Akai AX60

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video upload by Bob Grey

via this auction

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White Moog Minimoog Voyager Performer Synthesizer EST. 2002

via this auction

"The Minimoog Voyager Performer White Edition is a handcrafted, all--analog performance synthesizer that incorporates the features and incredible sonic range of the original Minimoog, while adding a vast number of new functional improvements to its design. And just like the original Minimoog, the Minimoog Voyager was designed and brought to life by synthesizer pioneer, Bob Moog.The Minimoog Voyager Performer Edition is the traditional Minimoog Voyager. It is housed in a rugged steel chassis that is secured in a stunning, custom finished ash cabinet. It is fitted with a top of the line, 44-key Fatar keybed and comes stock with cool grey pitch/mod wheels.Features include:100% Analog Signal Path3 Ultra-Stable Oscillators2 Legendary Moog Ladder Filters2 Four-Stage Analog Envelope Generators2 Flexible Modulation BussesAssignable X/Y/A Touch Control InterfaceOver 800 Onboard PresetsCV/Gate Expansion Port..."

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Richard Lainhart - Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival Lecture & Performance

Slideshow of Richard Lainhart's lecture at the Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival (BEAF), Friday, May 6, 2:PM PST, 2011 (mentioned in this post). Below is a video of the Buchla and Haken Continuum portion of the lecture followed by a performance of Olivier Messiaen's Oraison written for the ondes Martenot at the 48:00 mark (see this post for the original version and this post for another performance by Richard). You will notice Richard makes references to earlier parts of the lecture. These included his training on the CEMS modular synthesizer system and the ondes Martenot (don't miss this post and this post on the CEMS). See the labels at the bottom of this post for more info on each. I will upload those videos at a later date. They were background to Richard's experience with early modular synthesizers and controllers that eventually lead him to the Buchla and Haken Continuum. It was a great lecture and I hope you enjoy it. Be sure to bookmark this one. I also want to thank Richard Lainhart for doing lectures like these. They are a rare treat.


YouTube Uploaded by matrixsynth on May 19, 2011

The following is a full transcript. BTW, if anyone is interested in transcription services, let me know.

"RICHARD LAINHART: BUCHLA AND HAKEN CONTINUUM LECTURE

Speaker: Richard Lainhart
Lecture Date: May 6, 2011
Lecture Time: 2:00 p.m. PST
Location: Western Washington University
Event: Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival 2011 (BEAF)
Length: Digital AVI recording; 57 minutes 32 seconds

[Beginning of recorded material]

Richard Lainhart: Okay. What I want to do now is actually talk a little bit about the system itself here and about the design of the system and explain what's actually happening here and why it's designed this way, and again, my focus on, on expression. So this is, as I mentioned, this is the Buchla 200E. This is a current electronic music instrument that is still being made now by Buchla. Don Buchla again was a contemporary, or is a contemporary of Bob Moog, and he took a very different path than Moog did. And one of the reasons I think that Moog's instruments became so popular, of course the Mini Moog was like the first real break-out electronic music synthesizer, was that Moog's instruments had keyboards on them. They had black and white keyboards. And you could use them to play, you could use them to play rock and roll with them basically because you could plug them into a really loud amplifier and it could be louder than a guitar. And it could be a bass, you know, it could be louder than a bass and all that sort of stuff. And of course a lot of, you know, a lot of wonderful music was made with that instrument.

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Minimoog Change List - Minimoog Versions

via Brian Kehew of The MOOG Cookbook:

"Minimoog MODEL "D" Changes:

At first look, all Minimoogs seem alike. It seems that the Minimoog is something unchanging that we all know and recognize. They are similar to each other, but there are many features that changed over time. You may already be aware of a few differences, but most people will be surprised at how many variations there really are.

One of my main goals for this site was this very page: to show the developments in the main Minimoog design (MODEL D), and give an idea when the changes happened. To my knowledge, this type of listing has not been done for the Minimoog. Once you see it - you should be able to tell what is "original" on a Minimoog. In some cases, you will even be able to guess a Minimoog's serial number quite closely after only a quick glance! Like "trainspotting" (identifying nearly identical trains by small distinguishing features) this is trivial, but fun.
The process was simple - I compiled a database of over 100 Minimoogs. By asking owners detailed questions, I was able to determine the commmon developments. Cross-referencing this data to known dates of production, it becomes easier to see WHEN things might have happened. Note: This is by no means foolproof, and there are individual Mini's that do not fit the pattern. For now, we will assume that they are mutants/modifieds, and simply note the main trends.
The Changes:
Read through these links first, so you will be familiar with the details. Then, I have arranged a timeline of the changes below for clarity. In the future, I will have photos of the changes, a helpful visual reference...

