KORG MS20

images via this auction.

Yamaha CX5M Music Computer

images via this auction

Failirght Voicetracker VT-5

images via this auction

"This is the Fairlight Voicetraker. It is intended to track the pitch and expressiveness of your voice and turn it into a synthesizer. The Voicetracker has the ability to not only let your voice (guitar, drum machine, etc.) manipulate its internal synth (which is very analog and gritty) but also send MIDI and Voltage Control signals to other synths. It is the fastest of its kind, incredibly accurate, and a mind blowing way to control your synths. Better than a vocoder, its signaling allows ANY synth or DRUM MACHINE to be controlled by audio input alone.

Vocoders seem trivial when you can trigger multiple synths with the pitch of any sound input. Make anything sound musical!

Top Row:
Range:
Pitch Range (Select Full, Low, Mid, Hi, Whistle, or Pitch Detail) {basically selects the range of the sound the VT will respond to... I will usually select Pitch Detail},
Presets (A-D)
2nd Row:
Response Time {Never saw any reason not to select Fast!},
Display {You can hook this thing up to a monitor and track your voice. It was originally intended to help singers watch and work on their pitch control. This determines how fast it will track on the display. I always set it to slow in case it drained response time anywhere else... I have no evidence that it did}
3rd Row: {Again, has to do with display}
Freeze, Scroll, Pitch, Zoom, Displays (Ampl, Timbre, Cents)
4th Row: {Display again}
Metronome, Trace (Gate, Continue), Tune, Axis (Vertical, Horizontal}, Format (Keyboard, Frequency, Grid)
5th Row:
Halt {Stops tracking}, Options (Ampl, Timbre) {Gives the option of Tracking Volume and Timbre of your voice}, Octave {Shifts up or down octaves}, Semitones {Tracks semitones if desired, which is very desired}, Internal Synth {On or off}, Presets ABC
Bottom Row:
0-9 {I think these are to input digits, but I am not entirely sure}

Basically, Put the Pitch Detail on, Set the Response to Fast, Make sure Halt is off, Put on Ampl, Timbre, Semitones, and Internal Synth, and your voice is now a synthesizer.

MIDI:
In
Out
Thru
Serial Port
Aux 1
Aux 2
Output level knob is on this side


Back:
Video Out
Sensitivity (Lo/Hi) {Keep on Hi}
Line/Mic
Audio In
Audio Thru (Which means you can "tap" a signal and not lose an output... how come we don't have this option more often?!}
Analog Synth Contol {I think this is for Voltage Control, which I never needed... but i think this makes the machine capable of controlling a MOOG or even a MOOGERFOOGER... what is a PURITY signal? I mean, I just have to know...If you know, please respond)
Purity
Bright
Level
Gate
Pitch
Footswitch 1 & 2
VCA In
VCA out
Headphone jack

Serial # 10228 {I think there were only 300 made, but I am not sure...if you know, please respond}
Used to retail for $2495.00"

E-MU EMAX HD

images via this auction. Note the mod and pitch wheel.

"This is the version of the Emax with a keyboard and an internal hard drive. It has 36 banks of sounds installed on it... and it runs fine. Additionally, I'm including over 50 floppy disks of sounds... many are copies of what's on the hard drive, many are different. There are tons of 80's-style sounds: orchestra hits, analog synths, sampled real instruments, and classics such as the James Brown and Marilyn Chambers samples"

Clavia Nord Lead 2

images via this auction

"One of the coolest features of the Nord Lead 2 is the "Morph" function. This lets you create two different patches and "morph" between them with the modulation wheel. The wooden "thumby" button is a bad-ass pitch bend modulator. There is also a "multi-mode" which lets you create complex layers. There is oscillator sync, awesome frequency modulation, and ring modulation.

There are four audio outs that can be configured in a variety of ways. Also in back is a slot for a PCMCIA card. The Nord is a breeze to program but when you want to dig in deep the manual is totally complete. Very nicely written."

Waldorf Micro-Wave

images via this auction. click image for the full size shot.

Depeche Mode-esque - Why do you do? By Machina

YouTube via Satyanass. Sequential Circuits Pro-One.
Be sure to turn you volume back down after watching this one.
"Depeche Mode type Synth Band from the early 90's from Glasgow, Scotland. The Band were called "Machina".

Unfortunately this is the only surviving footage on VHS. The tape had been stored away until Robert Marshall (the leather jacket wearing rocker in the video (and also the keyboard player)) dug it out and copied it onto DVD then converted by a friend of his and posted here on You-Tube.

This song was actually used on a demo tape and submitted to Mute in the early 90's.

Unfortunately the lead singer of the band sounded a bit to similar to another singer of a group that had been signed to Mute Records a decade earlier (no prizes for guessing that band)."

Depeche Mode - Nothing to fear

YouTube via DevotedMajlo.
"Live in Hammersmith Odeon 1982 downloaded from depecheworld.com"
Spot the synths.

V-Synth GT : Realtime sampling and variphrase editing

YouTube via Deweak. via Nusonica.
"Short Demo of how to create a pad from scratch. I didn't edit the modulations, enveloppes or LFO in this example. Here is just a demo of the V-Synth GT's ease of programming :
1/ sampling form a microphone
2/ editing and looping of the sample
3/ encoding
4/ Variphrase editing
5/ COSM and TVA editing
6/ effects"

analogisch.com presents Synth Jam

YouTube via analogisch.
"Synth are Oberheim ob 8, Yamaha cs 60, Korg ms 20, m5, dotcom, studio electronics midimioog, prophet 5,roland sh 5, monopoly triggers dotcom , System 100 for bass, korg emx triggers all sequencers via midi to cv , dotcom sequencers for cv for Roland sh5 and m5, sequencers rolans system 104 for system 100 and filter from ob8.
More Synth passiv in the video: Oberheim ob1, Jupiter 4, korg maxikorg, korg trident, moog liberation, fender rhodes........" Star Wars
analogisch.com