then edited for length. Four channels of audio from the Buchla 227e System Interface were recorded into Logic Pro, along with a reverb send and a delay send. The two sends come from the 210 Signal Router and are, by necessity, pre 227e faders. The Buchla quad mains were mixed down to stereo in Logic. The delay, when used, is the Logic Stereo Delay, and reverb is either Space Designer or Audio Damage's Reverence." Title link takes you there.

Update: module list:
Top: blank, 266e, 210e, blank, 227e
Mid: 256e, 225e, 281e, 292e, 291e, blank
Low: blank, 249e, 261e, 261e, blank

synthi.se - johan boberg : electronic music

Title link takes you to Johan Boberg's (JB) website where you will find a number of resources for the Oberheim Xpander, Kraakdos or Crackle Box, EMS Synthi, Buchla (to come), and Modular Synthesizers. JB also provided the Buchla 200e sample in the previous post.

Buchla 200e Sample by JB

For those of you that want to hear something a bit more "familiar" from a Buchla 200e, here you go. Title link takes you to a .99M demo sent in by JB on the 200e list (posted here with his permission), and also mirrored here. BTW, make sure to check out JB's website, http://www.synthi.se.

"The 291e is doing all the timbre modulation here. Just two oscillators (259e & 261e) mixed into the 'all in'. I've set some stages in the internal sequencer and i am morphing the seq with CV. I took each of the three nodes out separately to the 227e where i do some pan modulation. You hear frequency and bw LF modulation and some AR FM modulation in one of the nodes (different amounts at different stages). This is a very fun filter to program."

Update: BTW, if you want to see and hear another example of a Buchla (in this case the original 200), check out the video in this post of Suzanne Ciana yesterday.

Images for reference (click each for larger shot):

Vangelis - Making of "China"

YouTube via yearofox. Sent my way via Tim.