* The Badge
* The Factories
* The Front Panel
* Graphics
* Wheels
* Left-Hand Switches
* Panel Switches
* Oscillators
* Octave Buffer Board
* Rear Cover
* Power Cable
* Pointer Knobs
* The Wood Case


* The Questions used to make the database.
* TIMELINE of Changes

THE BADGE

(This is the "logo plate" above the keyboard that identifies the company)

* R. A. Moog: When the company began making synths (1964/65), this was the name, carried over from Bob's Theremin business. This metal nameplate is only found on the earliest Minimoogs from (late) 1970 through 1971.
* Moog/Musonics: After Waytena bought the R.A.Moog company, it was merged with Musonics (his own company) and the Minimoogs from this brief period (1971) bear this name. A metal plaque.
* Moog Music Inc. After Moog was sold to Norlin/CBS in 1972, this became the name that would remain until the last Minimoogs were made. MOST Minimoogs have this plate, a vinyl material.

THE FACTORIES

(Moog had several plants during Minimoog production, relatively close to each other in upstate New York)

* Trumansburg: The original factory, built Minimoogs from late 1970 through 1971.
* Williamsville: after the Musonics purchase, operated from March 1971 to 1977.
* Buffalo: a much larger plant, made Minimoogs from 1977 to 1981

THE FRONT PANEL

(Construction of the front panel behind the knobs)

* Metal - A thin sheet of smooth aluminum.
* Metal with Plastic - same as above, but with a thin clear sheet of plastic to cover/protect it.
* Plastic - a heavier vinyl/plastic panel, with a textured surface.

GRAPHICS

(This is the silkscreened labelling on the front panel)

* "VOL." - the earliest Minimoogs (metal and metal/plastic panel) have different designs. The time settings are marked in seconds, the Osc.2 & 3 fine tune knobs have cents/100 divisions, and the Volume knobs say "VOL."
* "Volume" - the design used on all vinyl panel Minimoogs: the knobs say "VOLUME", the times are in divisions from 1 to 10, and the Osc. 2 & 3 tunings knobs are incremented from +/-1 to +/-7.

WHEELS

(On the left-hand modulation section, the wheels and switches underwent a few developments)

* Clear Wheels: the earliest design, a beautiful look.
* Solid White Wheels: same shape as before, but in an opaque white plastic.
* Serrated White Wheels: These have ridged, wavy edges for better gripping.

# Clear Lighted Wheels: same shape as early clear wheels, but with internal lights to show them off. Only on the last series of 25 "presentation" Minimoogs.

LEFT-HAND SWITCHES

* Decay/Glide switches are Red Momentary pushbuttons on the earliest R.A.Moog Mini's. This may be to make the instrument more "performance oriented" as the sound can "change" easier with momentary switches.
* White Mini-toggle switches. Some early R.A.Moog instruments have small toggle switches (NOT momentary) for Decay and Glide. On some, this appears to be a retrofit, as it would be more usable than the buttons. On most, this looks like the original factory issue design.
* White Rocker switches; the standard white plastic rocker switches found on almost all Mini's. Begins during the R.A.Moog period and remains until the last.

PANEL SWITCHES

(These are the colored rocker switches used all across the front control panel for modulation, the mixer, etc.)

* Blue and Orange - the most common color scheme - almost all Minimoogs have this setup. In case you never noticed, Blue is for audio routing, Orange is for modulation routing.
* All White - very few Mini's have this, but there are a few known examples, mostly early Mini's. It looks quite good, actually.
* All Black switches - again, another variation that seems to be original. The factory had them around, as the Power Switch is usually Black. This also looks very cool!
* All Blue - there are rumoured Mini's with all-blue switches (makes sense - it would have been EASY to do at the factory). At least one prototype had this.

