MATRIXSYNTH

synergyII timbres Uploaded on Sep 5, 2010 xenmaster0

s 2 demo 1 441 final 320x240stream Uploaded on Sep 5, 2010 xenmaster0

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"DIGITAL KEYBOARDS SYNERGY II+

WITH KAYPRO II & SYNHCS 3.182 PROGRAMMING SOFTWARE, 14 FLOPPY DISCS OF SYNERGY TIMBRES, and 3 SYNERGY ROM CARTRIDGES

This is the legendary Synergy synthesizer. It comes with the Kaypro II CP/M computer I bought with the Synergy and the SYNHCS software used to program the Synergy. Three Synergy ROM cartridges are included, WC-1 and WC-2, the Wendy Carlos Voice cartridges 1 and 2, and the VCART 4 cartrdige, along with a null modem cable that you use to connect the Synergy synthesizer with the Kaypro II computer.

Using the Kaypro II computer running the Synergy Host Control System software (SYNHCS), you gain access to the full capabilities of the Synergy synthesizer. With the Kaypro II computer + SYNHCS software, you can program the Synergy synthesizer to generate any kind of sound you can imagine. Then you can save the timbres you create on floppy disk and organize those timbres into banks of sounds, and send them to the Synergy synthesizer. (Originally the Synergy was sold with ROM cartridges but with the Kaypro you don't need 'em because you can send new timbres to the Synergy from the Kaypro. I am, however, also including one original Synergy ROM cartridge.)

You will also get the complete set of 13 Synergy voice library banks on floppy disk, L1 through L13 (on 7 floppy discs) as well as the 6 Synergy VCart voices banks 1 through 6 (6 floppy discs). You also get the WC-1 and WC-2 voice banks on floppy disc. Each synergy ROM cartridge or CRT file holds 24 timbres. So you get the complete set of 20 x 24 voices, or 480 Synergy voice library timbres. This is the complete set of timbres that were offered for the Synergy II+. You also get the Wendy Carlos WC-1 and WC-2 voice cartridges (these are duplicates of the WC-1 and WC-1 voice banks on floppy disc) plus the VCART4 cartridge. The VCART4 cartridge has been disassembled so that you can resolder the socket to use a ZIF (zero insertion force) socket if you prefer, and burn your own ROMs and swap them out in the ZIF socket. I'll include information on how to do that. As a practical matter, the Kaypro II computer can transfer voice files to the Synergy II as fast as swapping out EPROMS, but it's nice to have the ability.

The SYNHCS control program included with this Kaypro is the latest version, from October 11 1985, version 3.182. You can see the version number in one of the photographs of the Kaypro II screen. It's later than the version 3.15 SYNHCS that sold with most Synergy/Kaupro II combos. SYNHCS V 3.182 fromOctober 1985 is the final version of SYNHCS, and includes menu options the earlier SYNHCS didn't have -- the earlier version 3.15 dates from September 1983. This later version October 1985 version 3.182 of SYNHCS has features the earlier SYNHCS didn't have, and it's not generally available. I got it from Stony Stockell. I'm pretty sure that only a handful of other people have this latest final version of SYNHCS from 10/11/85.

There are 18 floppy discs all told: 7 discs containing Synergy voice banks 1 through 13 (2 banks per disc, so 7 discs there total) and Vcarts 1 through 6 (6 discs there) and the Wendy Carlos 1 and 2 Vcarts on a single floppy disc. along with the Kaypro CP/M 2.2 boot disk to boot up the Kaypro II computer and a disc of CP/M utilities, like UNERASE and some other very useful utilities. That makes 16 floppy discs. I've also included a CP/M 2.2G boot disc in case you want to use another model of Kaypro II. The boot discs differed depending on whether your Kaypro II had ROM 81-149C, ROM 81-232, or ROM 81-292. All that is spelled out in detail in one of the information sheets I'm including with this Synergy II+. I'm also including SYNHCS V 3.12, the earliest versionof SYNHCS, in case you pick up another Synergy II with older ROMS.

Some of these Synergy voice banks were designed by Wendy Carlos, and all of 'em sound gorgeous.

The Synergy synthesizer boasts a unique sound, unlike that of any other synthesizer. It can caress your ears with silken delicacy or hammer you with brutal rancor. The Synergy can sound raucous or subtle, and it can change from one to the other as you hit the keyboard harder. There's a reason for this: it has arguably the most complex and sophisticated synthesizer architecture ever created, unparallelled evern today. The Synergy's amplitude envelopes are more complex, its oscillators are arranged in a more sophisticated way, and its advanced features like digital noise source, quasiperiodic vibrato and digital formant filter still have not been fully duplicated by any other digital synthesizer -- even today."

