Baldwin Fun Machine

video upload by Mark Steiner

You can find additonal demos of the Baldwin Fun Machine in previous posts. For comparison, check out the CONN Electric Band.

02- The Baldwin Fun Machine- Soloists (presets) part 1

video upload by AutomaticGainsay

"Here is a demonstration of the sound and functionality of the presets found on the Baldwin Fun Machine.

The theme music for this demonstration was created entirely with the Baldwin Fun Machine in combination with a small amount of rhythm parts assembled out of GarageBand drum loops."

Also check out the Conn Electric Band from 1974.

A polyphonic in 1974? THE ANSWER

video upload by AutomaticGainsay

"Have you spent a week wracking your brain and biting your nails in regard to the previous video that proposed the preposterous idea that there was an instrument capable of polyphonic synthesizer sounds the year before the modern polyphonic synthesizer became a thing? Well, in this video, THE ANSWER IS REVEALED."

Update: also check out the Conn Electric Band from 1974.

1974 Conn Electric Band SN 008486

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"This keyboard is in excellent working and cosmetic condition with only a couple keys showing a bit of yellow tinge.

• Aside from the two that are barely yellowing, the rest are super white.

• All keys are straight and aligned, not sinking or of different levels. VERY nice!

• This instrument is known for its striking appearance and unusual features.

• Among the 14 instrument names include “hill band”, “blast off” and “space junk” .

• Press the “adjustables on” button to activate the 7 ANALOG CONTROLS!

• The pitch selector has “high, normal, low, deep AND sub”!

• Six rhythms are available including “teen beat” and a tempo speed control.

• Separate left hand selects and volume control.

• A three stage SPRING REVERB

• Original base includes the giant speaker and volume pedal

• Faux woodgrain veneer trim is missing from right side edge as shown in photos.

• Two lever knobs are missing.

• Includes Bench."

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1974 Conn Electric Band SN 008857

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"Very rare and works perfectly. This keyboard is in great vintage condition and ALL aspects function as designed. This is known for its striking appearance and unusual features. Among the 14 instrument names include “hill band”, “blast off” and “space junk” . Press the “adjustables on” button to activate the 7 ANALOG CONTROLS! The pitch selector has “high, normal, low, deep AND sub”! Six rhythms are available including “teen beat” and a tempo speed control. Separate left hand selects and volume control. A three stage SPRING REVERB adds to the (already significant) bad-assery of this instrument. To me it looks like something Brian Eno would’ve played in his Roxy Music days!"

You can find video demos of the Conn Electric Band in the archives here.

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1974 Conn Electric Band Analog Synthesizer, Drum Machine & Chord Organ

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.
Published on Aug 2, 2017 keyboard resource

via this auction

"1974 Conn Electric Band Monophonic Analog Synthesizer & Drum Machine Extremely RARE!

This loud and unique instrument is one part preset monophonic analog synthesizer with aftertouch (like the ARP Pro-Soloist, Roland SH-2000 or Moog Satellite), one part simple drum machine (only six rhythms) and one part chord organ. The strum pattern is different if you select the "Bag Pipes" preset. Most voices have vibrato as aftertouch effect. But, "Musical Saw"'s aftertouch effect speeds up the vibrato effect (similar to growl on ARP Pro-Soloist).

There are some interesting sounds like: "Mod" (where the LFO starts and then speeds up after you release the key), "Space Junk" (where the LFO speeds up and the pitch drops) and "Blast Off" (where the pitch goes higher and higher and fades after releasing the key). My favorite is "Hill Band" which has a built-in wah-wah effect and is effected by the chords in the left hand section.

The "Adjustables On" section gives you some basic controls: two tones (A,B) mix, "Wa-Wa" amount, vibrato speed and depth, sustain and portamento amount. It also has a built-in reverb with three levels for deep space craziness.

This one is quirky in that the left-hand chords sometimes don't work and the bass note sometimes gets stuck on a certain pitch."

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Conn Electric Band Synthesizer Organ

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"A very rare and very mental home organ / synthesizer."

Indeed.

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Conn Electric Band SN 002504

via this auction

Pics of the inside below.  Tons more at the auction.  There's a video there as well, but you can barely hear it.  Check out this older post for some videos and pics of another one that sold a while back.

Note the preset cards including "Singing Chipmunk". You can see the date on one of the cards back to 1973.

