Roland TR-808 and Jazz Chorus JC-120

via swissdoc:

"I recorded some examples of the Roland Jazz Chorus driven by a TR808 pattern.

This one is recorded in mono with a Sony F-VS7 Dynamic Microphone, I had to do some noise reduction to get rid of the prominent hum:




This one is recorded in mono with a Monacor ECM-100 Electret Condensor Microphone:




The dry signal is recorded directly from the TR808.

I then allways tweak the settings of the amp.

Volume is set to very low value, max 1 out of 10. Otherwise the house would explode.

The distortion of the amp is not the best one on this planet. They should have labeled it destruction or shredder :-)"

WDR3 Studio Elektronische Musik: Fairlight CMI

This one in via swissdoc

"Hints to the start of Fairlight are given and why it was called Fairlight. Then I found this ressource:
https://www.outofphase.fr/en/2018/07/20/history-fairlight/

Good stuff about the Fairlight and the early days with the Quasar M8." [previously posted here with a pic]

Googlish:

The mother of all digital samplers comes from Australia. In 1979 Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie built the first copies of the Computer Music Instrument (CMI): processor, screen with light pen, pressure-sensitive keyboard and sound files on floppy discs.

For the first CMI synthesizer with sampling function, the musicians had to put 1 million US dollars on the table. The proud price did not prevent its triumphant advance through the world of pop and experimental electroacoustic music. On the contrary: the Fairlight CMI shaped the sound of the eighties and nineties. Today it is a historical instrument, but some composers are still using the light pen again.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Formant Modular Through Dynacord Demo

Update: You can find some pics of the modular posted here.

Title link takes you to an awesome demo of the Formant Modular via Georg. Right click the link and save it locally, and then play it. You can follow the timeline below that way.

Details
- Q+ Arpeggiator is driving via Midi CV/Gate the Formant
- Formant into Dynacord TAM 21
- Dyncard DRP20 used with Warm Gate Preset

Formant Drums

0:00 - no patch cords
0:13 - Feedback Loop with the RFM (Resonant Filter Module)
0:26 - Noise into the 24 dB filter
0:39 - Decay tweaks for filter and amp envelope
1:00 - tweaking the RFM settings
1:25 - Full LFO action on the TAM 21
1:35 - Stepping through TAM 21 modes
2:00 - Killer Resonance of the TAM 21
2:39 - Envelope Follower on Resonance
3:00 - TAM 21 off
3:05 - DRP20 off

Update via Georg:
"It is the Formant as introduced in the magazine Elektor in 1977/78 designed by C. Chapman. My Formant was built from Kits of a company called ICA, which sold those kits in Germany. It is not the Formant Pro or MSS2000."

More Updates via swissdoc (Georg) in the comments:
"Those kits are not available anymore, you may find a used system though. The original VCO Design was uA726 based, a chip which is not produced anymore.

Check this links, the latter has the scanned books with all the circuits:
http://www.analoghell.com/studio/forsale/formant/
http://rubidium.dyndns.org/cag/

The soundcharacter of the formant.dynacord demo is quite much from the TAM 21, a BBD based analog flanger plus the RFM module of the Formant, which is a 3 band parametric equalizer."

and

"Some more sound examples from the Formant, this time directly taken from the output, no further processing.

The VCOs - First showing off the 5 different waveforms of one VCO (sin/tri/sqr/saw/spaced saw) then activating more and more waveforms on the 3 VCOs until all 15 are active

PWM - 3 VCOs with square waves, then gradually ativating PWM for all VCOs by the 3 LFOs, then tweaking 12 dB filter settings and the envelope

12 dB Filter LP/HP/BP - Running the VCOs through the 12 dB Filter in the various modes while tweaking envelope intensity, filter frequency and resonance.

FM - The VCOs are set up in a circular FM configuration, 1->2, 2->3, 3->1 with maximum intensity, then various waveforms are switched on and off on the 3 VCOs

Georg."

Abstrakt Instruments VS-1 - Technical Comparison

Abstrakt Instruments

"Technical comparison of the Abstrakt Instruments VS-1, the Oberheim OB-X, and the Sequential OB-6 - including the analog & digital aspects of each synth. It also covers the auto-tune implementations of six analog synths."

This one was sent in via swissdoc.

Swiss Synthesizer Meeting Jamsession April 2016

Published on Apr 22, 2016 SwissSynthMeeting

"Video of the Swiss Synthesizer Meeting/Jamsession in April 2016 at Schalunen/Bern." That's a genoQs Octopus sequencer in the beginning.

This one in via swissdoc:

"Last weekend there was the Synthesizertreffen Schweiz 2016 organized by Adriano Capizzi/Metunar. Links feature the best bits of the Jamsession on Saturday. In the video you see a bit of the Synthesizertreffen on Sunday as well. That´s me with the Modal 002, plus later the demo by Raffael Segmüller from https://seismic.industries/. A beatiful and well crafted system with a very slim form factor."

You can find a list of attendees and mp3s at http://www.metunar.ch"

HC KSS Synth Demos

Swissdoc sent me a link to the HC KSS Synth Demos thread on Harmony Central. The thread contains a massive list of synth demos started by clustorchord back on 10/11/2004. Do check it out.

Roland JD-800 Audio Demo From 1991 Issue of German Synth Magazine KEYBOARDS

This one is in via swissdoc.

