MATRIXSYNTH

Dual Sequential Circuits Multi-Trak

"To do this, two Multi-Traks were used, one with a bad keyboard. The aluminum case was cut on one of the cases and its top was piggy backed on to the multi-trak with a good keyboard. The master controls the slave via midi which includes sequencer control. Still has 16 individual voice outputs and four 'mixed' outputs. A custom cable was made to join outputs into a single mono or stereo output for both synthesizers."

Title link takes you to more shots on Synthwood.

Synthwoodspecializes in:
Synthesizer Woodworking
Specializing in replacement wood parts for Classic Analogue Synthesizers
Custom design for modular synth cabinets, cases, side or end bells and conversions and modifications
Beautiful and exotic woods: Koa, Mahogany, Black Walnut, English Chestnut, Maple and more
Tasteful finishes (French polish, Linseed Oiling and blends)
Tapered black stainless finishing screws included

Synthwood Custom Prophet T8

"A little history: This was the last Prophet T8 made by Sequential Circuits. There was no wooden keyboard made for it and it was either given or sold to an SCI employee.

Later the case was taken to a machine shop where the front end was rip sawed off and the wheels were placed inside of the case. It was necessary to keep the wheels plugged in so that the modulation section would work properly. If you have a T8 with a keyboard that is far beyond repair, this can be done for you."

Title link takes you to more shots on Synthwood. Reminds me a bit of the Rhodes Chroma Expander.

Synthwood specializes in:
Synthesizer Woodworking
Specializing in replacement wood parts for Classic Analogue Synthesizers
Custom design for modular synth cabinets, cases, side or end bells and conversions and modifications
Beautiful and exotic woods: Koa, Mahogany, Black Walnut, English Chestnut, Maple and more
Tasteful finishes (French polish, Linseed Oiling and blends)
Tapered black stainless finishing screws included

Update via Stephen in the comments:
"I've got an update for this. John Bowen confirmed that my T-8 was used on the bench at Sequential and that Stanley Jungleib ended up with it during the Yamaha liquidation. Stanley sold it to person in the Bay Area who then sold it to a friend of mine in 1989. I had known about the 'keyboardless T-8' since 1992 and eventually coaxed my friend into selling it to me just last year. My father finished the case earlier this spring and I updated the ROMs to rev 3.8 (they were 3.7)."

Red Martian

One of the people I met at this year's PNW meeting was Stephen Jones. You might recognize the name from this post on the custom wood case for the Sequential Circuts Pro One. You can find more info on the case and other custom work on Synthwood. I actually need to put a couple of posts on the custom T8 and Multi-traks there.

For this post, however, I want to focus on Stephen's band Red Martian. If you like Severed Heads, you will like Red Martian. I asked Stephen what his music was like and what bands influenced him. Not only is he influenced by Severed Heads, but one of their tracks was actually remixed by them. Pretty cool. BTW, you know my policy on only posting music if it showcases a given synth. Well the track "Behind the Mask" features a Prophet 5. Details:

"On behind the mask casey recorded his drums with live bass and keyboard. I then went back and tapped out a gate track along with his human tempo and used that to trigger the backing sequence. All of the synthesizer sounds were done on the Prophet 5. I got the mono lead sounds by killing voices and playing it it unison. "no moogs here". The vocals were done with a SVC-350 vocoder along with the Prophet 5."

Check out their MySpace page to get to the track directly and check out their main site for more. This is good stuff.

PNW06 via David Skinner

Title link takes you to shots of this year's Pacific Northwest Synth Meeting via David Skinner.

Rev1 Prophet 5, Rev3.3 Prophet 5, and Creamware ASB Pro-12 pictured.

Zeit Desktop Sequencer

Remember the Zeit Sequencer? Here's another tabletop version via sequencer.de. Infection Music are the makers of the Zeit.

Moog Taurus Pedals

Title link takes you to some nice shots pulled from this auction.

Moog Taurus Demos

YouTube via william19139. Sent my way via Frederic.

Note the video mentions it's up for auction. I checked and there are currently two up on the bay; not sure which is his. one, two. Update via Synthbaron in the comments: "the 2nd auction has the YouTube links in it."

The Korg 900PS Preset Monosynth

Via Benjamin Ward of Korganalog.net:

"The 900PS is a quite basic but interesting monosynth that came out around 1976. I took some photos the summer before last when I was thinking of flogging it (but I later changed my mind - I am a hoarder too which doesn't help!)

It does contain some nice early Korg quirkiness, such as the harmonics controls (I suppose Korg were going for the organ market with this one), go travelling with the Traveler (cut off frequency slider) and of course the metal modulation bar that runs the length of the keyboard and can be used to control vibrato, pitch bend, loudness, repeat effects and portamento (all at the same time if you wish!) As far as CV/gate is concerned I would have thought that its easy to mod but you would have to ask a boffin."