Yamaha SY-2

Click here for shots via this auction.

Check out the details. They claim the SY-2 is the only alternative that has the GX-1 filters. The GX-1 was as you know, the predecessor to the mighty CS80. I was under the impression the CS80 and CS60 had the same filters as the GX-1. The auction details do mention the CS60, so the seller is clearly aware of the CS60. Can anyone out there confirm if the filters on the CS60, CS80, GX1 and SY-2 are different or the same? Note the SY-2 was Yamaha's first synth according to the auction details pulled for this post.

Click the image to see the presets. Anyone know what Hawaiian Guitar sounds like? Considering the Wersi Bass Synth had a Hawaii Effect that you can see in the video in this previous post, I'm guessing Hawaii was in during the 70s. If so it's interesting how the popular culture at the time makes it's way into the design aspects of a given synth. Groovebox anyone? That is over isn't it?

Details:
"This is the only alternative to gets the classic GX-1 filters without paying 50000$. I'm telling you, you'll never heard something like that. The sound is unique, personnal and organic. It looks like a preset synth, but it's definately not! Think of the presets as your waveforms...

Here's some specs :
- 28 'presets'
- 37 keys keyboard with aftertouch (VERY sensible and expressive, exactly like a CS-60, I did the A-B test because I own one...)
- 1 VCO (It seems that one some preset, there's a second sine VCO after the VCF, as you find on a CS-60 and CS-80)
- 2 analog resonant filters, 1 LPF and 1 HPF
- 1 VCA envelope ADSR
- 1 VCF envelope (called 'Tone Bend' on this synth) ADS Written ATTACK TIME, INTENSITY and DECAY TIME, this envelope is inverted on some presets
- Pulse width
- Portamento
- 4 Octave transposition
- Vibrato control(LFO) : Speed and Depth
- Foot controller assignments : VCF (Wahwah) and Volume
- Aftertouch assignements : Vib Depth, VCF (Wah-wah) and Volume.
- Sensitivity knobs for aftertouch and Pedal"

Roland Oberheim

Title link takes you to some tracks previous unreleased by Ross Healy, aka Cray5656, primarily featuring the Roland Jupiter-8 and Oberheim Xpander.

Synth Samples on VSE

Title link takes you to a ton of user submitted synth samples on the VSE Forums.

Solton Polyvox

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Details:

"This is an odd stereo analog synth from Italy, looks like early to mid 80's. On the back tag it says Ketron Anacona Italy. Polyvox by Ketron Lab., and serial # 12xx/85. It is polyphonic, and all keys can play at once.

It has two sections, a large controller with voice banks, a footpedal with two switches, hookup wires,and a keyboard that has it's own voice banks. The keyboard has a 120 bass for the left hand. Before you roll your eyes (like I did ten years ago when I took this in trade!), the 120 bass controls a complex string, choir , organ, and bass guitar with a cool sequencer ! The strings/choir/organ sound is very lush and reminded me a lot of my K*rg Polysix when you had the effects switched to ensemble. The amazing thing about the voices is that there is a lot of flexibility and adjustments.

When I first started playing with this last year ( I had hoped to list it here before thanksgiving), I got lost in the mesmerizing grooves you could quickly make with the left hand (and I can't play accordian!) . Now it is 6 months later and I feel that I have explored this enough to describe it! I wrote 2 songs with it just this week! The phrase I keep thinking of is "This is not a cookie cutter instrument". Although similar in many ways to the basic concepts of the cheap Yam*ha's and Cas*o's (on board rhythym, drums, basic song arrangement, ala one man band), this has different arrangements, more dark new wave, kind of reminding me of the english new wave of '79-'82 . No polka madness here! And none of the aforementioned cheapies can lay down lush strings like this.

As for the right hand, you get the basic analog imitations of instruments, plus 3 mo*g-like synth sounds. The only adjustments are brilliance and modulation, and you do get a decent 'mo*g sound. Analog does make a difference, as I did not feel that I had to alter any of the instruments, like I usually do when recording the cheapie digital synths.

There's more. There is a stereo section that has the instrument moving in(or is it out?) when a key is hit. It does not continue to move if you hold the key down.. There are many adjustments for the strings, choir, organ brass, piano, percussion. Plus there are many ways to make up the sequencer for the arranger. As far as I can tell from playing it the last 6 months, you can not alter the arrangement/sequencer, but you can adjust what is in the mix.

The drums are decent sounding, and you can switch off the individual instruments. There is a tone slide that was pretty effective.

All works good, sliders work clean, leds light up, things go on and off as they should (at least as I think I should, I had no luck finding a manual online) except for two things.For some reason each time you hit one of the sequencer programs (pre-set) the drum tempo goes to the top speed 90, and you have to adjust it down to a more normal speed (40) and I could not figure out the bass program with 2 stops and a sustain (like an organ pedal). The bass guitar and double bass work fine, so I am not sure why I can't bring that section up.

This is not for everyone looking fo an analog synth, and I understand the desire to create your own voice (I'll be listing my mini-mo*g in a couple of days). But as a former synth freak, that had over 50 analog synths (and the same number of digtal ones!), I have found that the voice you spend a lot of time creating is similar enough to presets, that you could have saved a lot of time using a preset and simply modify it with outboard gear!

Anyway the point I want to make here is that this is not for someone that will be building a patch from a sawtooth oscillator , the strength of this unit is in it's songwriting/one-man band arranging. If you like your music on the odd and dark side (Resid*nts?), you will love this unit. If you think Abba and the Eagles are where it's at, do not bid! If I wasn't retired from the biz, I would keep this over the Mo*g, even though this is worth less. I have yet to find another one through go*gle searches. If you do end up getting this, and writing a hit song with it, only you and I would know how you did it!"

Quasimidi Sirius

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

Anyone know what the Carrier-IN and Analyse-IN do? Click the image to see the inputs. I'm guessing the Carrier-IN is the audio in for the vocoder.

MOOG Prodigy

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

Roland MC-4

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

via Johan

Roland SH-1000

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

Details:
Specs: link
Review: link
Video: link

via Johan

Restoring Patches From Tape

Good tip from David Hillel Wilson, curator of the New England Synthesizer Museum.

"There is an issue with downloading synth patch tapes from the Internet, and it goes like this: The Human ear can't hear absolute phase, so that an up sawtooth sounds exactly like a down sawtooth. However, the cassette input circuits on most synths CAN hear absolute phase. Many of the .WAV files are inverted, either by the sound card the poster used to digitize them, or the sound card you used to play them back. The answer here is crazy, but it works: After trying with no success for several hours to load up an OB-Xa from an Internet wave file, I tried this: I took two alligator clip leads and an extra patch cord, and used them to swap the ground and the hot on the EAR output jack on the cassette tape recorder. It loaded on the first try! You can also run the sound through any inverting mixer (such as on the ElectroComp 200). I have tried to send this info (and the Sequential Split Eight factory sounds as an .SYX) to the website that hosts these files, but my messages keep bouncing back."

Update via swissdoc in the comments: "Why not just inverting it in your soundeditor before saving from the soundcard to tape?"

primitive two-oscillator synthesizer

flickr by jgb.

"two WaveTek signal generators connected in series. For crunk jamz. The last one in the chain drives a 1" speaker. It will easily deafen you. The front panel is set in Univers, BTW."