WERSI WERSIMATIC II

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"It's still here and we love it - so here we go again with new music :
The Wersimatic II - the previous generation of the Wersimatic 24 auto-accompaniment machine and probably familiar to fans of the Elgam Carousel, Böhm Solist 78, Elka Wilgamat and Godwin Drummaker 45 units.

The Wersimatic II has 4 sections on board:
Bass line tone generator
Drum machine with individual mute options
Various chord sounds
Various Arpeggiator sounds (same sounds as chords but with busier patterns)

The bass sounds great - very nice and analog.
Drum sounds are very analog - this is sound generation in its infancy - the hi-hats scare me :)
The chord and arpeggiator sounds were processed through the Digitech Synth Wah - a relatively cheap envelope follower pedal that’s a great bang for the buck.

The sounds and controls are across the board identical to the Wersimatic 24 unit as far as we can tell but the difference being the Wersimatic II was never made as a stand-alone unit - it was part of a large, double manual organ called Wersi Helios.
This particular one is unique : it has been transplanted from that organ into a smaller box with a twelve buttons acting as chord control instead of the two bottom octaves of the organ.

Special thanks to Organfairy for the rare schematics that were necessary to complete the repair : dude you f-ing rock

Vintage Audio Institute is a gear vendor and recording studio in the hills of Florence"

Additional Wersimatic II posts

Exploring the Wersimatic WM 24

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"We thought there wasn't really anything decent info out there on this rarity so here's a video that sheds some light on the Wersi Wersimatic 24 A & B units.

Wersimatic 24 is an analog drum machine, bass / chord arpeggiator generator similar to the Elgam Carousel, Elka Wilgamat, Godwin Drummaker 45 and Böhm Solist units, The Wersimatic 24 was manufactured in Germany in the early 1970s.
These were also part of various model Wersi organs of the era, such as the Helios that featured the "Wersimatic II" auto-comp section and they seem to be identical in controls and sounds.
The Wersimatic 24 is a bit different than your regular auto-accompaniment machine since the keyboard is a separate instrument: it holds the circuit boards and sound generators for the melodic section and sports its own volume slider and audio jack output.
The keyboard is powered by the drum machine unit via a DIN cable though, and the tempo is regulated on the drum machine as well.

24 drum patterns with 8 mutable sounds
12 rhythmic chord/bass/arpeggiator patterns
Bass section with one sound
3 chord sounds
2 arpeggiator sounds (the second arpeggiator sound is not functioning at the moment)

The bass covers two octaves, which is rare for this type of machine (the Elgam Carousel, Elka Wilgamat has a one octave bass section only) and can generate almost synth like arpeggiator patterns.

We like this machine a lot, especially the bass section and the drum sounds are really raw and industrial sounding.

Sorry for dirty fingernails, it's black paint residue - not dirt - promise.

Vintage Audio Institute is a gear vendor and studio in the hills of Florence."

Wersimatic posts

Exploring the Wersimatic II

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"Another take with the Wersimatic II, the older sister / brother of the Wersimatic 24 auto-accompaniment machine and distant cousin to the Elgam Carousel, Böhm Solist 78, Elka Wilgamat and Godwin Drummaker 45.

The sounds and controls are across the board identical to the Wersimatic 24 unit as far as we can tell.
The Wersimatic II was never made as a stand-alone unit but was part of a large, double manual organ called Wersi Helios in the mid 70s.
This particular one has been transplanted from an organ into a smaller box with a twelve buttons acting as chord control instead of the bottom keys of the organ.

Special thanks to Organfairy for the rare schematics : dude you f-ing rock

The Wersimatic II has sections on board:
Bass
Drum machine
Various chord sounds"

Additional Wersimatic II posts

Tying the loose ends on the Wersimatic II...

Published on Mar 23, 2015 organfairy

"... both literally and in the figurative sense.

I bought this Wersimatic II drum machine/auto accompaniment unit together with some other Wersi stuff 5 years ago. But for various reasons I have not made something usefull out of it - untill now.

The most important reason was that I didn't know how I should use it: A separate box with the unit and an external keyboard - like the Wersimatic WM-24, or build it into an organ with an inferior drum unit, or maybe disconnect the auto accompaniment part and use the drum machine part on its own, or maybe something completely different.

I finally decided that the best idea after all was to make a self contained instrument out of - one that had it's own build-in keyboard, power supply, control panel, and off course the Wersimatic electronics itself. This video shows the assembly process.

The music is made using the Wersimatic for the rhythm, arpeggios, and the bass. The first melody is something I just botched together adding chords and melody from my Wersi Prisma and Korg Poly 800 synthesizer. The other melody is 'Susan Himmelblå' by the Danish singer Kim Larsen. There I use only the Prisma organ in addition to the Wersimatic."

WERSIMATIC II 2 - vintage drum maschine - old school beatbox vs Darth NoiseLab!