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RMI Electra Piano & Vox Super Continental

via Space Oddity Vintage Furniture Gallery Seattle where these are currently for sale. You might remember Space Oddity from this previous post on a CONN Electric Band.

Conn Electric Band Keyboard Synthesizer

via this auction

via the seller: "Conn Electric Band Keyboard Synthesizer. Is it an organ or is it a synthesizer. It looks like some kind of hybrid. Anyway, this thing works. It has sounds called Musical Saw, Blast Off, Space Junk, Mod, Brass, Bassoon, Trombone, and a few other sounds that don't sound real. Really neat that you can push the adjustable button and kinda sorta make your own sound using the modulator, Wah Wah, and Tone slides. The keyboard is missing everyone of it's slider caps. All sliders work fine. All keys work, however, sometimes the pitch is off. This is because there are little tuning pots for every note. I think these little pots may need to be cleaned. It doesn't look like a major thing, I just don't have the time to do it. I know there's a pretty good You Tube video demonstrating this unit. Check it out!"

See this post for a video of one and some detailed pics.

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CONN Electric Band Videos & Pics

YouTube Uploaded by matrixsynth on Jun 14, 2011

"The video is a bit overexposed in part one. Watch in HD and turn the volume up! Listen to it growl;
and that crazy synthetic laugh! Vids shot with a Canon Rebel T2i."


For Sale at Space Oddity Vintage Furniture Gallery Seattle
The CONN Electric Band. This is one interesting piece. I've been intrigued by it seeing it in previous posts that have gone up over the years. Is it an Organ or is it a Synth? At 50+ posts a day I try to keep the site's focus on synths, not organs, as adding them to the roster would make the site unmanageable. I will however feature organs that are capable of sounding like a synth. The CONN Electric Band definitely fits into this category. I finally got a chance to check one out in person.

This unit is currently for sale at the Space Oddity Vintage Furniture Gallery in the Ballard district of Seattle, WA. If you are in the area, I highly recommend taking the time out to check it out. There's also tons of other interesting items in the shop including a CONN Strobe Tuner. I'll post a video and pics of that later.

Above are a couple of videos I took of Todd, the owner of Space Oddity tinkering with the CONN Electric. We were both discovering the synth/organ, so some of the functional descriptions were guesses that we figured out were different later. Further below are more images. Click on each to see the super sized shots. You can clearly see all the controls.

The unit sits on top of a giant speaker cabinet with a pedal (that black in the image above is the speaker). In the back of the CONN Electric Band are two 1/4" outs that you plug into the cabinet. You can actually unplug it and move just the keyboard section to a desk or stand. See this previous post for pics of one without the cabinet. The speaker does sound great though. There is tons of low end. The videos don't do it justice (turn the volume up when you watch them). You really need to hear this thing in person. Massive thick low end on the black bass keys and a surprisingly rich and sometimes crazy mids and highs depending on the patch with the white keys.

As for the engine, this is a preset keyboard with three reverb settings and a full rhythm section. It's all analog and it sounds it. You can click on the images below to see the presets available. Everything sounds synthetic vs. organ-like. On the far right is the "Adjustables" section. Just to the left in the previous section you will see a button that read's "Adjustables On" with an arrow pointing to the section (see this image). At first we thought this was the "synth section" based on previous posts that stated so. I obviously made the connection that this might actually be the modulation section for each preset vs. a separate section. It turns out it is both. If you select it by itself you get two tones A and B and the modulation settings. To get the modulation going on a given preset it's a little tricky. You can't just select the preset followed by the Adjustables setting as that will just switch to the Adjustables. You have to select your patch and then slightly hold it down half-way while selecting Adjustables On. The controls look simple but you can get some really crazy sounds (listen to the synthetic laugh in the videos below (Space Junk preset)). The following videos will give you a little taste of that. This thing excels at drones and crazy slightly unpredictable synthetic sounds. This one does need work which makes me wonder if some of it's magic would be lost if fixed. Three of the presets unfortunately do not work so we were unable to check them out. Todd did say one was working the other day, so who knows. Definitely temperamental but man does it sound good. Again if you are in the area, you owe it to yourself to check it out. Details here: Space Oddity Vintage Furniture Gallery.

