Introducing the Emthree PFV3

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

This appears to be the first demo of one on the site. One went up for sale back in 2016.

"Amazingly rare, battery run formant filter, or rather EQ, machine produced in Italy by Emthree, formerly Meazzi, probably in the early 1980s.
It has two modes:
1. Full on engage of three filters / EQ settings / Vowels by pressing the buttons.
2. Gradual engage by using the three potentiometers.

The two modes cannot be engaged simultaneously.

Vintage Audio Institute is a gear vendor and recording studio in the hills of Florence, Italy.
Thanks for watching."


See thee EMthree label below for more of their products.

UNLOCKING THE SECRETS OF THE FARFISA SOUNDMAKER

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"There seems to be some mystery surrounding the Farfisa Soundmaker - how does it sound, is it actually cool, and what does Poly & Strings in Mono actually do?

In this video I go through the presets of all three sections and then move on to the marvellous Poly & Strings in Mono - unlocking your Poly & Strings in Mono is crucial to really getting the best out of your Soundmaker though.

I added some text to further explain its unique architecture - but here's a short info sheet:

Then Soundmaker has three independent sections - each with its own with volume and cut-off filter.

1. Polyphonic section with 3 Piano presets, 1 brass preset with its own fixed vibrato setting.

2. The additional Polyphonic section is the strings section : 2 footages of strings with attack, decay controls on top of volume and cut-off sliders. The strings sound surprisingly good - top tier 1970s string machine.

3. Monophonic preset section with additional Free mode which let you modulate the preset sounds with filter and ADSR and lastly - the Oscillator bank (LFO) with LFO controls, wave forms and vibrato controls.

Engaging the Poly & Strings in Mono internally routes both Polyphonic sections into the filter and oscillator bank of the monophonic section - letting you modulate them freely and really unlocking the uniqueness of this instrument.

The best way to experience the Poly & Strings in Mono is to create a dedicated Monophonic audio output - which the Soundmaker unfortunately doesn't have.

We carved out a Mono only output by cutting the Polyphonic signal to the Phones output in the back.
This is quite easy, you flip open the machine and simply cut the wire from the Poly section inside (it's easily reversible) - please have an experience technician do this for you if you're hesitant.

The second trick to enhance the performance of Poly & Strings in Mono is easier : turn off the mono section preset with its dedicated on/off button (it will still pass audio but no preset will be engaged). Since the mono preset sound is much louder in volume than the signal arriving via Poly & Strings in Mono, turning it off will make you hear the effect better."

UNBOXING THE ELGAM CRAZY BAND 48

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"We were super excited to receive this unicorn, vintage groove box - the machine that was the very last breath of the Elgam in 1982 - it was shipped out as the company folded.
The Elgam Crazy Band 48 was the follow up to the now sought-after Elgam Carousel and it shares some of its functions but not any of it's components, schematics or architecture.
The unit was well packed in a sturdy box but only emit a loud hiss and one single note on arrival.
Yep - this is often the reality of unboxing vintage gear.
This machine is now in the shop for repairs but it's a long journey to get it back up and running - if it ever will. The music in the background is from a similar device we demo:ed in an earlier video : the Godwin Drummaker 45."

ELKA Wilgamat III Chapter 2 - WE FOUND THE PEDAL

video by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"We got so excited when we managed to score the Fill-In pedal for the Elka Wilgamat III that we needed to make a video.
Please do not watch this unless you're a serious vintage gear freak.
We mean that.
The machines rhythm section has 3 'break' options that can only be engaged by a unique foot pedal.
This pedal is very rare.
It is also HUGE.

Keep watching :)"

YAMAHA CS60 - COMPILATION VIDEO

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"The Italian term to describe this synth would be blasonato:
Someone so noble they have a their own coat of arms.

we give you the Yamaha CS60 :
45 kilos of heavy duty Japanese build quality.
We just couldn't pass this one on although it's not typically the machine of our choice it sounds incredible.
Put on your headphones and you'll get it.
The range of sounds you get out of this synth seems frankly endless and the general interaction with an important instrument always makes us want to sell all our other machines and just keep this one instead.
We have to think about this - meanwhile it's going to a Yamaha CS-series specialised repair man for a new ribbon control and a general calibration since it's never been tuned or serviced in its 45 year old life - also kind of incredible - the build-quality is insane.
We got two drummers in this video: first songs are backed up by the elusive CRB Computer Drums (the drum section from the Computer Band 2000) and the second half of the video the rhythm unit is the EKO Ritmo 20.
Both machines have individual sound options - mute switches on the Computer Drums and volumes on the EKO Ritmo 20.

