The Roland Super Quartet - The 80s band in a box!

Alex Ball

Check out more of Alex Ball's synth videos here.

"If you’re after a classic Roland Juno-106 or TR-707, you might not know that both (plus a bass synth) are found inside the MKS-7 or “Super Quartet” from 1985.

Roland made various rack mount versions of their 80s synths in the MKS range, but the Super Quartet is a little different and is somewhat related to their earlier CMU-800.

In this video we take a look at what it does, how it was intended to be used and how it can be used in ways that weren’t intended.

Espen Kraft even shows up. What’s not to love?

0:00 Intro
0:32 The Super Quartet
2:07 Four Bass Presets
2:56 Four Chord Presets
4:12 Four Melody Presets
4:55 Editing
5:17 In Its Pure Form
6:04 Karaoke
7:09 Playing Outside the Box

Some original brochure scans stolen from the wonderful Retro Synth Ads blog:
http://retrosynthads.blogspot.com"

Keyboard Mag. Aug. '85 | What Was In It?

Published on May 19, 2020 Espen Kraft

"Support this channel on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/espenkraft

A very intersting issue where the focus is on Japanese (now) synth pioneers, the manufacturers of synths and keyboards and more."

Espen Kraft What Was In It? posts

Keyboard Mag. Nov'84 | What Was In It?

Published on Mar 31, 2020 Espen Kraft

"Plenty of cool colorful ads of now classic vintage gear. In-depth features on Tony Banks, Genesis and Berlin. Great issue!"

Espen Kraft Mag posts

Music Technology Mag. Jul '88 | What Was In It?

Published on Mar 10, 2020 Espen Kraft

"Support this channel on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/espenkraft

July 1988 - Music Technology with a very nice interview with Scritti Politti, among other things.

Find the ADs here:
https://bit.ly/2xqONTB [pictured below]

Read the whole issue here:
http://www.muzines.co.uk/mags/mt/88/0..."

Espen Kraft Magazine posts

Keyboard Mag. Aug '83 | What Was In It?

Published on Feb 17, 2020 Espen Kraft

"One of my favorite issues of Keyboard Magazine ever. Colorful ads of many synths and drum machines we now consider classics.
In-depth interviews with Thomas Dolby and Lee Curreri (Fame) as well as clinics on different topics."

Note 8:12 on the Jupiter-6 being marketed as a 6 voice Jupiter-8 by Roland.

Espen Kraft Magazine posts

Music Technology Mag. Dec '86 | What Was In It?

Published on Jan 28, 2020 Espen Kraft

"Music Technology Magazine, Issue December 1986. What was in it? Let's check it out together!
In depth reviews of Roland S-10 and S-50, The live setup of OMD at the time, Patch-works and lots of glorious ads for 80s gear + + + ;-)

Download the ADS here:
https://shorturl.at/jrwIQ"

Keyboard Mag. Dec '87 | What Was In It?

Published on Jan 7, 2020 Espen Kraft

"Back in the 80s I bought Keyboard Magazine quite often, especially when there was these synth 'clinics' features inside, This issue from Dec. 1987 has a Roland D-50 clinic by Eric Pershing so naturally I bought this. But what else whas featured inside this issue?
Take a break and come with me as I go through the complete magazine with you."

Akai S612 - The first and best sampler Akai ever made - Demo/review/tutorial

Published on Dec 14, 2018 Espen Kraft

"When the Hi-Fi home system producer Akai entered the music tech/gear business with the Akai S612 sampler, and the Akai AX80 and AX60 back in 1985/86, no one new what to make of it. Not even Akai themselves. I don't think they knew how successfull their samplers would be in the years to come after this.
This was also the only sampler they'd ever produce that was in black.

The 612, in essence 6 delay lines with sampling functions, was streamlined the year later with the grey S700.
Both have a analog filter, non resonant, but where the S700 is a menu driven sampler, the S612 uses knobs and faders for adjusting parameters and that is very, fast, intiutive and simple. No Akai sampler for many years after the S612 did this.

Unfortunately it does not comply to the "standard" Midi Sample Dump protocol so with a fawlty Quick Disk drive like most of these has today, you have to use some old Atari or MAC to transfer sounds to and back from a computer. Or fix your quick disk system.

The demo track I start off with (Tell Me) is made entirely of sounds coming out of the S612. I've multi tracked it of course and additional effects are being used.
It has that 12-bit, slightly gritty sound I love."

Roland D-50 / 32 Original Retro Synth Patches for Synth-pop/Synthwave/Italo Disco

Published on Jan 2, 2018 Espen Kraft

"32 Original patches for the Roland D-50. These patches are created by me to emulate classic analoge synth sounds for use in all kinds of electronic music.

Download at:
https://thepatchbay.co.uk/roland-d-50...

Also included in my download is a bonus folder of some of my best drum sounds. Including drums from my track The Golden Boy. Something to sweeten the deal!

I've had the D-50 since the day it was released and these are what I consider the best sounds on the market for synth-pop, synthwave, italo disco and all sorts of retro synth music. Or modern too!

The sounds are compatible with the D-50, D-550. The Roland D-50 plugin and the Roland Boutique D-05.

This is a SYSEX download so you'll have to transfer these sounds over to your machine manually. I reccomend the D-50 librarian to do this. This free program can be found here:

http://www.d50librarian.co.uk/

The sounds comes in 32 + 32 which means that the first 32 patches have reverb and chorus attached to them, but the next 32 is completely dry so you can use your own effects without having to edit off the reverb and chorus in the D-50 itself. The patches are the same, 32 wet, 32 dry.

Patch list for the D-50 sounds:

CLICK FOR MORE »

Old-School Synth-Pop Tutorial/workflow Videos by Espen Kraft

Espen Kraft
Published on Mar 27, 2017

Note: this completes the current run of Espen Kraft posts on the site. If you are coming in on the main site you can just scroll down for previous posts in order. If you are coming in directly to this post, click here for all Espen Kraft posts in reverse order. There have been a couple of updates, so be sure you haven't missed anything. These are some great synth videos with that classic 80s feel.

http://www.espenkraft.com
https://soundcloud.com/espenkraft
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1dMWi...

Playlist:
1. Old-school synth-pop tutorial/workflow - Retrowave/synthwave - Free patches Roland JX-8P download
2. Italo Disco - Old-school synth-pop tutorial/workflow - Free patches DX7
3. The Golden Boy - Old-school synth-pop Synthwave tutorial/workflow breakdown & multi track
4. 80s MIDI synthesizer setup explained - tutorial/workflow 2017

Details for each:

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