10 undervalued 80s synths | Most bang for the buck

video upload by Espen Kraft

Top-10 undervalued vintage 80s synths. With a watchful eye on local ads and garage sales, all of these can be had for way less money compared to a lot of other 80s synths. Some can even be had for coffee money if you're lucky. I've seen it happen many times. Including some of my own buys.

1. Yamaha TX7
2. Casio VZ-10M
3. Elka EK22
4. Roland Alpha Juno 1/2/MKS-50
5. Kawai K1 (k1m/k1r)
6. Sequential Six-Trak
7. Siel Cruise
8. Yamaha SK20
9. Korg Poly-800
10. Commodore 64

https://www.patreon.com/espenkraft

Demos for each linked by Espen Kraft:

Playlist:
DX7 Original Patches TX7 (Yamaha TX7 - Zé Osório) - José Osório de Souza
Casio VZ-10M - Exploring the Synth and Sounds - ProckGnosis
Elka 22 analog synthesizer | Demo and review - Espen Kraft
Roland Alpha Juno 2 | The best Roland synth ever? - Espen Kraft
Kawai K1 | A Digital Lo-Fi Beauty! - Espen Kraft
Sequential Six-Trak | Fun as a Prophet! - Espen Kraft
SIEL CRUISE Analog Synthesizer 1979 | HD DEMO - AnalogAudio1
YAMAHA SK20 String Machine 1979 | HD DEMO - AnalogAudio1
Korg Poly-800 | Multitrack - Espen Kraft
Commodore 64 - Let's Make Some Music! - Espen Kraft

Carol of the Nymphes

video upload by ProckGnosis

"A one-synth tune with the Dreadbox Nymphes. Move to 02:33 to skip the opening babble and brewski bit. Skip to 06:24 to hear just clips and bits of the Nymphes used in the song without any affects.

Can't say the world needed ANOTHER version of this song, but here it goes anyway, 'cause it is a seriously cool tune. Intention was to keep it in classic analog synth territory, so the arrangement is also fairly straight forward.

Despite some of the negative comments I've read, I've found the Nymphes fairly easy to navigate for the majority of programming parameters. For assigning modulations it's one of the easiest synths I've used."

More Dreadbox Kinematic Examples

video upload by ProckGnosis

"Playing with the Dreadbox Kinematic a bit more. See the menu below or just skip to 03:27 to hear the examples. I'm mostly playing with the autowah feature, adding a bit of drive, and it sounds great!

Menu

00:30 - Video introduction and description
01:47 - The beer plug and discussion
03:27 - Running the Arturia Drumbrute Impact through the Kinematic
05:30 - Running the Reface DX through the Kinematic

For a little more info about the Kinematic, check out the previous video where I used the Kinematic with the ASM Hydrasynth:" [posted here]

Kinematic and Hydrasynth

video upload by ProckGnosis

"Just some playing around using one of the Hydrasynth's CV outputs to control the Kinematic's filter cutoff frequency, which in turn nicely warms up the oscillators of the Hydrasynth. IMO, the pedal and synth sound their absolute coolest on a mono patch with some compression, distortion, and filter cutoff control all nicely beefing up the Hydrasynth's core tone (as demoed after 17:00).

00:00 - Intro music and beer plug
01:44 - What's covered in the video and how it was set up
03:54 - Demoing CV control of the Kinematic filter cutoff
11:40 - Paraphonic polyphony and "drive" distortion
13:49 - Playing with the Kinematic's "Auto Wah" mode
16:15 - Switching on the compressor with distortion and filtering

The opening theme arrangement (in the quite dance-able time signature of 11/8) was composed with EVERYthing running through the Kinematic, including a track of the Arturia Drumbrute Impact and 4 or 5 tracks of the Hydrasynth."

New 8 Voice Dreadbox Abyss MK2, 6 Voice Nymph, & Semi-Modular in the Works

A few teaser pics floating in from Dreadbox on Facebook. A glimpse of the Nymph is pictured below. It's the NY synth first mentioned here.

Don't miss the recent Dreadbox office visit with ProckGnosis here. The new semi-modular is mentioned just after 14:45. The Nymph screengrab below comes in at 6:08.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Dreadbox Revisited

video upload by ProckGnosis

Update: New Nymph sighting at 6:08. Screenshot captured here.

"Was able to drop by and visit the new Dreadbox office and workshop on a recent trip down to Greece. Pay attention because Yiannis drops some subtle hints about products in the pipeline. And yes, some of them might not be monosynths.

Video timeline:
00:23 - Introduction (beer and band babble)
03:38 - Touring the new offices
13:19 - Touring the new workshop

Minus the drums, 96% of the sounds in the music in this video is the Dreadbox Nyx v2.