OSCILLATORS

(This is an important and controversial point for some Minimoog owners. The Oscillators were changed, at least a few times, in order to make the Minimoog more reliable)

* R.A.Moog - these are the Oscillator circuit boards for the earliest Minimoogs. There may be only about 100 made with these boards - they have "RAMOOG" written on the circuit board itself. The do sound different than the later oscillators, but are relatively harder to keep in tune.
* "Old Oscillators" - a term that is somewhat misleading now that we know about the RAMoog boards! However, most people consider these to be the first half of Minimoog production, almost 6,000 of them made, so they are often called "older oscillators". They are relatively stable, except when switching Octave settings.
On the back panel, one can see a set of 7 small calibration holes behind the Oscillators. This is true for most RAMoog and "Older" Oscillators.
* "New Oscillators" - these were specifically designed to keep the Minimoog in tune, a big complaint for the many performers using the older oscillators. The new oscillators have 17 trim holes on the back panel. They allow for especially precise calibration on the high frequencies, and have the Octave Buffer (see below). Moog began these with #10175 to the end, but many earlier ones have had these retrofitted.

OCTAVE BUFFER BOARD

Apparently, not many people know about this. The Octave Buffer Board is a FACTORY modification to correct a design flaw in the original Minimoog: When Oscillators were switched between octaves, they would often go out of tune. This small board was added inside the Minimoog just under the top edge (behind the Oscillator section, and mounted to the metal with two small black screws)

Beginning with serial number #5000, this was done on ALL Minimoogs from the factory. I have seen MANY of the earlier units (before #5000), already retrofitted by the factory or factory-authorized service centers. When the Minimoog was sent in for calibration, new oscillators, repair, etc., it would have been added as a matter of course. It's a very GOOD modification to have done and will not affect the value of your instrument. It will, in fact, increase the value, as your Mini will definitely be better with it. (It is possible that the early RAMoog oscillators do not need this modification - we're looking into it)

REAR COVER

(This is the removable aluminum cover on the back of the Minimoog)

* Bent - on the R.A.Moog Minimoogs, the aluminum is a flat panel bent into a box shape. It has an open seam where the sides join.
* Welded - on all later Minimoogs, this cover was welded at the seams, to prevent dirt from entering the electronics section (a good idea!)

POWER CABLE

(The power cable changed several times during production)

* The R.A.Moog Minimoogs have power cables that enter to the Left of the Accessory jacks (when looking from behind). 2 prongs (no ground) and usually brown.
* When the Minimoog was made with the new "Moog/Musonics" badge, the power cable moves to the Right of the accessory jacks. It was originally brown, 2 prong. This is also true for early "Moog Music" Minimoogs.
* Later, it became 3 prong, in black or gray.

POINTER KNOBS

(An interesting (but rarely noticed) change in the Minimoogs)

* Most Minimoogs have standard pointer knobs - where one end is pointed and the other end is wide.
* There is a specific period in 1974 where Minimoogs have different pointer knobs, where both ends are the same shape. This may be due to a shortage at the factory, or to keep down costs (Note: these same pointer knobs are found later on the Micromoog and Multimoog). However, they ARE original from this period - many people will assume they have been changed.

WOOD CASE

(An obvious difference, very visible. I'm no expert on woods so I'm going to look into this with an expert. There are a LOT of different styles, some just variations on wood stain or color. Here are the basics)

* Early Minimoogs have dark brown walnut casings, rumoured to have been cut from trees on Bob Moog's property. They are not stained or laquered.
* The next series of Minimoogs seem to have a dark Mahogany wood, also unstained.
* Later, the Minimoog came in a "butterscotch" colored stain, over an light-colored unnamed wood.These will be slightly glossy.
* Finally, the Minimoog came in a wood with very dark brown stain, almost as thick as paint. It's not as natural-looking as earlier Minimoogs, but ALL Minimoogs are beautiful!




