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"The Prophet VS uses Vector Synthesis as its revolutionary new means of sound creation. It uses a total of four oscillators per voice with 127 waveforms (32 user) and dynamic waveform crossfading via the joystick. This was Sequential's first digital synth, and it was also their final synth unfortunately.
Condition:
Overall the VS is in good cosmetic condition, top panel shows heavy wear (scratches and dents) from being in and out of racks over the years, the top cavity plate opens with no trouble.
Currently loaded with OS 1.1, a few of the buttons are sticky from time to time, but all functions perform as expected.
The previous owner mentioned that one of the CEM5530's was replaced. The repair looks to have been performed by John Leimseider (RIP) based upon the SSM chips & the fact that it's on a standoff, however we cannot confirm this. Pro job to say the least.
Everything else is original, so that means the screen is blue and weird to read at certain angles (most folks replace with an OLED) and the power supply hums (you can buy modern replacements for around $350.)
The Stereoping VS Controller connects via MIDI and allows you to control most parameters remotely, works like a charm.
Original VS and VS Controller manuals are included."
First I want to thank everyone who takes the time out of their busy schedules to come visit the site. I want to give an extra thanks to everyone who supports this site, including the sponsors you see above and on the right. Without them this site would not be possible.
As many of you know, running MATRIXSYNTH is a labor of love. The site has been running for over 13 years and hopefully will continue on for many years to come. Every single post goes up by hand, seven days a week, including holidays and "vacations." Some of you may not know this, but MATRIXSYNTH is a one man shop by me, matrix. I have not missed a single day of posting since back on August 6 of 2005 when I first launched this format of the site. I say "this format of the site" because I actually registered matrixsynth.com back in October of 1997. You can still see the old site here. On the left were links to sites I visited back in the day. It's actually a pretty neat snapshot of what was around on the web back then before the days of YouTube and social media. I launched this version of the site back on July 20 of 2005. As of this post there have been 175,117 posts on the site. We had 13,302 posts in 2018. Every single one went up by hand. I am extremely humbled and grateful of those who choose to support the site. Thank you so much!!!
Now, for some numbers. I haven't shared them in a while as they started to feel a little redundant year after year, but I figured why not? The image above is a map of visitors to the site in 2018. We had 540,712 users visit for a total of 3,418,064 pageviews. We finally have a visitor from North Korea this year! The numbers are from Google Analytics and should filter out bots. BTW if you look at this all time map, the only country to not have visited MATRIXSYNTH to date is the Central African Republic. It's pretty amazing to think someone from every single other country in the world has visited the site.
The following are the top 10 countries to visit by traffic:
1 United States 4,564(35.30%)
2 United Kingdom 1,070(8.28%)
3 Germany 866(6.70%)
4 France 653(5.05%)
5 Canada 544(4.21%)
6 Italy 512(3.96%)
7 Japan 464(3.59%)
8 Netherlands 357(2.76%)
9 Poland 331(2.56%)
10 Norway 314
(Update: I originally had the list by language which duplicated DE and FR. The list has been updated for country only).
A couple of years ago I started tracking new gear for the year with "new gear" labels. For 2018 we had the following:
Note there is some overlap and the primary focus of MATRIXSYNTH is hardware synthesis. Rather than go into a top 10 list (which I never was into because all gear has its use imo), click through any of the links above to see what came in by category.
This year we lost the following in the synth world. Note this does not include discontinued gear, although with Erthenvar being featured as a company, I may include gear in the the future.
And that's it for 2018. Happy New Year and onto 2019! Thank you to everyone that enjoys, contributes, and supports the site! I started MATRIXSYNTH to track everything synth. It's rewarding to know people out there still enjoy the site. MATRIXSYNTH is my gift to you.
"A memorial and celebration of life will be held at Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre this Sunday, September 30 at 5:00 pm in Studio Bell’s Performance Hall (850 4 Street SE).
5:00 pm: Reception in Canada Music Square
6:00 pm: Formal tribute program in Performance Hall
6:30 pm: Open mic for personal tributes
7:30 pm: Performance by Beatles tribute band All You Need is Love and post-reception
The service is open to the public and no RSVP is required."
Update: "A memorial and celebration of life will be held at Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre, this Sunday, September 30 at 5:00 pm in Studio Bell’s Performance Hall (850 4 Street SE).
It has come to my attention that John Leimseider has passed away. John was the head synth technician at the National Music Centre in Calgary, Canada, and previously the Cantos Music Foundation. He was recently scheduled to give a presentation on TONTO with Malcom Cecil on Nov 17 as part of TONTO Week. Please note, that talk is still scheduled to go on with Malcom Cecil. According to NMC, "TONTO was one of the last major projects of JL’s, so this event has much more significance now that he’s gone. But there will be an enormous void without him."