The last visit to Dreadbox was in 2018, and here's the link to that video:" [posted here]

The Space Dialogue - a Fun Homage

video by ProckGnosis

"Skip beer-and-babble intro to 3:49​ for the start of the piece and 8:08​ for some comments about the sounds and ideas that went into it. This was meant to be sort of an homage and cheezy collage of synth soundtracks and pieces that I've really enjoyed over the years.

This piece was mostly a side project that gave me something to do from my laptop during corona lockdown and other fun over the last couple of years. It was done mostly with Reason softsynths, with a big assist from the Dreadbox Typhon.

The idea for something like this had been floating around in my head for a while. I originally wrote and recorded the dialogue back in mid 2019, and I've been slowly shaping it, tweaking it, mixing it, and slightly altering it for almost 18 months. The biggest challenge for me putting this together was mixing the various elements and balancing the levels. Though 90% of the melody and arrangement was put together in the first 5 or 6 months, early versions were a bit muddy and crowded, before I started trying for a "less is more" approach. I removed redundant clips/melodies, filtered out the low end where needed, EQ’ed mids more than I usually do, and tried not to drive the mastering compressor so much. I’m fairly happy with the final mix, though there’s still room for improvement. It was fun and a pretty good learning experience.

Thanks to some of the "green screen" community out there for offering up a few special effects. Now I need to go back and find out who to give credit to after I post this.

And of note, I think this is the first ProckGnosis theme I've done based mostly on guitar!"

Dreadbox Typhon - Programming a Sequence from your Keyboard

ProckGnosis

"With the Dreadbox Typhon 1.1 update, you can now input notes into the sequencer from your controller keyboard. Skip to (01:40) to pass over the babble-and-brewski intro. See below for the different parts of the video.


Quick start intro - 01:40
Slower walk through - 02:52
Editing the sequence - 04:44
Transposing the sequence - 07:35


Love this synth! Can't say this enough. Not sure why, but it's just really clicking with me. Love the core sound, the distortion effects are great, it's fairly easy to program, and I can save everything!"

Update the Typhon Firmware from a PC

ProckGnosis

"A short video walking through the steps of updating/installing the Dreadbox Typhon firmware from a PC. Check out Dreadbox's video on updating Typhon firmware from a Mac which covers similar territory, but also demos backing up and restoring your patches (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWYSl...). [below]

Haven't had a lot of time to play with the Typhon yet, but I'm pretty damn impressed so far. The core sound is great (oscillators, filter, and effects), and the digital control and features are well though-out and add a lot of power, especially for the price."

How to update Typhon Synthesizer by Dreadbox

Dreadbox

"A quick explanation on how to update the Typhon Synthesizer to newer versions."

Yamaha AN1X Sounds - Part 2

Published on Nov 24, 2019 ProckGnosis

Part 1 posted here.

"This is part 2 of a lengthy listen to a great sounding and very capable virtual analog (VA) synth from Yamaha released in 1997. Jump to 1:35 to skip the intro. This is a continuation of a run through of the AN1x presets.

As I asked in the "AN1x Sounds - Part 1" video, if Yamaha made a VA this good 20+ years ago, why haven't they updated this and made an even cooler and better synth with the more capable and cheaper tech that's available now?

--AN1X Specs--
Polyphony - 10 notes
Oscillators - 2 osc: saw, variable width pulse, FM
Effects - Reverb, delay, 3-band EQ, chorus, flanger, phaser, enhancer, compressor, distortion, overdrive, amp simulator.
Filter - Resonant 12/18/24dB/oct low/band/hi pass filter + 1 more hi pass
Arpeg/Seq - Arpeg: 1 mon/poly, up, down, up/down, random; MIDI-capable. Seq: 16 steps, 1 track
Keyboard - 61 keys (with velocity and aftertouch)
Memory - 128 patches
Control - MIDI (2 parts)
Date Produced - 1997"

Revisiting the Futuresonus Parva

Published on Sep 8, 2019 ProckGnosis

"We're revisiting the Futuresonus Parva after last playing with it almost 3 years ago. The firmware for the OS and the voice cards has been updated a few times since then, and now at v0.7, it appears (according to some feedback from online forums) that it might not be getting any more updates.

I like the way it sounds quite a bit, and the intent of this video was to highlight how good it can sound, but it's far from a smooth operating, problem-free synth. There are still some common problems multiple units still have, and then individual units seem to suffer from varying problems too. I'm pretty lucky that mine operates fairly well under basic operating conditions. With a great mod matrix, lots of source and destination modulations, 4 LFOs, and 4 envelopes (all 4 assignable to whatever mod), it's also fairly programmable (the menu diving doesn't slow it down too much). Add to that, it's MPE-capable, so it's pretty playable too (as long as all your voice cards are working fairly well).