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Conn Electric Band analog synth organ drum machine

via this auction

"This rare Conn Electric Band is a combination of preset & variable analog synth, polyphonic organ section, bass synth, drum machine, with an auto-accompaniment features, and an incredible spring reverb function. The "band" descriptor is apt, as it can do all of that stuff simultaneously. I'd suggest doing a search to see what all the buttons and slides are; I can also send a bunch more pictures. Anyways, all that being said, not everything on it is functional. But, if you're willing to deal with its janky indiosyncracies, it's pretty cool. As for how it works? Well, kind of depends on the day, the weather, the alignment of planets, etc. Gonna do my best to thoroughly explain: The analog drum machine, accompaniment section, and spring reverb all work perfectly. The organ section seems to need time to warm up, and when it does, the keys sometimes all play perfectly, and other times one or two won't play. The main synth section works, but sometimes the sound cuts out. Sort of pushing on the top, or hitting it, or looking at it sideways makes the sound come back. Also, the presets often get their sounds combined with the manual synth section (the variable part of the synth where you adjust portamento, wah, modulation, decay, and the two "tone" oscillators), but this is kind of a non-issue, as all of the presets are made from the manual settings, and thus easily recreated. Also, sometimes, the upper white keys act like they have portamento stuck on. The only thing that doesn't work at all is the bass section. So yeah, really temperamental, but even as is, there are tons of possibilities."


video previously posted here
Conn Electric Band tips and demo

List of Synth Techs by Location

If you are a tech or know of one that should be on the list, email me - it's matrixsynth at gmail.com.
Only submit those you can recommend or know are recommended by others.

Also see:
Syntaur's list of service centers.
https://www.getrecommended.com for user recommended techs.
Mike Overacker's list on arpodyssey.com.
http://www.synfo.nl/pages/synthrepair.html - List of techs around the world

---

USA

AZ
Kurt's Amps & Keyboards
MTroniks

CA
Perfect Circuit Audio
Wine Country Productions - everything Sequential Circuits
Analog Synth Service (Greg Montalbano), https://www.getrecommended.com/greg-montalbano/ - Prophet 5 Specialist & more.
This Old Synth (Chris Hewitt)
Audio Design and Service
Rosen Sound

CT
On The Bench

FL
EPR Pro Audio Electronics - via Subtronik: "Been to them a few times to service my K2000 and never was dissatisfied."
SDMachines - "Since 2005 I've been customizing and modifying and repairing 80's, pre-80s drum machines, synthesizers having limited syncing capabilities from their original manufacturers..."

GA
CMS - Cirocco Modular Synthesizers - ARP specialists but Moog and, EMS also listed.

IL
A Sound Education - via ./luther: "Steve is the tech here, formerly of Midwest Music Menders. Very good with synths."

KS
Thesis Audio Service - Mike Metz

MO
vansickle audio - 573.823.4379 - via spunkytoofers: "vansickle is just a little guy in the midwest but he's a really cool dude that will talk shop, does lots of cool custom work and cabinetry, and will be able to work on just about any vintage synth.. he's had some interesting vintage pieces come through his shop that he's sucessfully repaired.. he's a little bit of an anomoly for the middle of missouri which is also middle of nowhere in terms of synthesizers."

OR
Portland Custom Shop - Synapse Audio Systems

OH
SECRET SERVICE - 541-2292 - via spunkytoofers: "i think secret service changed their name due to problems with the name but i have used various equipment that people have sent in to them to get repaired including old wurlys, the old conn electric band, amplifiers, etc."

Analogics

PA
RetroLinear in North Wales

NY
Ears
The Analog Lab
Patch:Work

TX
Switched On in Austin, TX! 512 782 8806



Interwebs
Synthpro

---

Mexico

Akira Honda - referenced here.