These are the questions that were asked of Minimoog owners. These are basic changes (mostly external) that help us identify any Minimoog. (I will get into more detail about the internal changes at a later date)

* Serial number ?
* Front plate - RAMoog, Musonics, or Moog Music?
* Casing - unfinished walnut, light maple (butterscotch), or dark stain mahogany?
* Front panel - metal, metal w/ clear plastic coat, smooth plastic, rough plastic?
* Factory - Trumansburg, Williamsville, Buffalo?
* Wheels - clear, smooth white, serrated (rippled) white, lighted clear?
* Panel engraving - "VOL" or "VOLUME"?
* Decay/Glide switches - momentary red buttons, white rocker, (other)?
* Panel switches - orange/blue, all black, or all white?
* On the top edge (behind the wood, just above the Oscillator knobs) are there two small (black) screws?
* Number of calibration holes in back panel? (total)
* Power cable (looking from the REAR) - right or left of Accessory jacks? - brown, grey, or black? - 2 or 3 prong?
* IF there are paper assembly tags inside - what is the date?"

Synton Bow Tie and Hankerchiefs!

Too funny. via
this auction

"Great fun - a mint unused unopened Synton promo bow-tie and handkerchief, in blue. Very much from an era when men like Bob Moog and Felix Visser wore suits and had long conversations at trade shows. Sold in celebration of Synton, now that Felix is selling up his own gear and retiring."

Also one in
silver grey. (another of the Syrinx colours!)."

Note these are interesting items Peter Forrest is putting up to promote the VEMIA auction. You will notice a number of posts going up here this week. Peter has been gracious enough to offer me some very nice hi-res shots of items going up. We get the shots for posterity and those that might be interested in picking up any of the items will get the heads up. Do note that not every single synth will get a post, so be sure to check out the auction periodically for updates.

Gleeman Pentaphonic

Click here for shots via this auction.

Details:
"Only 50 ever made - so this is probably the last time you will see one again - this rare beast sounds like a cross between Moog / Oberheim and the Prophet synths and the has the film soundtrack fx side of the VCS3 so is killer for film soundtracks - the Gleeman is in tip top condition and has been recently serviced by a reputable UK company - it comes with mains 110>240v transformer - the total shipping weight is 26kg so email me your area/postal code / country for shipping quotations - I originally paid £2000.00 for the Gleeman Pentaphonic - remember this is one of the very rarest synths out there - you will definately not see another one and it sounds like no other - here is what has been said of the legendary Gleeman Pentaphonic:

The Gleeman Pentaphonic
by Joey Swails (j.swails@comcast.net)

The Gleeman Pentaphonic was introduced in 1981 by the Gleeman company, a partnership of two brothers, Bob and Al Gleeman. They were based (in the grand old Silicon Valley tradition) in their garage in Mountain View, California.

I met Bob Gleeman at the 1982 AES show in Anaheim, while I worked for Don Wehr's Music City in San Francisco. I was blown away by the Pentaphonic's sound; Bob came around the store a soon after, and we became the first authorized Gleeman dealer.

The story goes that the Pentaphonic came about when Bob decided that he wanted a synthesizer like a Prophet-5, but smaller and more portable. His "smarter brother" Al, a computer hardware designer, basically designed the synth from the ground up, working from his brother's description of what a polyphonic synthesizer should do.

It was in actually a digital/analog hybrid -- the filters and amps were based on the same Curtis chips that were used in the Prophet, ARP and Octave machines. The oscillators were digital, as were the ADSRs. The machine was based on the Intel 80186 microprocessor, which was very advanced for it's time. In fact, it used two 80186's -- one for the keyboard/transpose functions, the other for waveform and amplitude control. One thing led to another and they decided to try to market the machine after everyone who heard it told them how great it sounded. They had wanted to call it the "Gleeman Minstrel", since their family name Gleeman means "minstrel." But there was another machine on the market called Minstrel (the Basyn, by Grey Labs), so they settled on "Pentaphonic".

The oscillator section featured 3 oscillators, each with a selection of 8 waveforms. The waveshapes were fixed, in that there was no pulse-width modulation. Instead it offered 3 choices of pulse widths. There were two "digital" waveforms with lots of high, bell-like overtones which had a distinctive, almost FM-like sound when selected.

There was an octave switch on each oscillator (hi/low) and a "chorus" switch that actually detuned oscillators 2 and 3. Interval tuning of the oscillators was not introduced until the programmable version was made, and the intervals were part of the program, selected by pressing keys on the keyboard. There was also a Transpose control that shifted the entire tuning of the machine in half-steps over a one octave range.