You'll hear over the course of the video, the oscillators or filters started adding a slight buzz beyond the normal over driving of the filter. Though that slight additional buzz can sound cool under some circumstances, it's better to be able to control when that happens. Usually doing a reboot of Parva and calibrating the filters fixes any problems like that, that can develop. There's no excessive buzzing during the filter sweeps in the video because that was recorded the following day, after I had powered the Parva off and on.

As mentioned in the video, supposedly Brad (the creator of the Parva) has moved on to other projects, which is unfortunate. It would have been great if similar to how the Exodus Valkyrie synth was adopted by Waldorf (and rebranded Kyra), the Parva had been picked up by a more established company and supported/developed into a full-up, finished product. Hopefully whatever new project he's involved with will be able pick up where this left off.

I had a blast programming it the last week, so if I come up with even more interesting patches or if there IS another firmware update, I'll likely do another video."

Alesis A6 Andromeda - Exploring the Filters

Published on Aug 25, 2019 ProckGnosis

"Got the A6 cleaned up last month, and while I was testing it out and playing with it, I thought I'd do a quick video discussing how the filters are set up. Playing with the synth starts at 2:15, and the more technical explanation starts at 12:30. As frequently happens with me, the video didn't turn out to be so quick.

The A6 truly is an awesome synth, and it's programmable as hell. Though I call it an analog synth in the video, and it does have a all-analog signal patch (minus the effects), it's really sort of a analogy-digital hybrid, because all of the controls of the analog signal are executed in the digital domain. That doesn't stop it from sounding great through."

The E-MU Proteus 2000 Song

Published on Aug 15, 2019 ProckGnosis

"Another one-synth song (the song starts at 02:23) from a synth I'm considering selling. Got this a LONG time ago, and never really used it much. Was a lot more into classic analog sounds when I bought it, and I never really got into the variety of samples and patches it offered so much. After I picked up a Yamaha Motif Rack a couple years after, I hardly ever touched the Proteus 2000.

Sadly I appreciate it a lot more now than when I bought it. Despite it being a fully digital product, it offers some seriously cool features for programming that a lot of ROMplers can't compete with, and as you can hear, it's fully capable of producing some great sounding stuff.

Isolated clips from the tune and some facts about the Proteus 2000 start at 06:38."

Casio VZ-10M - Exploring the Synth and Sounds

Published on Jul 4, 2019 ProckGnosis

"And here is a verrrry long video covering the Casio VZ-10M, including listening to a lot of patch examples, looking at how Casio implemented the phase modulation engine, and looking/listening to the basic waves and some phase-modulated waveforms available for programming.

Organization of the video is as follows:
00:00 - Casio VZ-10M ProckGnosis Theme Song (in 9/8)
00:30 - The Introduction
02:50 - Sound and Commentary
11:47 - How the VZ-10M Makes Noise (big explanation)
18:12 - More Sounds, Less Commentary
28:23 - Phase Modulation Analysis (M1 modulating M2 with different waves)
31:04 - Even More Sounds, Some Commentary

As I say in the video, the Casio VZ-10M has a lot of similarities to the Yamaha DX7, including the synth engine and how the modules are worked with like operators, but it also has some other tricks the DX7 doesn't. This includes having saw waves instead of just sine waves to phase modulate and phase modulate with, as well as being able to ring modulate the partner module.

The synth isn't great, but it is extremely interesting to work with, and it can produce some interesting sounds. When the big brother keyboard (VZ-1) was released in 1988, it was Casio's flagship synth. It's curious why Casio would have opted to produce something that, in so many ways, was similar to the already well-established DX7 and all the variants, and even sounded fairly similar.

I think it would have made more sense to release a "Super CZ" with 16 note polyphony, a phase-distortion engine, and the ability to layer, split, and fade similar to the VZ. It's possible even a "Super CZ" wouldn't have sold though, as it seems folks were just more fascinated by more realistic sounds like those offered by the Roland D-50 (released in 1987) and the Korg M1, also released in 1988 for about the same cost.

As I said in the opening of the video, I think the video could have been better organized, and better split over 2 videos, but I’m running short of time and figured it was better to just get it out."

Dreadbox Abyss thru the Hypnosis

Published on Jun 4, 2019 ProckGnosis

"Just demoing how stunning the Abyss sounds running through the Hypnosis. Not any extensive testing or knob twisting of either piece of gear. Just playing with sounds I thought were cool."