More videos with these two will go up soon so subscribe if this is your thing and follow us on Instagram for first dibs vintage gear sales and much more."

VAI 38 - Two Farfisa Syntorchestras

Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"While we had two of the Farfisa Syntorchestras in the studio we thought it would make sense to make track using both of them.
We're using the transcribe/pitch knob to create the monphonic lead melody harmonies, a surprisingly effective little trick for us amateur players to come off as skilled :).
The Vermona ER9 is an East Germany-made drum machine with individual volumes for each sound.
Here we ran it through a phaser and spring reverb.

We make these videos as a showcase for our studio, for other curious vintage heads - and for fun.
We don't dilly-dally too much with production and mixing but it can sound pretty good with headphones on."

V.A.I. 78 : CRB VOCO STRINGS / CRB COMPUTERBAND 2000 / SIEL CRUISE

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"CRB Elettronica was one of many organ manufacturers in the Marche region in Italy. Starting in the mid 70s they did however branch out to produce a very limited number of synthesizers and drum machines for a domestic market where, due to a weak lira and high import taxes, Japanese or American manufactured synths were rare treats.

The CRB Computer Band 2000 is an analog auto-accompaniment machine with a range of chord and arpeggiator sounds with decay controls, as well as a bass section and a drum machine with individually mutable sounds.

The CRB Voco Strings is an Italian take on the Roland VP-330 - a string and vocoder machine.

In this video we're letting the CRB Voco strings process the CRB Computer Band 2000 via the regular audio input, while a third player, the Siel Cruise, a lovely Mono / Poly machine, is connected as an external carrier signal, via the instrument input."

Roland Sequencer 104 - System 100 Sequencing Vintage Steelphon Synthesizer

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.
video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

Sequencer 104 Module pics via this auction

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CRB Voco Strings and CRB Computerband 2000

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"CRB Elettronica was one of many organ manufacturers in the Marche region in Italy in the 1970s.
They did however branch out to produce a very limited number of synthesizers and drum machines for a domestic market where, due to a weak lira and high import taxes, synths manufactured in Japan and America were rare treats.
Speaking of rare - these CRB machines are today incredibly so - having already been manufactured in numbers in the low hundreds - very few survive today.

The CRB Computer Band 2000 is an analog auto-accompaniment unit with a range of chord and arpeggiator sounds.

1. Analog Drum Machine Section with individually mutable sounds
2. Bass section with three sounds and two modes
3. Two separate chord sections with a total of seven sounds, decay and volume controls.
4. And at last the arpeggiator section with four different sounds and decay control.

These sections were originally made for big home-organs, they're incorporated into the CRB 910 organs and a few Solton branded ones as well.

The CRB Voco Strings is an Italian take on the Roland VP-330 - a string and vocoder machine. It has a great sounding string section as a carrier - maybe one of the very sweetest sounding string machines that came out of Italy?
Change my mind in the comment section :)

In this video we're letting the CRB Voco strings process the CRB Computer Band 2000 via the audio input. During the first two compositions, a third player, the Siel Cruise - a lovely Mono / Poly machine, is connected as an external carrier signal instead of the Voco-Strings String Sounds, via the external instrument input in the back.

This video is a compilation of previously released videos on our channel - there are lots more videos of the Computerband 2000 unit as well.

The CRB Computerband unit is currently for sale on Reberb."

See the CRB label below for more.

V.A.I. 2 : Farfisa Soundmaker - Steelphon S900 - Elka Drummer One - Binson Echorec 2

Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"Not too much too explain here, the big Elka Drummer in the video is an odd piece of gear, it's the classic drum machine but built in to a huge speaker.