Published on Dec 20, 2013 NoiselabCH·4 videos

"This WERSIMATIC II has an astonishing pure and lovely electronic Drumsound, however badly recorded in this vid. The accompainement section is funny, but sounds toyisch exept for the bass. As you can mix preset directly together, it's still possible to get out some useful sounds out of this vintage drumsynthesizer. More than that I believe it sounds unique and stands well concerning sound among other drummaschines, I believe it simply have a loverly bassdrum.

No effects, comps or whatsoever in this vid, routed directly in EDEN bassamp no EQ's and unfortunately only recorded with an IPhone, just having fun with the WERSIMATIC.

There are different WERSIMATICs drummaschine / beatbox's built in the 60ties and 70ties till early 80ties. But this one is UNIQUE! Built from an swiss engineer and organ player. This WERSIMATIC II iwas built out of a WERSI Organ and professionaly assembled in a new box.

Much more possibilities than expected.

Feel free to comment and the WERSIMATIC-force be with you ;-)

Darth NoiseLab - CH"

VAI 35 : Wersimatic II / Farfisa Syntorchestra

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"Another take with the Wersimatic II, the younger sister / brother of the Wersimatic 24 auto accompaniment machine. The sounds and controls are across the board identical as far as we can tell.

It was never made as a standalone unit but part of a large, double manual organ called Wersi Helios in the mid 70s.

This particular one has been transplanted from an organ into a smaller box with a twelve buttons acting as chord control instead of the bottom keys of the organ.

Special thanks to Organfairy for the rare schematics : dude you f-ing rock

The Wersimatic II has sections on board:
Bass
Drum machine
Various chord sounds

Melody played on the Farfisa Syntorchestra String machine and Mono synth."

VAI 36 : Wersimatic II / Farfisa Syntorchestra

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"Another take with the Wersimatic II, the younger sister / brother of the Wersimatic 24 auto accompaniment machine.
It was never made as a standalone unit but part of a large, double manual organ manufactured in Germany by Wersi in the mid 70s.
This particular one has been transplanted from an organ into a smaller box with a twelve buttons acting as chord control instead of the bottom keys of the organ.
The sounds are across the board identical to the Wersimatic 24 machines as far as we can tell."

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

The unstoppable Wersimatic

Published on Sep 18, 2017 organfairy

"Normally 'unstoppable' is a positive word. But when it is used in the same sentence as "drum machine" it tends to be annoying.
My Wersimatic II was literally unstoppable so I had to do something about it. It turned out to be a defective logic gate. Quite and easy fix but still something I had to do.

The music is 'Knuden' which was a minor hit for the Danish band Shu-bi-dua back in 1978. Apart from the Wersimatic II I play it on my Wersi Prisma DX-5."

VAI 34 Wersimatic II / Farfisa Syntorchestra

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"Analog auto-accompaniment machine produced by the German organ manufacturer Wersi sometime in the mid-70s. Originally part of a big, dual manual organ called Helios, this auto-comp section was probably removed from the organ and squeezed into a Teak cabinet, crammed with circuit boards, all beautifully snug inside - a very good job by whoever built it.

You control the harmony and key with the black 12 buttons on the front replacing the one octave that was probably at the bottom 12 keys of the organ.

The Wersimatic II has sections on board: Bass
Drum machine
Various chord sounds

Melody played on the Farfisa Syntorchestra String machine and Mono synth.

Big thanks to Organfairy who helped us find the right schematics to repair it.

Vintage Audio Institute Italia is a gear vendor and recording studio in the hills of Florence."

You can find additional posts featuring the Wersimatic II here, and additional Vintage Audio Institute Italia posts here.

WERSI WERSIMATIC II / CRB OBERON

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"This is an analog auto-accompaniment machine produced by the German organ manufacturer Wersi sometime in the mid-70s. Originally part of a big, dual manual organ called Helios, this auto-comp section was probably removed from the organ and squeezed into a faux Teak cabinet - literally crammed with circuit boards - all beautifully snug inside - a very good job by whoever built it.
We used a ton of effects of this track - most noticeably the Davoli 2K disc echo - insanely rare unit with a Schaller disc unit mounted inside - the very mounted inside the Lombardi mixing desks.
The Digitech Synth Wah is also going strong - an envelope follower pedal on the cheap side.

We're pairing the Wersimatic II with the glorious CRB Oberon - a unicorn of a dual oscillator monophonic synth made in Italy in the late 70s - one of very few still existing.
Lots of fun features it can really sound huge - there's still lots more to explore here

The grey string machine in the video is also marked CRB - a simple, two sounds (violin and cello) string machine, unusually light weight for the oldie it is - the CRB 709.
It's sound is bright and lush - really not at all bad.

Vintage Audio Institute Italia is a gear vendor and recording studio in the hills of Florence."

Additional CRB Oberon posts

Additional WERSIMATIC II posts

the Wersimatic II drum machine

YouTube Uploaded by organfairy on Apr 5, 2011

"Last summer I bought a big box of old Wersi circuit boards from a former Wersi builder. Amongst them were a complete Wersimatic II drum machine with auto accompaniment.
It had some defects but now it is (practically) working.

