What does it mean to RECAP old gear? | Yamaha TX816 in need of help

video by Espen Kraft

"I recently found out that my Yamaha TX816 had bulging capacitors in the power supply. I was a little pressed for time so Anders Jensen stepped in and offered to do it for me. Thanks buddy!

So he shot the complete job and I shot a couple of clips and presto; here is a nice little video for anyone interested in what it takes to actually replace all the capacitors in a power supply. Necessary evil if you want to keep your precious electronics free from harm and enjoy your synths for another 30 years.
Now I "only" have to recap all the different boards as well, but those aren't as critical as the power supply as a bad power rail there can easily fry everything down the line."

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"

Yamaha QX1 - The Mothership Sequencer From 1984

video by Espen Kraft

"With a price tag of nearly $3000 in 1984, this was the mothership of sequencers. The first MIDI sequencer from Yamaha. Totally overengineered and prop full of features.

Internally it has a PPQ of 384, absolutely unheard of in 1984, note ny note editing and with a 5¼" floppy drive for saved data, a totally pro sequencer.
What you must be aware of though, is that the QX1 was meant and MADE to be used with the TX816 rack. Some strange quirks like not being able to pass the incoming MIDI data to its MIDI out ports, only to the THRU port means that if you want to use this with other midi gear, you have to use a massive MIDI merger or patch bay and it will still be cumbersome. Today this almost unusable for anyone not wanting to pray at the alter of selv hurting, as the workflow of the QX1 is also insane, arcane and so utterly cumbersome that half of the time on this machine is waiting. Waiting for it to compute your commands, and only if you input the right commands, in the right order. One wrong press of a button and it will erase your last recording, with no undo.
Luckily it has some redeeming qualities as well, as we shall see.
I find this utterly fascinating, inspiring and a true DeLorean time machine!"

Scritti Politti track.

Korg DDD-1 | Outstandingly fun drum machine!

video by Espen Kraft

"The Korg DDD-1 drum machine from '86-87 is one of the better drum machines you can get from the 80s. It has a Kick and Snare that can rival the Linndrum and it has awesome specs throughout.
High quality&24 Hours Build Time: https://www.pcbway.com/​

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

The demo song is made up from drums of the DDD-1. I programmed two patterns that just alternates in Song mode, on repeat.
Then I programmed the chord pattern on the Korg SDQ-1 sequencer and set that to drive/sync the DDD-1 through MIDI sync. The SQD-1 has two MIDI outs so the other played those chords on a Korg EX-800, the module version of the Poly-800.
I played the synth solo with the same sound off the EX-800 and I played the bass from the Korg DW-8000. Since this required three hands, I multitracked it all. The SQD-1 was clocked/synced directly from the DAW and put in external MIDI sync. That way the multi tracking was always on the beat.

In the demo I have processed each of the drum sounds individually to sound the best, so these are not the dry sounds out of the DDD-1. What's the fun of that?

The demo song is shot on VHS tape, with a Panasonic M7 VHS camera from 1987 and the footage is edited down in Adobe Premiere Pro on a 720p timeline."

Espen Kraft Studio Tour 2022 | 80s Vintage Synthesizers and Gear

video upload by Espen Kraft

"My 2022 studio tour where I go through what I have in the studio. As I often have change things out and/or get stuff coming and going, not all things are set up in a permanent order. Some are not even hooked up unless I need it for a particular job.
At the time of shooting I was unaware that I could only use 5 cards in a video so I couldn't link to as many videos as I had hoped."

Roland JX-08 vs JX-8P | There will be blood...

video upload by Espen Kraft

"Can the new Roland JX-08 Boutique replace the classic JX-8P synthesizer?
More polyphony, more memory, a sequencer, arpeggiator and more. Is this enough for the 08 to beat the classic? Can the sound match up?

The JX-08 has no Sysex abilities, so it cannot import patches nor be used as a controller for the 8P. It cannot do Unison detune, so forget those extra fat patches. The envelopes are very different, and the filter does not sound the same.
You can dial in different effects settings, including parameters to mimic the classic 8P chorus, but again it's not enough to make the 08 sound good enough in my opinion.