The June 1991 issue of KEYBOARDS came with a flexi-disc demo of the Roland JD-800. You can find an mp3 of the demo here, and the issue archived here.

Keytek CTS 2000

Two sites sent my way via swissdoc:
cts2000.html
m_keytek_e.htm

"The Keytek line was an attempt at reviving Siel around 1987. There were several models produced, the CTS-1000 (boring 8 voice synth, preset only), CTS-2000, CTS-5000 (piano-style keyboard), CTS-400 (4-octave keyboard, similar to CTS-1000?), and at several home keyboards (I know of the K-50 and K-60, perhaps there were more). As far as I can tell, the CTS-2000 is the only interesting model. The Keytek line didn't last long, as Siel went out of business and was bought by Roland. It's a fairly ugly synth, Obviously influenced by the DX7 design with membrane buttons and nasty 80's colors accenting its gray case. And it's fairly heavy considering the case is plastic."

Also see previous posts here.

Evolution EVS-1

eVoLuTiOn of some Synthesis

click for samples and more shots of the Evolution EVS-1

via swissdoc: "came across this today, a synth from back then using the French SAM chip as used in Quasimidi Quasar as well."

Novo - Extremix

YouTube Uploaded by tsoyki1 on Jul 23, 2007 - italo disco
via swissdoc: Commodore C64 used for live show, note the program crash at 1:43
(longer version with better quality, but no crash here:

Novo - Extremix (12" Version)

YouTube Uploaded by neXiumvids on Aug 4, 2009

"Classic synthpop from 1984. Produced by Pit Floss and written by Andy Chessman & Tim Scotch.

This is the performance from german tv edited together with the 12" version of the song made by my friend Alekos."

The Original Analogue Heaven Compilation Tapes I & II

Back in the earlier days of the Analog Heaven mailing list, two synth compilations were made, one in 1994 and one in 1995. You can listen to each track in the compilation here. Be sure to check out the Liner Notes for synths used.

via swissdoc.

Waldorf Largo Demos via tsching on KVR

Click here. via swissdoc on the Waldorf list. Note these are via tsching aka Holger of Official Waldorf Support.

SMEM (Swiss Museum for Electronic Music Instruments)

This one in via swissdoc:

"SMEM (swiss museum for electronic music instruments) aims to establish as the worlds first platform for electronic music instruments. The first base of this project was laid by the incredible collection of Klemens Niklaus Trenkle who for the last 35 years collected numerous and valuable synthesizers, organs, keyboards, effects- and studiogear. SMEM is located in the innovation center of the “BlueFactory” in Freiburg-Fribourg (Switzerland). It will gradually build up its different activities on an international level while increasing its current collection."

Click here for the site. When you get there, click on the three bars to the left of the "smem" logo on the top left to get to the site menu.

Monozelle Synth Site

This one in via swissdoc. For those of you that read German, click here. You can find a Googlish version here. Be sure to check out the second Minimoog sample for a good Kraftwerk Die Roboter rendition.


As of this post, the site features the following synths:
Minimoog
KORG Mono/Poly
KORG MS-20
OSCar
MOOG The Rogue
ROLAND SH-7
DOTCOM Custom Modular
SCI Pro-One
ROLAND MKS-80
Rozzbox
ARP Odyssey
AS Vostok II
CASIO VL-Tone
Prodyssey ASB
Roland TR-606

Zyklus MPS 1 MIDI Performance System

This one spotted on ricardo.ch by swissdoc.

"The Zyklus was/is used by Vangelis."

Note the DC-1 Cartridge in the back.

See the Zyklus label below for more posts.

Waldorf Microwave XT Wavetable VA Synth

via this auction

"This is the 3rd version which has board #3... (see photo) Board 3 features: Enhanced effects & waveforms, 100db signal to noise ratio & frequency range of 5Hz...20kHz It sounds incredible... It's a very unique synth."

Board #3?

Update via swissdoc: You can find info on the different boards here.

Yamaha EX-1 ( 1977 )

listed on ricardo.ch

This one spotted by swissdoc.

CLICK FOR MORE »

New Old Stock Boss RPH-10

via swissdoc:

"just got this in the mail today, a brand new, mint in box, New Old Stock Boss RPH-10.
Opening this up was like in a time machine, the flyer, the sticker etc. 23 years old if I take the printed in 1985 label from the manual.

Will add a decent phasing to my Blofeld ;-)"

D.I.A. - Passion play 1984

YouTube Uploaded by fritz51319 on Dec 6, 2010
via swissdoc. PPG Wave, Oberheim OB-Xa and Simmons Drums
"D.I.A. - Passion play 1984"

Update via Qwave in the comments: "Its an PPg wave 2.2 or 2.3. at 1:04 you can see the top row of the knobs left of the display. The PPG wave 2 had 9 knobs in a row. The wave 2.2. and 2.3 had 12 in a row."

Synthesizer Meeting in Kufstein 2007

Title link takes you to some images of the Bluesynths event in Kufstein, Austria. via sequencer.de

Anyone know more about this one?

Update via swissdoc in the comments:
"This is the EEF-Modular owned by Theo from Bluesynths. You have had it on you Blog allready: link

Theo said, it was built in the 80s in Belgium. More on Sequencer.de"