John Leimseider's influence spread far beyond the museum. Many of you visiting MATRIXSYNTH likely know him. I unfortunately never had the opportunity to meet him in person, however I remember seeing him engage on both the Rhodes Chroma and Yamaha CS80 lists. I still have some of those threads. I was hoping to one day make it out to the National Music Centre and meet him in person.
Below is a short playlist featuring John including his work at the NMC, an introductory video on the Roland System-8 from Roland, a video for The Moog Legacy featuring John, and a fun video featuring Neil Diamond's band paying a visit to the NMC, invited by none other than John Leimseider. He will be sorely missed by the synth community.
Playlist:
National Music Center Mini Doc [be sure to listen in stereo - you can only hear John on the left channel to start]
First Impressions of the Roland SYSTEM-8 with John Leimseider
Virtuality: The Moog Legacy, by Amin Bhatia [John Leimseider comes in at 1:58]
Quarter Note Video Tweet: Neil Diamond's band visits the NMC collection [keep an eye out for John]
You can find a handful of posts mentioning John Leimseider in the archives here. He worked on quite a few synths sold by individuals over the years. It's neat to think each one of those synths were touched by him at some point, and the work he did on them will live on.
The Story of TONTO Published on Jan 22, 2014 National Music Centre
"The Original New Timbral Orchestra (TONTO), the world's largest analog synthesizer, has found a new home at the National Music Centre in Calgary, Alberta. This is the story of how TONTO went from a dream to a reality, and then found a new life and home at NMC."
Note the above video is from January 22, 2014. You should all be familiar with TONTO.
Update: It has come to my attention that John Leimseider has passed away. He was scheduled to give a TONTO Demonstration with Malcom Cecil on Nov. 17 per below. The demonstration will remain scheduled with Malcom Cecil, however the Synthesis 101 course on Nov. 14 has been canceled.
Details on the event:
TONTO Week puts "holy grail of synthesizers" in the spotlight from November 14-18
Week of activities to feature TONTO co-creator Malcolm Cecil, A Tribe Called Red, Phantom of the Paradise screening, and more
(Calgary, AB — September 13, 2018) After years of careful restoration, the National Music Centre (NMC) will commission one of the crown jewels of its music and technology collection, The Original New Timbral Orchestra (aka TONTO), during TONTO Week from November 14-18.
To commemorate this milestone, NMC will host a week of music programming timed to coincide with Alberta Electronic Music Conference (AEMCON), running concurrently at Studio Bell during TONTO Week. NMC Members receive discounted or free admission to all TONTO Week events (not including AEMCON conference passes), so purchase your membership online today at studiobell.ca/members. Individual tickets are available at nmc.ca/whats-on. AEMCON conference passes are available at albertaelectronicmusic.com.
Members of A Tribe Called Red will be the first musicians to create new music with the legendary synthesizer, and they’ll demo TONTO during a public workshop and incorporate the instrument into an evening Studio Bell After Hours set. “After seeing TONTO for the first time back in 2014, I knew that I had unfinished business at the National Music Centre,” said 2oolman of A Tribe Called Red. “I have been waiting patiently ever since to get my hands on that instrument.”
Malcolm Cecil, one of the co-creators of TONTO, will be in attendance to deliver demonstrations and lectures on the history of the instrument. NMC will also host a screening of the cult classic film, Phantom of the Paradise, in which TONTO appeared, and other activities associated with the instrument.
TONTO is one of the world’s largest analog synthesizers. Created by Malcom Cecil and Robert Margouleff in 1968, its creation marked the first attempt at making a universal language for different synthesizers to communicate with each other, which was a revolutionary achievement. Under the band name Tonto’s Expanding Head Band, Cecil and Margouleff released the highly influential album Zero Time. The album demonstrated the rich, layered sounds of the massive synthesizer and attracted significant attention.
Used on multiple Stevie Wonder and The Isley Brothers albums in the 1970s, TONTO helped shape albums by a long list of notable artists such as Minnie Riperton, Joan Baez, the Doobie Brothers, Quincy Jones, Randy Newman, Bobby Womack and more, and was prominently featured in Phantom of the Paradise.
“I needed to find a home for TONTO that would survive me and where it could be used,” said Malcolm Cecil after NMC acquired the instrument in 2013.