I've taken all my custom made patches for the 8P and programmed them into the 08 and I've taken all parameters into consideration when doing this, but since so much of the sound engine of the 08 sounds so different, it's impossible to get any exact match for a lot of sounds. Some are easier than others, while some sound very different even if the settings match up, if you know what I mean.
The demo track uses these patches. They're on both machines and are triggered over MIDI. All external reverb is applied the same to both machines. I use only chorus from the 8P and 08 respectively, set up to match. The PG-8X has the 8Ps sysex loaded into it.

Another big annoyance of the JX-08 is there's no way to power this except over USB. This is a big mistake as it means ground hum and noise you'll have to use Di-boxes to get a clean recording signal. Not all of us love USB, I hate USB myself and want as little of this as possible.

* the story about the dead grandmother was fiction to illustrate my point. This is NOT legal i Norway."

The Ultimate Pad Sound

video upload by Espen Kraft

"What makes the perfect pad sound/patch? This can be highly subjective. To me it's a pad sound that takes me to a warm place, filled with nostalgia, which is slick, lush and soft. Lots of chorus and reverb does not hurt either. The Sequential Prophet 2000 has what it takes to make that possible.
A sampler with less than 256K of RAM and it can outperform any synth patch that ever came after it. ;-)

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

In this video I use a 4-part multisample where I adjust the filter cutoff for each of the parts to suit the style I'm playing. I've added a little deep bass underneath from the Kawai K3m. Everything was played live before that was added. There are no overdubs apart from that. It's all coming out of the P2000.
Reverb is from the Valhalla VintageVerb and the chorus is the Symphonic coming out of the Yamaha DMP7 digital mixer where the P2000 is hooked up.
The P2000 has a stereo output which alternated the different voices, hence the dynamic allocation of the stereo voices. That feature makes the sound even more lush."

John Bowen Solaris | Epic, Enormous & Expensive

video upload by Espen Kraft

"A flagship synth from 2011, the John Bowen Solaris is both vintage and modern at the same time. It's all digital, but it can mimic both old analogs as well as the 80s hybrid synthesizers and more.

Check out the synth here: https://www.johnbowen.com

The idea to use a Compact Flash card to store patches, presets, Wav-files and even the OS is a great concept in my opinion. Yes, it means you can loose everything if not careful, but as long as you have a backup of the card you can put it into another Solaris and boot it up to reveal YOUR Solaris.
Using the CF card does not mean the Solaris boots the OS from the card, you flash the Solaris from the card when there's a new OS update you want to install into the synth.
You do need to have the CF card present to have your presets and patches available though.

The demo song was made to showcase what I feel is the best part of the Solaris, the ability to mimic the classic hybrid synths like the Prophet VS, the PPG, and also synths like the Yamaha FS1R which uses formant shaping. The drum loop that comes up at the end is also out of the Solaris as you can create patches based off your own Wav-files.
The first part of the demo song is all recorded by hand, with a free flowing tempo. I also play an arpeggiated part on top of this.
The second part is recorded to tempo.
Some of the patches are part of this Solaris' preset bank, while some of the sounds are either edited presets or my own makings.
External FX used in the demo track: Valhalla VintageVerb, GFI Specular Tempus.
The demo track has been mixed and mastered using my well documented workflow and gear."

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 »

FM Monster Duel! Yamaha TX816 vs TX802

Espen Kraft

Follow-up to this post.

"The Yamaha TX816 from 1984, a monster DX7, in fact you get EIGHT DX7 in one box with a total polyphony of 128 voices.

Drawback - It's easy to waste voices and you can't edit anything without a real DX7 to control it. Or compatible software.

The Yamaha TX802 from 1987, a highly flexible and powerful FM workhorse. EIGHT 2 voice polyphonc DX7IIs inside. So less total voices than the 816, but you can arrange voices as you want and fully editable from the module itself.

Which one should you get? I show you the differences and how to use them both.

17:00 Answer to what mix was what from the last video - MIX A=802 MIX B=816"

Yamaha DX9 Vs DX7s comparison | How much difference is there really?

video upload by Espen Kraft

"Unlike all the other 4-operator FM synths from Yamaha, from the 80s, the DX9 IS really a DX7, it's just a 4-operator DX7. It even saves its patches in a DX7 format and no patches from the DX9 will load up on the other 4-operator FX synths without converting.

What I was interested in was how DX9 patches sounds on a DX7, or vice versa. I deliberately chose the last DX7 Yamaha made, the DX7s, to test this. The 1987 DX7s has better converters (but still a mono output) than the 1983 DX9.

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