Hainbach - Syn-Ket Studien (Full Album)

video upload by HAINBACH

"My album "SYN-KET STUDIEN" as it was recorded at the Museo Del Synth Marchegiano. Pre-order one of the limited run vinyl now or buy the digital: https://hainbach.bandcamp.com/album/s..."

"Syn-Ket Studien (German for „study“) is as much an exploration as its a love letter. When I tried to coax music from this wonderful but not always perfectly working instrument, I was under the spell of the beautiful Marche region and the hospitality I encountered at the Museo. The album cover by Zé Burnay reflects that - the countryside and culture frames the session.

Having only a few days with the Syn-Ket, I needed to work effectively. I decided it would be the tempo that would guide my interaction with the instrument. By setting the speeds of the modulators first I learned quickly what the instrument could do and what I could do with it. Every piece is the result of a learning curve, the struggle of playing an undocumented instrument and the joy of its incredible rich and powerful sound.

At home in my Berlin studio I left the sound as raw and unedited as made sense musically, adding only a touch ambience with an old stereo spring reverb."

Hainbach, Berlin, 2022

A Short History of The Syn-Ket

"The Syn-Ket is a truly exceptional instrument: developed in Italy at the same time that Robert Moog and Don Buchla set out to write instrument history, Paolo Ketoff created what is probably the first portable synthesizer.
Born from the experience of making the huge Fonosynth and inspired by the works of Harald Bode, Ketoff worked closely with musicians and composers of the American Academy of Rome (John Eaton, Bill Smith) to create an electronic instrument that would allow live performances without tape playback.
Shunning mass production, the Syn-Ket was only produced in nine custom pieces, starting in 1963, all tailored to the musician that ordered it. And those lucky few got a lot, despite the compact size: three voices with tube oscillators, two filters and an LFO, an octave filter bank and three output modulators (a mixture of LFO/Envelope/VCA). All is controlled by a very expressive three row pressure sensitive keyboard.
It found widespread use in Italian movies of the times. Little wonder, as one Syn-Ket was famously owned by Ennio Morricone"

- Riccardo Pietroni, Museo Del Synth Marchigiano, 2022

released August 23, 2022

See the Synket label below for more.

An Extensive Overview Of Vintage Italian Drum Machines

video upload by HAINBACH

"I visited the Museo Del Synth Marchigiano again and had a look at all the drum machines they have in their huge collection. According to Riccardo Pietroni of the Museo its a good 80% of all rhythm instruments produced in the Italy. Featuring machines by Elgam, Eko, Farfisa, Viscount, Crumar, Godwin and many many more. Patrons get a huge soundpack, so sub over here: http://patreon.com/hainbach"

Playing around with the Synket an incredible tube synthesizer made in Italy by Paolo Ketoff in 1964.

video upload by Riccardo Pietroni

See the Synket label for more.

"This is the unit build for Bill Smith by Paolo Ketoff and is completely original.

The Syn-ket comprised of three sound modules or 'sound-combiner' as Ketoff called them – essentially three separate synthesisers built using a mix of solid state and vacuum technology. Each module was independently controllable and interconnectable and mixable into a single output.

Each 'sound-combiner' module consisted of:

1 square wave frequency-controllable oscillator.
A button controlled series of frequency dividers which allowed division of the incoming pitch by factors of 2, 3, 4, 5 and 8 to produce differing harmonics
3 complex filters with a frequency range of 40 Hz – 20 kHz.
1 amplitude control.
3 modulators each controlled by a low frequency oscillator: The first allowed control of the square wave oscillator’s frequency, The second controlled the frequency of the filter and the third controlled audio amplitude.

The Syn–ket was not conceived as a commercial product – Ketoff built only about a dozen variations on the Syn-ket theme between 1963 and 1977 – and notwithstanding it’s innovative and unique features remained a one-off custom made instrument. Despite this, the Syn-ket was widely used by composers other than Eaton and found itself almost ubiquitous on Cinecittà soundtracks for Spaghetti westerns (Ennio Morricone used the Syn-ket on many of his soundtrack scores ), Italian horror and science fiction films."

Tascam 388 / Elka Synthex / Lombardi Mixer / 5U Synth / Microcosm / Mod Duo

video upload by Riccardo Pietroni

"Sunday morning recording

Tascam 388 / Elka Synthex / Lombardi Mixer / 5U Synth Synthesizer.com / Microcosm / Mod Duo Mod Device."