It was a standard Prophet-type control set, with one filter ADSR and one volume ADSR. The filter section had the standard cutoff, contour amount and resonance dials. The layout was basically that of a MiniMoog, including an oscillator mixer that included a pink noise control.

One drawback was a lack of a keyboard tracking filter setting, which was explained to e as being impossible due to the way the keyboard controlled the oscillators. Another as that it also lacked a provision for a sustain pedal.

The keyboard system was unique in that it was not based on the same serial-scanning system developed by Tom Oberhiem used by virtually every polyphonic synth, but was rather a parallel port that had an input point for each of the 37 keys. This made for a very fast, responsive keyboard, but made it difficult to derive an analog voltage
to use for filter tracking.

The first Pentaphonic's joystick was only a pitch bend lever, but later they upgraded it to allow for pitch bending and modulation of either the pitch or filter cutoff. There was also a simple, real time, one-track sequencer built in, but with the unique eature of being able to play back the sequence while playing the keyboard with the joystick and transpose control effecting only the notes played on the keyboard.

The original Gleeman Pentaphonic retailed for US$2795 and featured a 6X9 inch "car speaker" with amplifier built into the back of the cabinet. The price included an injection molded road case (actually a Samsonite suitcase customized with form-fit molding inside to hold the synth and a "Gleeman" nameplate glued over the "Samsonite" label.)

In 1982, the programmable version was introduced. I had told Bob from the beginning how much better (and more marketable) the Pentaphonic would be if it were programmable (as the Prophet-5 was setting the standard for analog synths in these days.) The "Presetter" used a two-digit thumbwheel selector next to the joystick with a toggle switch. The first 50 programs (designed by the Gleemans with help from
myself and Keith Hildebrant, who later worked for Opcode and authored several sound sample disks) were in ROM memory and the second 50 were user programmable. The toggle switch allowed for either instant recall as the thumbwheels were changed, or in the second position the patch remained in performance memory until the wheels were changed and the switch was toggled into the "recall" position. A small recessed red
button was the "write" switch. Unfortunately there was no provision for off-loading of programs. The programmable version retailed for US$3295.

I sold Oscar Petersen his Pentaphonic a few months after we became a dealer. He was playing a concert in town nearby and came into the store just to kill time after the soundcheck. He started playing on the Pentaphonic and didn't stop for two hours, while a small crowd gather to listen. He told his road manager he had to have one, and Bob and I delivered it to him at the venue the next day.

The greatest thing about the Gleeman was the sound -- it was gorgeous! The pads were thick and rich; the string patches made an OBXa sound almost thin by comparison. The three oscillator sound was very similar to a MemoryMoog in some ways, but with a crystal clarity that the Moog couldn't touch. If it had a weak point, it was that the Gleeman was almost TOO "pretty" sounding -- not a very good "down and dirty" synth. It was no good at the kind of bizarre patches that the Moog and the Prophet were capable of. It lacked a sync mode and the limited keyboard range was a hassle, but within that range, it was a truly lovely sounding instrument.

To address these defects, the Gleeman brothers had plans for a 61-note, touch sensitive, 8-voice version of the synth (I even saw the prototype being built while visiting their workshop). MIDI was just becoming available, and the new machine would have MIDI (though by then programmable Pentaphonics could be retrofitted for MIDI by the shop.)

Unfortunately, by 1984 the Japanese synth builders were flooding the market with inexpensive polysynths (like the PolySix and the Juno 6/60) and the market for a 5-voice machine with a 37-note keyboard and a price tag over 3000 bucks was gone. And oon after that the DX7 was introduced and the market was radically changed. The Gleeman "Octophonic" never saw the light of day, and the Gleeman brothers retired from the synthesizer business. (I heard that years later Al Gleeman went on to invent the laser dentist's drill.) Only 50 or so Pentaphonics were ever made but they still pop up in the keyboard rigs of some major recording artists such as Kansas, The Band, R.E.M. and of course, Oscar Petersen.

But the Gleeman didn't disappear until after it had made a bit of a stir in the synth world with the introduction of the world's only see-through synthesizer -- the "Pentaphonic Clear".

Here are gleeman owner's Harmony central reviews:
file:///Users/f/Desktop/GLEEMAN/reviews.harmony-central.com"