MATRIXSYNTH

Roland PG-200

images via this auction

"This unit is used to program some of Roland's classic '80s analog synthesizers, the JX-3P, MKS-30 and the GR-700."

Access Virus TI Snow

Nice shot of the Access Virus TI Snow via this auction by Novamusik.

via this auction

"# Brand new, never used. Not pulls.
# One money buys all eight of these 16 pin DIP ICs.
# Used in many early analog synthesizers, e.g. Korg, Sequential Circuits, Siel, PPG, Oberheim, CMI Fairlight, Crumar, etc.
# List of which chips used in which synths at: synthtech
# Datasheet available at: maxmidi
# Even if not a direct replacement, circuit can usually be modified to accept these."

Update via Lord Avon in the comments: "You gotta love ebay. The PPG Wave's never used these SSMs, only the SSM 2044."

ARP AVATAR with Mods

images via this auction
" 1. MIDI by synhouse.com, (The CV inputs also work if you want to go full OLD-SCHOOL.)

2. FILTER UPGRADE
Avatar filters have a upper frequency limit of 11khz! This frequency response upgrade is similar to the 2600 filter upgrade extending the cutoff frequency range from 11khz to 28khz. Also replaces some critical components in the signal path. Your filter sub module is removed, tested, upgraded, re-tested and re-installed into main board "C".

3. AUDIO PATH UPGRADE
This mod replaces critical signal path components with audiophile grade components. Low end response is improved resulting in a more accurate wave shape. This mod used to be called the "Low end wave correction mod" in the early days of CMS. High end response is also Improved.

4. POWER SUPPLY REBUILD
Certain critical components in your power supply have a shelf / working life of 20 years maximum. It's probably time your power supply was rebuilt. These units are getting very old, so if you are serious about your ARP, you should get the Power Supply Rebuild.

5. PORTAMENTO ENABLE
Stock Avatars have their portamento circuits hardwired to the guitar section. This mod rewires the portamento so that it slews the keyboard cv input. (MIDI works too)

Please note: The guitar functions of the avatar have are disabled and/or removed. So, no pickup, guitar cord, or guitar board, is included with the synth. Why would you want that anyway! Avatars are prized for the synthesizer section, which is fully functional. Cosmetically, there are some corner dings, and some front panel scratches (partially repaired to prevent corrosion of the steel case). These are illustrated in the photos. However, the inside is clean, and all the sliders have been cleaned and re-greased. No slider caps are included, as is common for the avatar, but they are easy to find on ebay, or from CMS if you want a set."

Akai AX80

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KORG Trident

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"It has three analog synths section in one and separate outputs and volume controls for each or simply Mix out. Built in flanger,Pitch bender, vibrato, trill, and so many filter adjustments and endless possibilites. Synth is divided by three sections, Synthesizer, Brass, Strings."

Roland MC4 MicroComposer Flowcharts & Saving to computer

"Two vital pages from the Roland MC4B MicroComposer manual that give an overview/flowchart of all operations. The earlier versions of the manuals did not contain these pages to my knowledge. They are the last two pages in the manual and so can easily get lost. I've decided to post mine here for other MC4 owners, I don't own the copyright on them and have not asked Roland for permission.

Below the two flowchart pages is the letter that Chris Carter printed in Sound On Sound Vol.12 No.10. August 1997. This was a letter to Chris Carter in response to his retro-review of the related Roland MC8 Microcomposer. His article on the MC8 is published on his website."

More here. Also see "Generative Music on the Roland MC4 MicroComposer - Cellular Automata Sequence Loops for Control Voltages"

New Gristleizers

via the comments of this post. Be sure to check out the rest of the comments in the post for more info:

"Hello everyone,
I am in the midst of building a run of Gristlizers. They will be exact reproductions of the original. I have contacted Chris as well as Roy. They seem to be with me on this. I know most of the people posting on here are DIY'ers, we will offer a kit if you are interested. For those not into the DIY thing we will be selling completed versions. In a pedal form or the Reproduction model. Anyone that is interested can email me at smashingguitarsasheville <> hotmail.com. They should be ready last of october, first of november. Out of the 50, 15 are spoken for. So get on the list if you want one.
Charles Howes"

