Oberheim Four Voice, KORG Trident and Fender Rhodes

via ISO50 - The Visual Work of Scott Hansen - do check out the site for some incredible art.
Don't miss the exhibit.

IMG_2160.jpg

flickr by heathercroall.

full size

Based on the tags for the flickr shot, I'm guessing this is a DIY synth at DocFest2007. If you know more about the synth and/or the event, feel free to comment.

click here for a black and white.



Update via Steve in the comments:
"yeah, i've seen them play a few times, was a couple of years ago now. he would strap it on.
there's a photo of it strapped on over here
and a flash player thingy over here"

Vintage

flickr by mjp3000.

full size

Oberheim OB-8

jel anticon sweetcreaminit live bedroom mix

YouTube via officialanticon. I saw this one on Music Thing.
"Jel playing "Sweet Cream In It" from Soft Money live in his bedroom."
You can find his blog JEL IN BEDROOM LOOKING FOR GIGS!! here. You will find one more video there.

Roland MC-202 Micro-Composer TB-303 ish Acid Machine

YouTube via 123synthland.
"Everyone knows we deal in vintage synths professionally (that's right, no brick in a box, Ebay style!). So anyway, here's a short clip of the Roland MC-202 we're about to put up for sale, all entered step time. Disregard the TB-303, I had big plans to post a video the 2 squawking together but things sounded too cluttered with 2 busy patterns. Check my other videos for a 303 clip. This isn't the best pattern in the world, but y'all aren't paying me to make dance tracks, so ya get what ya pay for! :) Email us anytime at minime123@onebox.com"

Oakley TM3030

images via this auction

"Samples
Saw #1 (2.3mb)
Saw #2 (790k)
Saw #3 (700k)
Saw #4 (1.3mb)
Square #1 (1.2mb)
Square #2 (930k)
Square #3 (1.2mb)
Here's the specs:

- The TM3030 is a midi controlled bassline clone that is designed to sound good.
- The design features the same controls as the little sliver box we have all come
to love: tune, waveshape, cut-off, resonance, envelope sweep, decay time, accent and volume.
- Slides and accents are faithfully reproduced.
- This unit contains no internal sequencer. The midi interface is controlled by a pre-programmed microcontroller chip.
- The rear panel houses the audio output, DC input, power switch, midi through and midi input sockets.
- The front panel pots are Alpha 16mm aluminum devices. These offer solidity, long life and feel good.
- The front panel LEDs show slide, gate, accent and power on conditions.
- The power requirements is 24V DC. The unit comes with us power supply.
- For the FET buffer of the VCO I used the 2SK30A-O and for the differential amplifier I put a 2SC1583 like the original design of the Roland TB-303. For the VCA, I used the CA3080 OTA.
- To achieve the best resonance, I replaced R62 with a 6k2 resistor and 10k trimmer in series, and adjusted the maximum resonance to match my real TB-303."

PPG Wave 2.3

images via this auction

SOUNDCHASER Apple II synthesizer demo cassette

via this auction

"demo cassette of the old APPLE II synthesizer! The SOUNDCHASER synth. Rather unusual - I remember seeing Chick Corea demo this thing, and likely it's where I got this from. 1982 as I recall!"
Anyone know more about this one?

Update via Eccentric Genius in the comments:
"Zoiks...what a flashback.

I had one... real similar to an Alpha Syntauri. The Syntauri had a velocity sensing keyboard, the Soundchaser was stuck with an organ style one. The 'chaser had better sequencing software though... 16 tracks as opposed to 4.

Both were based around the Mountain Digital Oscillator boards, which plugged into your Apple II along with a keyboard controller card and gave you up to 16 voice polyphony. The hardware was unbelievably noisy; a noise gate was mandatory to avoid the crazy-makin' drone of 16 leaky oscillators coming at you every single second the thing was powered up.

It had user defined waveforms, which was the earliest proof available that complex single cycle waves for the most part sound like shit... Despite the fact that the oscillator boards came with an attached light pen (for use with the Mountain score editing software), the Soundchaser made you draw your waveforms using the Apples game paddles or joystick. The only place draw-yer-own waveforms was useful was when you got all finicky and drew elaborate and precisely stepped 'staircase' shapes and assigned them to the LFO, which let you harness the zipper effect and gave you a one-key arppegio that would almost be in tune if you drew the shape just right. Of course, the LFO rate tracked the keyboard, which severely limited the usefulness...

Each oscillator was treated as a separate voice; you made your patch by assigning oscillators from the pool, then tweezing each oscillator to death.

There were no filters...just a 4 stage envelope and the lfo. If you wanted anything approaching timbre dynamics you had to get artsy fartsy and assign, say, 4 oscillators to the patch, then meticulously tweeze the envelope parameters for each oscillator to fade from one to the other during the course of the note on event. This could really eat into your available polyphony in a hurry.

It is worth noting that assigning 16 oscillators to one patch gave you one note polyphony, but it was a very large note when you played it.

It supported one keyboard split, and the gamepaddle was used as a pitchbend during performance. I don't recall a mod wheel being implimented.

The sequencer started out as 4 track, then updated to 16. Keyboard input with limited quantization, then you could open up the sequence as a hexadecimal event list and edit pitch and duration on screen after the fact. It was less than intuitive. I paid $1800 cdn in 1981, and used it regularly through the '80s, despite the perils of dealing with outraged soundmen distressed at the presence of the *very* loud radio frequency presence of the Apple onstage. I think my son still uses it back in Toronto...I'm gonna have to ask him."

Roland Juno-106

images via this auction

Yamaha TX816

images via this auction

"This TX816 is an 8 module rack-mount Yahama DX7 in good condition.
The TX816 is a monster DX synthesizer.
Each TF1 module is basically a DX7 condensed down to a single circuit board with almost no front panel controls. Definitely designed for use with external hardware and software controllers the TX816 allows you to easily carry around up to eight DX7s! Software such as MOTU Unisyn, Emagic SounDiver, or even another DX7 can be used to program the sounds in each module via MIDI.
??Each TF1 module consists of a 16-voice, 6-operator digital FM synth engine. So a complete TX816 with all eight TF1 modules would offer up to 128 voices and 48 operators! Each TF1 also features an indepednent balanced audio out (XLR) and MIDI I/O.
Note: On module #3 the memory protect button is stuck. Every other function and button works properly on all modules.
Serial # 3125"