“We made a promise to Malcom to ensure that TONTO would be used again in the creation of new music and that its legacy would live on,” said Adam Fox, NMC’s Director of Programs. “It took several years to properly restore the instrument, and now it’s finally ready to enter its next chapter. We couldn’t be more excited to hear where NMC’s Artists in Residence take TONTO next.”
"This unit was recently serviced by the famous analog synth repair Guru John Leimseider (JL) of the Cantos Music Foundation in Calgary Alberta Canada. This is a six voice, VCO-based synthesizer (like the Matrix-12) as opposed to its DCO-based siblings the Matrix-6 and 1000. It is in great condition and sounds wonderful. Very fat and thick as you would expect from a true analog synthesizer. The best part of this unit however, is its flexibility when it comes to programming sounds. It is very similar to a modular synthesizer in that respect. Pretty much anything can modulate anything. This unit is American made in Los Angeles, California."
"John Leimseider specializes in analogue synthesizers, vintage electronic equipment, and keyboard repair for national and international musicians and collectors.
With over 30 years of experience repairing and restoring keyboards and analogue synths, John is one of North America’s premier keyboard techs.
He currently works as the Electronics Technician for the National Music Centre in Calgary, Alberta.
John sat down with Paul McCabe, President and CEO of Roland Canada, to talk about Roland synthesizers past and present."
"10 voice rackmount monster in well loved but functional shape. Has a Rev 3 board that can take the 30 Voice upgrade. Includes original manual and power supply. Plenty of 'character' on the panel - this is not a minty piece. Issues - missing one knob and slippy big red encoder - works but is fiddly. Had it serviced in 2010 by Waldorf certified tech John Leimseider at the Cantos Synth Museum at the National Music Center in Calgary..."
* Two wavetable oscillators plus noise generator and ring modulator.
* Oscillator Sync and FM.
* 10-note polyphonic, 8-part multitimbral.
* 256 User Patches, 128 Multi setups.
* Arpeggiator forms part of patch meaning up to 8 simultaneous arpeggiators can run in multi mode.
* Arpeggiator and LFOs can sync to MIDI clock.
* Two filters with a total of 12 filter types. * DSP effects -- the first three parts in a multi performance can use their full effects settings, the remainder are limited to chorus.
* External signal input to filters/effects.
* 65 wavetables plus 32 user wavetables.
* 44 knobs, 9 switches, 2 x 40 character display, shift key, alpha dial.
* All major parameters have a dedicated MIDI controller numbers.
* Knobs send MIDI controllers.
* Quite large (5 rack units).
* And it's orange"
"This is an Oberheim OBX-a as the ad clearly states. If you're here browsing chances are you already know the specifics of this beauty so, no need to list all the stats. Needless to say, it's big, it's heavy and it's lovely!! The story on this gem is, I was gigging with some cats who wanted to do a tribute to the 80's and me being the obsessive freak that I am, I had to have this board. Besides that, I've always loved Van Halen and Rush so, it was a no brainer. I bought this one on EBay from John Leimseider (look him up) who is the curator at the National Music Centre (look it up) in Calgary, Alberta. As fate would have it the tribute to the 80's never did happen for us and so, the board has been in my studio for the last number of years. Up until a short time ago when I decided to prepare it to be sold. I shipped it back to John who has gone over it thoroughly and has assured me it's ready to rock. When it's time to ship it will be well packaged and protected. Obviously, this item has been used. Consequently, there are signs of wear. However, the wooden sides are in perfect shape as are the keys. Everything works and it is completely functional. However, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that cosmetically it does have blemishes. There are a number of visible scratches on the top and what appears to be scrapes. I would say for it's age it's a 7/10 cosmetically speaking. Thankfully, this does not affect playability. This board is all original but John is able to install midi for a fee of course. Cheers!"
Little bits of individual synth history. Of course you would have to verify it to be sure.
"Up for sale is a fully working, fully upgraded Rhodes Chroma, without doubt one of the best polyphonic analog synths ever made. This is a fantastic sounding synth that has huge flexibility in terms of voice and filter configurations. It can be used as an 8-voice synth with two oscillators per voice, or with 16 single oscillator voices. The 16 filters (one for each oscillator) can also be arranged in serial or parallel configurations, in either high or low-pass modes. An analog ring-modular, sync and FM are also available. I've owned a Matrix-12 and the Andromeda, and this just blows those out of the water in terms of pure sound quality, plain and simple. The sound is best described as 3-D and organic which is the result of discrete rather than chip-based oscillators.