Tenori On "FIREFLIES"

Tenori On "FIREFLIES" from Gattobus on Vimeo.
"Yet another recording using Yamaha Tenori On... "

The Wobbulator

Note this is a good follow up to this post on The Alchemists of Sound.

via sine in this electro-music.com thread:

"The wooden boxy thing in the front of the picture with the round dail is the workshops wobbulator, the plexi thing on thop of that is the crystal palace, something we woud call a scanner these days."

via Brainstormer in the same thread:
"I've read about one of these devices in a few BBC Radiophonic Workshop related articles. I'm wondering if it would be possible to construct something as unique as this to be used in a modular synthesizer?

I can find very little concise technical information regarding these devices, only application info, so it may be a null discussion point. Unless someone here has a more in-depth knowledge of them?

Here's a few articles that mention the wobbulator:
Quote:
Early on, the Workshop acquired a wobbulator, originally designed for engineering tests but also very useful as a source of raw material. This created a tone whose pitch was continuously varied by a second oscillator, thus providing sweeping waves of sound.
http://whitefiles.org/rws/r02.htm

Quote:
The chief inventor, David Young, came up with contraptions like ‘the Wobbulator’ and ‘the Crystal Palace’ to produce brand-new sound textures, and nothing could ever have been done without the ‘Donotfiddlewith’, a delicate tape-tensioning device made out of Meccano and labelled in felt-tip with an anti-tamper warning.
http://www.timeout.com/london/music/features/4493/Fifty_years_of_the_BBC_Radiophonic_Workshop.html

Quote:
But the 'Ooh-ooh-ooh' isn't me… that's wobbulator, pure wobbulator. That's a piece of test equipment that does wave sweeps.
http://www.delia-derbyshire.org/interview_surface.php

Quote:
The melody notes were also recorded individually, and at half-speed to achieve the desired pitch, while the hiss and windbubble effects were created by carefully filtering white noise through a wobbulator.
http://www.millenniumeffect.co.uk/audio/index2.html

Quote:
They also had a couple of high-quality equalisers (again, test equipment - equalisers, or "tone controls", were not that easy to come by at the time) and a few other gadgets including a "wobbulator" (a low frequency oscillator) and a white noise generator.
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Mark_ayres/DWTheme.htm

Quote:
Wobbulating The World
In the early '60s, synthesizers simply did not exist. Producer Joe Meek was using the monophonic, valve-operated Clavioline but the Radiophonic Workshop, oddly enough, never had one. What they did have, though, was all the test oscillators that they could beg, borrow or steal from other BBC departments. A method was devised for controlling 12 oscillators at a time, triggering them from a tiny home-built keyboard of recycled piano keys. Each oscillator could be independently tuned by means of a range switch and a chunky Bakelite frequency knob.

There was also the versatile 'wobbulator', a sine-wave oscillator that could be frequency modulated. It consisted of a very large metal box, with a few switches and one very large knob in the middle that could sweep the entire frequency range in one revolution. They were used in the BBC for 'calibrating reverb times in studios' apparently. And as far as the Workshop's electronic sound sources went, that was it!
Yet, curiously, it is the work produced in those early years that the Radiophonic Workshop's reputation still hangs on. The Doctor Who theme was first recorded in 1963, and still there are fans who insist that the original is the best of many versions made over the years. What's more, some of the sound effects made for the first series of Doctor Who are still being used! When the newly revamped Doctor Who appeared in 2005, hardcore fans recognised the original effects and wrote to Brian Hodgson: "How nice to hear the old original Dalek Control Room again, after all these years!"

Brian's 'Tardis' sound, dating from 1963, is also still used. "I spent a long time in planning the Tardis sound," says Brian. "I wanted a sound that seemed to be travelling in two directions at once; coming and going at the same time." The sound was actually made from the bare strings of a piano that had been dismantled. Brian scraped along some bass strings with his mum's front-door key, then set about processing the recordings, as he describes it, "with a lot of reverse feedback". (By this, I assume he means that tape echo was added, then the tape reversed so that it played backwards.) Eventually, Brian played the finished results to Dick Mills and Desmond Briscoe; at their insistence he added a slowly rising note, played on the wobbulator.
http://musicandculture.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html