The Casio XW-P1 Appreciation Video

Published on Dec 24, 2018 ProckGnosis

"This is just an appreciation video for the Casio XW-P1, which I decided to sell. Like a lot of Casio products, there is some really inventive and creative work that went into the synth that often goes unnoticed or underappreciated (by myself even).

I bought it mostly as a cheap keyboard option for gigging with a "classic rock" band, and though I was curious about the sequencer, arpeggiator (which I don't mention in the video at all, unfortunately), and phrase sequencer, I had little reason to use any of those features, and therefore I didn't explore them so much. And that's unfortunate, because I think they are some of the stronger features on the synth, and would likely be appealing for someone wanting to get started with some DAW-less sequencing for not much money. I'm just more of a DAW-full kind of guy.

Loose Timeline for the Video
Intro - 03:08
The Step Sequencer - 11:30
The Phrase Sequencer - 16:16
The Drawbar Organ - 18:00
The Hex Layer Synth - 20:16
The Solo Synth - 22:58
Some Final Thoughts - 27:06
Bonus - Alt versions of ProckGnosis Theme with the XW-P1 - 28:22

For folks even more curious about the keyboard, I've copied Casio's specs on the XW-P1 below, though the formatting was mostly lost.

CLICK FOR MORE »

3 for the v3 - Dreadbox Erebus Patch Examples

Published on Dec 8, 2018 ProckGnosis

"Just 3 patch examples for the Dreadbox Erebus v3, including 1) vibrato, 2) sample and hold, and 3) percussion. All 3 examples use the mod wheel to control the amount of the modulation, but offer significantly different results.

3 for the v3 - Erebus Patch Examples
1. Mod-wheel control of vibrato depth (02:57)
2. Sample & hold modulation of the filter cutoff using the mod wheel (06:10)
3. Percussion sounds (10:05)

And yes, the intro music is 100% just the Dreadbox Erebus v3."

Going Deeper in Modular with the Waldorf KB37

Published on Nov 18, 2018 ProckGnosis

"Just some playing around, discussing, and reflecting on what I'm liking about modular synths in general and in the context of the Waldorf KB37.

What I love?
- Lets you get massively creative
- Lets you do things you can't do so easily with a self-contained, stand-alone synth
- It's all hands-on! No menu diving!
- Helps you really think about and learn how patches are constructed

Slight negatives
- It's sometimes not as immediately satisfying as a self-contained, stand-alone synth (due to "setting things up" just to get sound)
- The cables of all the modules can get in the way of uninhibited knob twisting, slider sliding, and switch flipping
- Not so easy to get back to that amazing patch you created last week

Side note: the intro tune was recorded with only the KB37 and the modules seen in the video, plus some Reason Kong drums."

Medusa Synth Sequencer/GRID Tutorial

Published on Sep 12, 2018 ProckGnosis

"This is a Dreadbox-Polyend Medusa tutorial, looking only at the sequencer and GRID, and giving some step-by-step instructions how to use some of the sequencer/GRID functions.

The 5 Parts of the Tutorial:
1. Setting Up the Sequencer/GRID (02:44)
2. Adding Note Data (recording) (05:16)
3. Editing Note Data (06:26)
4. Working with Patch Modifying (PM) Data (07:52)
5. Misc. Examples and Screwing Around (15:02)

The GRID and the ability to create and save Patch Modifying Data in the GRID really gives the Medusa some interesting capabilities to shape the Medusa's sound. The more I played with it, the more I realized how creative you could get with this.

The reworked ProckGnosis theme is an expansion on the recording used for the Dreadbox Tour and Interview video, and contains only sounds from the Medusa.

This was filmed using a prototype Medusa as explained in the video, but everything I demo and convey in the video should work for ANY Medusa.

Cheers!"

The Dreadbox Tour and Interview

Published on Sep 2, 2018 ProckGnosis

"Dropped by the Dreadbox Workshop a couple months ago, and Yannis and Dimitra were nice enough to play host and let us bug them and talk about making synths, including the new Erebus v3 and the Medusa. First part of the video is the tour through the shop and the second part is the interview with Yannis and Dimitra.

01:32 - Shop Tour
09:20 - A Little Dreadbox History
10:20 - Interview (with Yannis and Dimitra)

Hadn't intended on doing something this big, and initially it was only supposed to be an interview (and a shorter one at that). Once we got into it though, we were having fun and just went with it, deciding to do the tour as well.

As a side note, all the synth sounds in the video come from the Dreadbox/Polyend Medusa, which I have to say is WAY cool!"