Better yet, this is one of THE best supported vintage polysynths out there. There's a huge user community and loads of newly developed options and this particular model includes all of them, including:
-CC+ (a new CPU that adds midi control over every parameter)
-Upgraded, new power supply (the old one is usually the source of failures on these)
-Polyphonic aftertouch: this allows you to control aftertouch per KEY, like on the CS-80, rather than across the whole keyboard as is the norm on most synths with aftertouch.
Functionally, this is virtually flawless: autotune works every time and the synth tunes up very quickly after a brief warm-up. (It actually turns on and is basically ready to play, but I have to put in the caveat that it needs to warm up since studio temperatures can always change). Also, ALL of the voice cards have just had their capacitors replaced, and the output EQ board has also just been serviced by one of the master synth techs out there, John Leimseider. All keys trigger reliably, but it is worth noting that several will not trigger if played very lightly and until you have applied full [pressure. This is not due to dirty contacts, but the nature/spacing of the metal contacts internally. I believe this can be adjusted, but I was not prepared to attempt this. If playing normally, this shouldn't be noticed..."
seller's details:
"I’ve owned this vintage Minimoog (serial #7578) since late 1976 and am its second owner. In 1999, it was electronically refurbished and updated with the Lintronics MIDI retrofit by the best tech in the synth business, John "J.L." Leimseider. Excerpt from www.lintronics.de/minimoog.html: “The Lintronics MIDI Converter (LMC) is a high-performance MIDI interface designed by Rudi Linhard to place the expressive potential of the Minimoog under MIDI control. The LMC uses state-of-the-art digital circuitry and software and includes an internal, programmable, wide-range, multi-waveform LFO that can be used in addition to, or in place of, the Minimoog's LFO. Pitch, pitch bend, filter cutoff, loudness, modulation amount, and the internal LFO's rate and depth can all be controlled through MIDI in real time and with high resolution. In addition, the Glide and Decay functions can be turned on and off through MIDI. The LMC circuitry is contained on a single circuit board installed inside the Minimoog, and uses its power supply.” Note that the Lintronics retrofit is for reception only, not transmission, and has no effect on the Minimoog’s standard operation.
This Minimoog has always lived in an entirely smoke-free environment. It was used in a few outdoor concerts under the sun, resulting in slight warping on the right side of the black plastic faceplate, and the bottom right corner has snapped off. There are minor scratches on either side of the wooden cabinet, but otherwise the Minimoog is in perfect working condition. It comes with Dr. Tom Rhea’s manual, documentation for the LMC retrofit, a 9' S-trigger cable terminated with male ¼" TS and S-Trigger plugs at either end, and an ATA-rated Anvil case in which I’ve replaced the original, deteriorated innards with new polyethylene foam.
Bid now and win the auction and, along with two vintage 12" x 5" Moog stickers, I’ll include a brand new copy of the first edition of Vintage Synthesizers, not only featuring an outstanding article written about the Minimoog Model D by the late, great BOB MOOG himself, but also personally signed by the author SPECIFICALLY FOR YOU!"
"The Polaris II’s had that chart on the right. There was also a version 2 power supply, but they were not exclusively in the Polaris II. Basically, they were the same machine… They could have mostly version 5 or version 9 (or version 9 star) software. Version 9 star has the better velocity table…"
In via Loscha. Title link takes you to shots pulled from this auction.
MODIFICATIONS:
"I had this modified by John Leimseider, Electronics Technician at the Cantos Music Foundation in Calgary. JL has had over 20 years experience with Arps and can be Googled
This one has had TL071 op amps installed to replace the old ones which reduced the noise and improved fidelity. This also reduced the DC offset which is like the background voltage which the audio signal rides on. The offset doesnt actually contribute to the wanted signal its just like static so reducing it is a good thing.
The Arp envelopes are known for having inconvenient lengths so I had switches installed that allow you to double the attack, decay and release times.
The power supply was replaced to allow both 240/115V operation, its currently set to 115V but can be changed by disconnecting one wire and soldering another, about 15mins work.
Also added was AC coupling which involved adding capacitors to the circuit again to reduce the the static (DC) components from the input signal to the amplifier.
Finally, John installed an external input for the electronic switch which lets you control the switch from something other than the clock for the sample and hold. This is great because 'you can plug in 2 oscillators to the inputs of the switch and then control it from the square out of an oscillator. When you do this with synched oscillators, you get some amazing new timbres'."
"The Prophet VS uses Vector Synthesis as its revolutionary new means of sound creation. It uses a total of four oscillators per voice with 127 waveforms (32 user) and dynamic waveform crossfading via the joystick. This was Sequential's first digital synth, and it was also their final synth unfortunately.