Crumar Ds2 Poly Section - No Talk

video upload by Riccardo Pietroni

"Some sounds from the little know poly section of the Crumar Ds2."

Crb Elettronica Oberon Italian Vintage Synthesizer

video upload by Riccardo Pietroni

"Some sounds recorded by Crb Oberon, one of the rarest and most exotic Italian electronic instruments.

This particular unit was found completely empty and without the internal cards and was totally rebuilt by the 'Museo del Synth Marchigiano'."

Addtional CRB Oberon posts

Test Equipment Drone Hp pulse generator 8011a/8015a + Wavetek Model 30 + Sanyo Mc-1 + Mod Duo

Riccardo Pietroni

"Test Equipment Drone
Hp pulse generator 8011a/8015a + Wavetek Model 30 + Sanyo Mc-1 + Mod Duo + Krisp1 Triple Lpg 5u"

Farfisa Polychrome - Italian Vintage Synth

Published on Mar 30, 2020 Riccardo Pietroni

"All sounds come from Farfisa and have been recorded in the 4 tracks of Op1. Mod Duo was used for the effects"

Farfisa Polychrome

Italian Synth Quarantine Drone /// Grp A4 + Trentin 2600 + Elka Synthex + Crb Uranus2

Published on Mar 28, 2020 Riccardo Pietroni

"A drone recorded during the Covid Quarantine using a Grp A4 + Trentin Arp 2600 replica + Elka Synthex + Crb Uranus2"

Crb Uranus 2 Italian Vintage Synthesizer

Published on Mar 15, 2020 Riccardo Pietroni

"4 traks recorder into Op-1 out from Mod Duo. All sounds comes from the Uranus"

Crb Uranus 2 posts

Reaktor Nod-E + Grp A4 + Elka Synthx

Published on Dec 7, 2019 Riccardo Pietroni

"Midi out from Reaktor Nod-E inside the Grp A4 and inside the Elka Synthex."

A walk in the Museo del Synth Marchigiano.

Published on Nov 1, 2019 Riccardo Pietroni

"Una passeggiata tra i synth durante l’esposizione del Synth Marchigiano 2019"

Crumar Compac Synth Vintage Italian Synthesizer

Published on Jul 1, 2019 Riccardo Pietroni

"The Crumar Compac Synth is a very rare analog synthesizer released in 1976. It follows a line of Compac instruments products that Crumar manufactured like the Compac Piano and Compac Strings. Very few of these have been produced and in an interview Luciano Jura (Crumar Synth) says that they are practically only prototypes."

You can find some pics of one here.

Crb Voco-Strings Analog Vintage Vocoder + Crb Computer Drum

Published on Jun 28, 2019 Riccardo Pietroni

Left channel audio only on this one.

"I put the out signal of a Crb Computer Drum in the mic input of the Crb Voco-String using the vocoder section. The effects comes from the Mod Duo."

Crb Computer Band 2000

Published on Jun 26, 2019 Riccardo Pietroni

"Playing Around the rare Crb Computer Band 2000 one of the first rhythm drum computer with 20 different rhythms presets a double octave bass line synthesizer, and four different sections"

Italian Vintage Synth Milton Gemichord 961

Published on Feb 19, 2019 Riccardo Pietroni

"Some sounds from this ultrarare italian strings, brass and piano synthesizer."

Follow-up to this post.

Crumar Performer & Mod Duo

Published on Feb 15, 2019 Riccardo Pietroni

"Incredibile sound come from this mix of vintage a new gear. Italian Vintage Synth"

Excelsior Ek6 Vintage Synthesizer

Published on Jan 16, 2019 Riccardo Pietroni

"The Ek6 is a very rare Italian presets synthesizer made by Excelsior in 1979."

This is the first Excelsior Ek6 post on the site. Another first from Riccardo Pietroni.

Elgam Carousel Italian Vintage Synth (1976)

Published on Jan 6, 2019 Riccardo Pietroni

"This video shows an Elgam Carousel Groove Machine, Made in Italy in 1976."

You can find a couple of additional demos of the Elgam Carousel in the archives here.

A Night at the Studio

Published on Dec 20, 2018 Riccardo Pietroni

I believe this is the first post to feature a demo of the CRB Vocostrings. Vocostrings has only been mentioned once before in this post. This is the first time many of us are likely hearing one. Pretty cool.

"Some wine and our favorite italian vintage synths. On the keyboards Gianfranco Stortoni.
Crumar Ds2 and Dp50, Elka Synthex, Crb Vocostrings, Siel Cruise."