Fun fact: Drummer-one means Big Drum in Italian slang.

The Farfisa Soundmaker is a polyphonic string machine and mono-synth with a lot of fun modulation options on board.

The Steelphon S900 is a dual oscillator monophonic synth from 1972 with tons of modulation capabilities, programmable presets (!) and use the famous Moog ladder filter.
With White and Pink noise that you can route to control the filter and tone this thing can really sound huge and is one of the very best italian Monophonic synths ever made.
If you'd like to know more - check out our video of Steelphon S900 here: [posted here, also see this one]


We make these videos as a showcase for our studio and for curious vintage heads - and for fun.

We don't dilly-dally too much with production and mixing but it can sound pretty good with headphones on."

VAI 11 : Roland TR77 - Böhm Solist 78 - Digitech Synth Wah Envelope Filter

Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"The Roland TR77 Drum machine is going through the Emthree Pulsatron Mixer for crunch, phasing and spring reverb.
The Dr. Böhm Solist 78 is playing the bass through the Digitech Synth Wah Envelope Filter - pedal, while the first chords are going through a mysterious no-brand phaser "Rotor Monster" (that could be some kind of Vermona product), the seconds short decay chords go through the Roland RE-301 Space Echo.

The drum machines are not midi-or clock synced, just synced manually.

We make these videos as a showcase for our studio and for curious vintage heads - and for fun.

We don't dilly-dally too much with production and mixing but it can sound pretty good with headphones on."

VAI 4 : Maestro Rhythm King - Maestro USS - Crumar Multiman S/2 - Elka Solist

Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"Making good use of the Crumar Multiman S/2 string separate outputs: string section are going through the Mu-Tron phaser, brass and bass sections are going through the Maestro Rhythm Kings' modulation effect : an input in the back of the drum machine will chop up the input signal like a rhythmic tremolo.
From there is goes to the Maestro Universal Synthesizer (?) System, possibly the first multi-effect ever put on the market, triggering the envelope filter and adding some phaser there as well...
The Maestro Kings' drums are processed through the Roland RE-301 for crunch and echo.
The Elka Solist 505 monophonic synthesizer is playing the lead.


We make these videos as a showcase for our studio and for curious vintage heads - and for fun.
We don't dilly-dally too much with production and mixing but it can sound pretty good with headphones on."

VAI 10 : Böhm Solist 78 / Crumar Multiman S2

Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"The Roland TR77 Drum machine is going through the Emthree Pulsatron Mixer for crunch.
The Dr. Böhm Solist 78 is playing through a mysterious no-brand phaser "Rotor Monster" (that could be some kind of Vermona product) while the seconds short decay chords go through the Roland RE-301 Space Echo.
The short drum fills comes from the Dr. Böhm Solist 78 as well, with Telefunken Echo Mixer spring reverb.
The Elka Solist 505 is a house favorite, an underdog, monophonic synth with a unique timbre.
The drum machines are not midi-or clock synced, just synced manually.
We make these videos as a showcase for our studio and for curious vintage heads - and for fun.
We don't dilly-dally too much with production and mixing but it can sound pretty good with headphones on."

VAI 5 - Crumar Multiman S/2 - Maestro Rhythm King - Maestro Universal -Elka Solist 505

Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"Crumar Multiman string machine with separate outputs: strings are going through the Mu-Tron phaser, brass is going through the Maestro Rhythm Kings' modulation effect, an input in the back of the drum machine will chop up the input signal like a rhythmic tremolo.

From there is goes to the Maestro Universal Synthesizer (?) System, possibly the first multi-effect ever put on the market, triggering the envelope filter and possibly adding some phaser there as well...

The Maestro Kings' drums are processed through the Roland RE-301 for crunch and echo. The Elka Solist 505 monophonic synthesizer is playing the lead.

We make these videos as a showcase for our studio and for curious vintage heads - and for fun.
We don't dilly-dally too much with production and mixing but it can sound pretty good with headphones on."

SOLTON PROJECT 100 / EKO RITMO 20

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"This is the last out of four videos of songs made entirely with our Solton Project 100. Or almost - We're using it along a few hits and bangs from the EKO Ritmo 20 - a very nice sounding Italian drum machine with individual volume controls for each sound.

