Seiko DS 310 Synthesizer Programmer's Guide

via this auction

"This Original vintage 1970`s Seiko Programmers Guide is just what you are looking for! For the DS-310 Synthesizer. 21 pages that tell you how to get the sound you want. Was part of the inventory of Des Moines Music House and has been carefully stored for 30 years."

Again this seller has a ton of vintage documentation up for auction. Too much for me to grab all the shots from, so I will only be putting up the stuff that I find, really, really interesating. A synth by Seiko, the watch company, for example.

Update via Till "Qwave" Kopper in the comments:
"The Seiko DS310 additive synthesis add-on module (son on the pic as the left unitbehind the main keyboard) for the DS202 was the most affordable way to use additive synthesis in the mid eighties (released 1983?).
It had only 4 memory slots for sounds. You had 16 harmonic and three specrums per sound. A kind of preselection envelope with only 2 or three parameters was used as volume envelope. And at the same time it cross fades the three spectrums at staic point in the envelope. A typical ADSR envelope shpae would use one spectrum for the attack, would cross fade in the decay time to the sustain specrum and would crossfade to the third spectrum in the release section. At least, this is my memory.

I sold it to gain money for my first PPG wave 2.2 in 1987.

The other unit shown here is the sequencer add-on module on the right. Not seen to often."

Seiko DS-310 Digital Musical Synthesizer

via this auction

Seiko Digital Synthesizer, model DS-310.

Seiko DS-320 Digital Sequencer (expansion for DS-202/250 polyphonic synthesizer) SN 32003431

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.
SEIKO キーボード カタログ 昭和58年10月 video upload by Happy Lucky Soul チャンネル

via this auction

Note the listing is for the sequencer only, not the complete system in the video above. See this post for a demo of another system.

"The Seiko 202/250 (maybe more?) are quite rare on their own merit, so the expansions (the DS-320 and DS-310) are even rarer. Since these units didn't do very well commercially, they weren't produced for very long - hardly any were collected/kept. If you find some demo's of what these are capable of, you'll definitley be itching for one - and this sequencer adds to the madness. The whole setup was supposed to rival the Synclavier (with varying results) but really amounts to some very interesting 80's additive synthesis. JM Jarre used this on a couple of his notable compositions (but, as is the case for just about every synthesizer)..."

CLICK FOR MORE »

Hammond Auto-Vari 64 with Seiko DS-250 and function generators

Published on Dec 2, 2013 acreil·71 videos

"The drum track uses a Hammond Auto-Vari 64, Boss DS-2 and Garrard GEQ-330 equalizer. Synth overdubs are Seiko DS-250 with DS-310 programmer, Ibanez SDR-1000 reverb and Roland VP-70 (VP-70 only used on the chord part). Noise overdubs are Wavetek 145 and 188-S-1257 function generators with Marantz PMD221 tape echo. 8 tracks total. Recorded 2013."

Ultra RARE SEIKO DS-202 Keyboards Synthesizer with DS-310 & DS-320

via this auction
"This thing is as mysterious as it is rare. Much talked about and seldom seen and never offered on E-bay because of its rare-ity. You can see this on YouTube and a host of other websites. Not a lot of them made to begin with and not a whole lot of them sold in the U.S. of A. These have a small cult following for some reason. That reason being that these are so crazy and complicated and a lot of fun. The gadgets alone will keep you occupied for hours. These were made in Japan for Seiko so you know they have quality electronics. This has been in my basement for over 10 years untouched, i plugged it in and everything works like the day i bought it. Yes i am the original owner of this beauty. The wife wanted it back when so i bought it for her and i remember it cost over 1000 dollars. I guess i had more money back then. I cant remember when i bought it but i believe it was the late 80's ?..." via Joel

CLICK FOR MORE »

Seiko ds-250 with ds-310 synth module

YouTube via onephatcat
"The ultra rare additive synth system. Ds250 has midi in out thru 2 channel multitimbral layering, chorus detune pitch bend. What makes this synth great? The ease of use for one thing. Seiko achieved something that the other additive synth makers missed: an easy method for creating complex evolving sounds. Essentially you create three sound spectra, assign one to the attack, one to the sustain, and one to the release phase, and then set the envelope time for the ADSR and you are done! Now other synths such as Kawai k5 & k5000s have serious fine control over the envelopes of the overtones, but in terms of gratification from sound creation, the Seiko kicks a**."

BTW, anyone know where to find a manual for the DS-250?