"THE BELL LABS DIGITAL SYNTHESIZER AND THE SYNERGY II+

The Synergy is based on the Bell Labs Digital Synthesizer designed by Hall Alles. The Bell Labs Digital Synthesizer used a remote computer to program the synth, with access by a different kind of port (RS-488 serial port, then common for programming lab equipment over a serial link). The remote computer at Bell Labs had to use software written by the composer (Laurie Spiegel, for example, whowrote programs on a DEC minicomputer in the then-new C programming language to control the Bell Labs Digital Synthesizer) to program the synth. When Digital Keyboards licensed the design of the Bell Labs Digital Synthesizer, they also built an 8-bit microcomputer that could program a version of the Synergy called the GDS.

About 700 Synergy I synths were sold all told, but less than 100 are still working today. A small handful of (I believe no more than 6) GDS systems were built in addition to the originl non-programmable Synergy I synths: GDS stands for "General Development System." These were versions of the Synergy with 16 front-panel digital sliders to control parameters of the synthesizers that hooked up to an associated CP/M computer thta used 8-inch floppy discs. With the GDS, you could program the Synergy and store voices on 8" disk via an S-100 buss CP/M computer based on the Ohio Scientific Challenger. Wendy Carlos bought a Synergy General Development System, Stockell kept one in his basement, Klaus Schulz had one, and someone else reportedly bought one (I don't know who).

When Kaypro started producing the Kaypro II CP/M computer in the early 1980s, Stony Stockell, the lead engineer on the Synergy synthesizer, saw an opportunity to replace the cumbersome General Development System with a cheaper setup for programming timbres on the Synergy, so he hired someone to write the Synergy Host Control Program in Z80 assembly language to program the Synergy using the Kaypro II instead of the S-100 buss IEEE 696 CP/M computer used with the GDS.

The new SYNHCS software was much more straightforward and didn't require any programming on the user's part. The Kaypro II was a standalone computer running CP/M, once again easy to use (unlike the Bell Labs minicomputers, which the user had to program to get anything out of 'em, even to send a note to the synthesizer!) and the Kaypro used a simple null modem cable linked to the RS-232 serial port in the back of the Synergy to program timbres, download and upload voice banks, and control the synthesizer's many subtle functions from the Kaypro.

The general method of programming involves pressing a specific button on the front of the Synergy to access a given function, then typing in a value in the Kaypro II to adjust the synthesizer parameter. Once you get the sound you want, you save it on the Kaypro floppy disk as a single .VCE file. Then you can load the VCE file off the Kaypro floppy disk and send it to the Synergy to recreate that timbre whenever you want. The SYNHCS program lets you arrange timbres defined by VCE files into banks which get saved as a single large files called a .CRT files, so SYNHCS combines the functions of synth programming and a synth librarian (and remember that this was back in 1981-1982!).

There was no such thing as the MIDI protocol when Hal Alles designed the Bell Labs Digital Synthesizer in 1974-1975, and no such thing as a finalized MIDI spec when Stoney Stockell adapted Alles' design into the Synergy in 1978-1980 for Crumar's Digital Keyboards subsidiary.

MIDI became a big deal between 1981 and 1984, so Stockell retrofitted the Synergy synthesizer with an add-on circuit board that added full MIDI in and out capabilities. This was the Serial I/O board, which Crumar sold for owners of the original Synergy I synth to upgrade to a fully programmable Synergy II+ along with the SYNHCS software and the voice library discs and the Kaypro II. These new modified versions of the Synergy were called the Synergy II+. This Synergy II+ of course includes a MIDI IN and OUT port, along with the RS-232 serial port for programming the timbres via the Kaypro computer.

The last and most sophisticated version of the SYNHCS software was version 3.182, which is the version I'm including with this Synergy II+ synthesizer. To quote from the manual PRELIMINARY OPERATION OF THE SYNERGY II WITH COMPUTER, "The SYNHCS version 3.xx significantly extends the capabilities of the Synergy II+ synthesizer even beyond the original General Development System." Yes, this combination of the Kaypro II plus null modem cable plus Synergy II+ plus the final SYNHCS version from 1985 gives you more abilities than Wendy Carlos had when she programmed the Synergy voices for her albums Digital Moonscapes and Beauty In the Beast.

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