For effects we're using two 1980s, grade B rack units - the half rack format LEM FX 22 and the Vermona DEG 50 Echo. The LEM FX 22 is a multi-effect with a combo mode that lets you engage two effects at the same time. The Vermona DEG 50 is actually part of our secret weapons arsenal - a pretty crappy and noisy Digital Delay rack unit but the chorus modulation has that magic wonk.

The Solton Project 100 is maybe the coolest name for a synth we've ever heard - prove us wrong in the comment section :)"

V.A.I. 65 : CRB Computerband 2000 / EKOSynth

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"Another demonstration of the marvellous CRB Computerband 2000 - an auto-accompaniment machine with 4 sections made by organ manufacturer CRB in the Marche region of Italy.
This time we paired it with the EkoSynth, a quite rare monophonic preset synth from the mid 1970s made by Italian guitar and amp manufacturer EKO. This is a unique sounding synth compared to many other Italian monophonics of the era, the filter is special, really not bad, so you can get a lot of different sounds out of this machine."

V.A.I. 58 - Welson Syntex / CRB 709 / Böhm Solist 78 / Emthree PFV3

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

This appears to be the first post to feature the CRB 709. You can search for gear via the search box on the top right of the site.

"All great instruments that have been featured before, the Böhm Solist 78 is such a great arrangement / songwriting tool, a auto accompaniment machine with a very distinct thin sound form the early 70s, built in Germany.
The rest of the gear is Italian, the Welson Syntex is a hidden gem of Italian synths, the ultra rare CRB 709 String machine is quite like the Elka Rhapsody 49 in timbre but still a bit different, it came equipped with a 5 inch power cable - thanks for that mod, previous owner. This song will be released later this spring, so all rights are reserved."

THE WERSIMATIC CX1

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"Introducing the Wersimatic CX1 - a stylish auto accompaniment unit made in Germany in the early 80s.

It sports 4 sections :

Analog Drum machine
Bass section
Chord section
Arpeggiator section (it’s maybe more like a second chord generator)

Each section can be muted, individual drum sounds can be muted.
This specific unit was modified with independent volume control for each section - those are the extra knobs on the front panel - as well as separate outputs for each section in the back.
The drum patterns, the chord and arpeggiator sections are all programmable.

The CX1 was followed by the CX2 - which is basically the same machine but with 12bit sample drums instead of the CX1’s analog drums - it seems the bass, chords and arpeggiator sounds and patterns are all the same on the CX1 and CX2. The CX2 sports an additional row of buttons for programming purposes but those are available on the CX1 as well - the row of buttons on the left has a third submenu."

Additional WERSIMATIC CX1 posts

VAI 20 : Elka Wilgamat / Farfisa Syntorchestra 4

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"A quick video we threw together some time ago, the Elka Wilgamat is a Drum machine, bass and chord generator from 1976 or so, originally part of the Elka X705 organ. We got this machine modded with separate outputs, sending the bass to the Maestro Sound System for woodwinds, a great 1960s filter/octave/fuzz effect, that stopped working during the making of this video.
The Syntorchestra 4 is of course the younger sibling of the Syntorchestra - a rather simple mono synth and divide down string / brass keyboard - it shares the controls of the older one, but sounds less characteristic.
We still really like it tho, the presets are great with some external boost."

"Introducing" the DUBREQ PIANOMATE

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

Introducing in quotes as the Pianomate isn't a new product. You can find pics and an additional demo of one in previous posts here. Don't miss the Crumar Performer at the end of the video above.

"There really are quite few instrument that are uniquely different than others.

The Dubrec Pianomate is uniquely different - we've never seen anything like this before - have you? The comment section is all yours.

Even before it made it to Italy we realised - right off the bat - that we were going to use this in all kinds of ways.

This video is just a few quick ideas recorded off the cuff - a first scratch on the surface - there are so many more applications for this tool :

Effects you can run it through ( a good Leslie effect would make this thing shine)

Switching the trigger bars around (why didn't we think of that for this video damnit) and on and on.

It's truly a new dimension in sound."