Strange Synthesizers of Japan by Hiromichi Oohashi - Synth Book w/ CD

Hiromichi Oohashi wrote in to let us know about his new synth book featuring rare and somewhat strange synthesizers from Japan. The book features synths from his collection along with a CD of audio/music. You can find the book via the publisher Rittor Music (Japan) (published Nov.2021), and on Amazon JP here.

You can find a list of the synths featured by chapter further below.

Details on the book from Hiromichi Oohashi follow.

"This art book introduces many of Japanese most rare and strange electronic musical instruments (1960s~1980s) from author's private collection for long years.

Contains over 130 synthesizers, rhythm machines, organs, toy instruments, speech synths, etc most of these rare instruments will be the first public release. All color pages, lot of beautiful photo of these unique instruments with simple and detailed text, all photos and book design by author himself.

Contribution from Mark Mothersbaugh (DEVO)

Foreword by Eric Schneider (author of TOY INSTRUMENTS/MBP)

Attached CD has original music using these strange instruments so you can hear what these synth sounds like.

CD's music made by author's band KINO-MODERNO (world-renowned electronic music duo)



Hiromichi Oohashi is an artist born in Tokyo 1961
after studied art & design at Kuwazawa Design School in Tokyo
works as an artist and producer for Art, Design and Music
also known as collector of rare electronic musical instruments
in 1990 released groundbreaking [ VIDEO DRUG2/Phuture ] and get noticed
member of electronic music duo KINO-MODERNO since 1984
president of DAT PLANET PRODUKT"

CLICK FOR MORE »

Seiko DS-202 Digital Keyboard + DS-320 Sequencer

via this auction

Anyone know more about these? Looks like a scaled down version of the DS-310.

Update via Qwave in the comments: "The DS310 was the digital additive synthesis add-on for the DS202 and DS101. I used to have the DS202 with the DS310.
http://till-kopper.de/seiko.html

The DS310 could only be screwed and connected on the left back of the DS202 and DS101 keyboards. The DS320 was always on the right side of the keyboards back panel.

The DS310 had the ability to create and store 4 (four( sounds. Each sound was made up from 3 different spectrums of 16 harmonics each. And these spectrums were crossfaded and overall envelopes by one of the 3 (or 4?) preset envelopes with variable time segments.

Because of the limited memory slots I wrote down the sound on paper too. I stil got some of the paper today. I also recreated two of my favourite Seiko sounds on the Waldorf WAVE's build in additive wave and wavetable generation pages.

The sound available through this additive synthesis were kind of a budged Synclavier to me then. You could do nice sounds unavailable be all synths under 10.000 US$ then (early eighties). But there was always one oscillator. So you needed to layer the sounds (available only on the DS202 keyboard if my memory is still right). Or use the DS202 build in single preset chorus for wider sounds. The low end was also very thin. So you usually ended up using extrem digital sounding things.

And yes, once you changed the spectra, the DS310 needed to calculate a second or two to make the new sound audible. No real time. But this was kind of stone age of digital synthesis in the years before the DX7.

I sold the Seiko to gain money to buy me a PPG wave 2.2 in 1987."

CLICK FOR MORE »

seiko ds-310 and ds-202 synthesizer

via this auction

Not the best shots but you don't see these too often. You can make out the ribbon connector in the bottom pic.

SEIKO DS-250 Digital Synthesizer Keyboard w/ DS-310 & Original Box

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

via this auction

SNs 25001720 & 31004412.

CLICK FOR MORE »

SEIKO DS-310 Digital Synthesizer

images via this auction

Note the lack of jacks in the back and the ribbon connector. According to the auction it's an "add on to the 1980's Seiko Digital Sound System Keyboards." See this post for more details on that synth.

Update via Qwave in the comments: "Right, this is only an add-on for those Seiko Keyboards.
I used to have a Seiko DS202 with this DS310 additive synthesis add-on. You could store 4 sounds only. Each Sound consisting of three user programmable static 16 harmonic waves. The unit got 4 different envelopes to get the various possible crossfades of the spectrums over time and the over all volume envelope. Soundwise it was the pure man's ynclavier or PPG wave ;-)

Well not bad. But no detuning, just static one and a chorus from the DS202 keyboard. There was also a keyboard without the chorus. And the real time sequencer add on was named DS320. See a picture of mine (sorry, long gone) here. The most famous user were J.M. Jarre (see Rendez-Vous) and Robert Schroeder. He also did the demoing (by playing The Beatles "Eleanor Rigby") the year it was first shown in the Frankfurt Musik Messe."