---

Canada
Ramcur in Montreal
Rick Smith in Vancouver - echo7even at yahoo.com
Brian Dekok in Ottawa - brian_dekok at yahoo.ca

---

UK
Synth Repair Services
Clacktronics
NORM LEETE

---

Europe

GERMANY
Tubbetec
SynthesizerServiceDepartment in German - via Till Kopper: "I can recommend SynthesizerServiceDepartment in Germany close to the home town of Waldorf synths. The name behind this company is Achim Lenzgen. He used to be one of the few technicians here in Germany able to fix a PPG wave in the late eighties. I had to contact him often and we shipped individual boards of my PPG waves back ad forth several time. Before he started his own business, he was the tech behind the Synthesizer Studio Bonn which used to be THE synth shop in Germany for many years."
Studio Repair (Niko Riehm) from near Frankfurt/Main (btw: extremely interesting his picture archive)
SND (Sebastian Niessen) in Munich
Xtended in Berlin (that is, where jomox split off)
http://www.ampology.de in Hannover (the website is in german only). via Florian
http://www.sequencer.de/synth/index.php/Synthesizer_Repair - list of techs on sequencer.de

OTHER COUNTRIES
www.virtual-music.at (Alexander Guelfenburg) in Austria
Elektroakustik Wagner in Austria
gotharman in Denmark
MOS-LAB in France
The Laboratory of Sound in Netherlands (featured in this post)
Saint Eric in Netherlands - Arp Specialist
List of Techs in Norway - via Rune: "I can at least vouch for Service Partner Instrument Workshop, Oslo where I have recently got some gear repaired myself. I see that Locomofon, Oslo may not be accepting new orders at this time, but may be worth mentioning still."
Synthoma in Spain
phono1337 (dinsync) in sweden
www.defekt.ch in Switzerland
Synthorama in Switzerland

---

South America

Argentina
Sintetizadores - Hernan Baldi - Buenos Aires

---

Australia and New Zealand

AU
Secret Life of Synthesizers

NZ
Kiwitechnics
Dogmatek (Tim Prebble)

Tubular Bells by the Brooklyn Organ Synth Orchestra

YouTube Uploaded by rastro2 on Mar 3, 2011

Originally posted on 3/04/2011 10:09:00 AM but the video was taken down. It's back!
"Filmed and Directed by Amy Hobby.
Edited by Tony Zajkowski.

Over 20 different NYC female keyboardists playing vintage keyboards at Joe McGinty's Carousel Studio in Brooklyn, NY.

Available on iTunes!

Featuring:
Kaia Wong (Mixel Pixel)
Kelly Rae Kerwin (Private Income)
Natasha Bartolf

CLICK FOR MORE »

CONN "ELECTRIC BAND"

via this auction

CLICK FOR MORE »

Conn Electric Band tips and demo

YouTube via sounddoctorin | December 13, 2010 | 0 likes, 0 dislikes

"Bob Weigel of http://www.sounddoctorin.com shows some troubleshooting tips and the innards of a conn electric band then tries to play it. Hehe. Very odd organ but I feel when I finally get my own repaired that it's going to work it's way into being a useful tool. 1974 I was told..others say 1973. I'd love to find the date the mitsubishi output module came out but I can't see any information on the web. Anyway here it is in all it's beauty. A classic piece of the early/mid 70's. And one of the earliest auto accompaniment keyboards I'm aware of that is this portable. THe bottom speaker cabinet detaches and the top can be carried easily to a car trunk etc."

Joe McGinty's "Tubular Bells" Video Screening & Mellodrama: The Mellotron Documentary

"For those in NYC:

Tubular Bells is an 8 minute video, directed by Amy Hobby, edited by Tony Zajkowski, featuring female keyboardists playing Joe McGinty's arrangement of Tubular Bells, performed on the vintage keyboard instruments at Carousel Studios, Brooklyn, NY.

Featuring (in order of appearance):
Kaia Wong (Mixel Pixel), Kelly Rae Kerwin (Private Income), Natasha Bartolf, Joanna Choy (Spray Paint Star), Amy Merril (Mia Riddle)
Greta Gertler (Universal Thump), Supercute!, Anna Copacabanna, Rolyn Hu (True Primes), Sondra Sun-Odeon (Silver Summit), Michi Turner (Crash Diet Crew, Jacques Detergent), Katia Floreska (The Tall Pines), Natalie Weiss (Unicornicopia), Wendy Ip, Alice Cohen, Kelley Vaughn-Kauffman (Winston Troy), Yvette Perez (H.E.R., Birdbrain, Peter Zummo Group), The Hula Hoop Harlot, Melissa-Anne, Alix Brown (Golden Triangle), Leah Cary (Girl Crisis), Caitlin Jemeson (Queen Of Sibyls).

Instruments (in order of appearance):
Hammond M3 Organ, Fender Rhodes Stage Piano, 1914 Steinway Vertigrand Piano, RMI Keyboard Computer KC-2, Jenco Celeste, Baldwin Solid Body Electric Harpsichord, Mattel Magical Musical Thing, Bebot, Thingamagoop, Hohner Clavinet D6, Casio CZ-101, Wurlitzer Electric Piano Model 700, Conn Electric Band, ARP 2600, ARP Omni, Suzuki Omnichord, Roland Keytar/Yamaha TX802, Yamaha CS01, Vox Continental, Farfisa Combo Compact, Fender Starmaster, Buzzing Bee, Stylophone, 360 Systems Digital Keyboard, Hammond Synthesizer, Gibson Clavioline, Yamaha CP60, Moog Little Phatty, Moog MiniMoog, Mellotron, Maas-Rowe Vibrachime.

Also screening: Mellodrama: The Mellotron Documentary
View the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCabuis6t2w [first posted here]

At IndieScreen
289 Kent Avenue at S 2nd Street, Williamsburg
Advance tickets here: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/130664"

seiko ds-250 additive synthesizer organ

via this auction

"apparently in the early days of digital synths a unknown organ company developed the technology that is now in the seiko ds-250. in the early 80's the original designer asked for a price too insane for the market to handle and it failed miserably, that's when seiko licensed the technology and synthesis methods and failed with it's production of this keyboard. it reminds me of old organs i've used like the conn electric band sans spring reverb or the moog organ sans filter except the seiko is bi-timbral. it has some basic preset sounds selectable for each timbre which define timbre and attack while there are simple controls on each voice for volume, decay, modulation slider with a on/off switch for a delay into the lfo cycle. you can detune the voices up to 14 percent and you can assign each note of polyphony a few selectable intervals. a chorus reminescent of the old junos. single voice mode, bitimbral mode or split point voices. key transposable, volume controls, pitch wheel, on/off buttons and a nice layout with simple but nice led displays.

no memory but it's simple to setup. midi in/out./thru. midi seems primitive as i could really only get note on/off to respond although there is a way to recieve each voice over midi by a 16 way rotary switch by each voice. supposedly you can control detune via midi CC although this is from word of mouth. 1 voice per 2 output on 1/4" also on the side panel is alternate summed mono output, headphone jack, pitch fine tune, stereo rca outputs. input to footswitch sustain (works as sustain on/off rather than hold) input for trs expresion pedal for volume.

the video below is a short demonstration of the actual unit.. you will find a few other very rare mp3's online as well but i am not going to seek permision to repost here.. just do a search."

Sold For: US $300.00

via selective pressure in the comments


previously posted

seiko ds-250 additive synthesizer

YouTube via spunkytoofers
"pardon my lack of keyboard skills to demonstrate, this is just a short one for matrix since there wasn't much in the way of the seiko keyboards.

this was a craigslist find, hoping to resell but i might want to hold onto it for a little while. it does retro pads nicely. it reminds me of old organs i've used like the conn electric band sans spring reverb or the moog organ sans filter except the seiko is bi-timbral. it has some basic preset sounds selectable for each timbre which define timbre and attack while there are simple controls on each voice for volume, decay, modulation slider with a on/off switch for a delay into the lfo cycle. you can detune the voices up to 14 percent and you can assign each note of polyphony a few selectable intervals. a chorus reminescent of the old junos except this one is on a continous slider from 1-2 chorus in stereo. single voice mode, bitimbral mode or split point voices. key transposable, volume controls, pitch wheel, on/off buttons and a nice layout with simple but nice led displays.

no memory but it's simple to setup. midi in/out. midi seems primitive as i could really only get note on/off to respond although there is a way to recieve each voice over midi by a 16 way rotary switch by each voice 1/ voice 2 output on 1/4" also on the side panel is alternate summed mono output, headphone jack, pitch fine tune, stereo rca outputs. input to footswitch sustain (although mine wasn't working on a regular 1/4" footswitch) input for trs expresion pedal for volume. looks like there is room for modular expansion but i don't have any of the modular components to this keyboard. i could see how easy it would be to approach additive like this with really simple controls and some of the expanders but as you might imagine controls are limitied.makes for a nice retro pad machine. even though it's simple i like it because it's not trying to be anything else but itself."

Conn Electric Band Analog Synth Video

see the update in this post.