The first song I ever heard that featured a Wersimatic II was the first title on a live album by Klaus Wunderlich and was a mambo medley of "Amor amor amor" and "Brazil" - both old standards that is a part of many organplayers's playlists.
I figured it could by fun to play it with the same setting as mr Wunderlich did in 1978. In the beginning the unit alternates automatically between bossanova and mambo, and then both rhythms play together after turning off the alternate function. I also use the fill-in button. Set your phasers to MAX CHEESE!

The other instruments are Technics SX-C600 organ and Roland SH-2000 synthesizer."

"So long" - with Wersimatic II

Published on Apr 6, 2015 organfairy

"I got this Wersimatic drum machine/auto-orchestra unit working a couple of videos ago. But now somebody complained that I didn't show it actually working. Therefore in this video I play ABBA's 'So long' on the Wersimatic II and Wersi Prisma organ. It is probably not what could be described as an action-packed video. Doing one-finger chords on a keyboard is not really mind-blowing in any way. But I hope that is proof enough that it works!"

Wersi Wersimatic WM24 + WM24b keyboard super rare 1978 Wood

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WERSI - Wersimatic II ...(1974) Published on Aug 8, 2011 premiumexpert

"... nothing but a short soundcheck. There's much more in it. Sorry, chords are not proper pressed.
The components of the free-standing version are called WM24 (rhythm) and WM24b (accompaniment)."

via this auction

- super rare combo
- addition mod. for external start/stop pedal
- crazy sound, please check demo video

These dudes are becoming highly collectable - not many were made...

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WERSIMATIC CX1

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"Here’s some more Wersimatic CX1 for you - a hella stylish auto accompaniment unit made in Germany when the going was good - the early 80s.

The machine looks like a obsolete computer terminal and sports 4 sections :

Analog Drum machine
Bass section
Chord section
Arpeggiator section

We modded this one quite a bit - with separate volumes and outputs for the bass, chords, strings and of course the drum section.
We're routing the separate outs to a ton of different effects:
The Compact Phaser effect is an odd one - it could be a Vermona prototype - it sounds like the Vermona Phaser and looks very nice and stylish for a one off.
It's sitting next to the Compact Schulte Phaser and you can see the resemblance in design."

WERSI - Wersimatic CX2 digital - 1984 official promotion demo / 7" vinyl single advertising

YouTube Uploaded by premiumexpert on Nov 4, 2011

"Curt Prina präsentiert 1984 das neue programmierbare Wersimatic CX 2 Begleitorchester mit den brandneuen 8-bit Digital-Drums und digitalen Soundeffekten. ---
In 1984 Curt Prina, musician and entertainer, introduces the new CX2 digital, the first WERSI programmable rhythm unit + accompanying orchestra with brand new (8-bit) digital drums and digital sound effects.
For example used in the WERSI organs Helios, Saturn, Galaxy and Comet.
The pic shows the universal free-standing version.
In the recording Curt Prina plays the WERSI DX organ together with the CX2.
( 7" vinyl single 'Magic of the Digital-Drums', WERSI 1984)"

Wersimatic WM24B Rhythm Keyboard

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

via the seller: "This rhythm keyboard controller is in good/near-mint cosmetic conditions. I don't have the central unit, so I can't verify the functionality. It needs the central unit to be powered and I don't know if it contains a sound generator."

You can find a demo of the full Wersimatic system previously posted here and some pics of the back and inside of one posted here. Based on the mono and stereo outs I'm guessing this should produce audio on its own? Additional information about the WM24B can be found in German here, Googlish here. According to that site, "The many pushbuttons are used to adjust the many bass, accompaniment, and arpeggio variations. As with the Böhmat S, the 2 octave keyboard completes the complete accompaniment machine. But you do not have to, sounds rather modest, but of course this is a matter of taste."

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Wersi Wersimatic CX2 1985

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via this auction

"For sale is the extremely rare Wersi Wersimatic CX2. The CX2 is a combination of a digital drumcomputer and preset synthesizer/organ. The drumcomputer section consists of 54 preset rhytms, but it is also possible to compose your own rhytms by using its composer (static/real time composing) and the 14 different drum sounds available. It also has accent.

The accompaniment section has a bass (guitar, synth, tuba), chord (e-piano, guitar, wah guitar, strings, organ), and arpeggio section (brass, clarinet, banjo, bells, strings, single notes) which can be played solo or combined. When the drumsection plays the accompaniment section can be triggered by pressing keys. It automatically follows the rhythms.
However, you can also make your own BASS solo, chords, and arpeggio patterns !!

This is a great instrument for modding. SSM2044 chips are installed on two of the cards, and a filter/resonance function can be easily added. Other possible modifications my be separate outs and volume pots for drum sounds and accompaniment, clock synq, etc. I prefered to leave it in original condition and let the next owner do this if preferred."

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32 VINTAGE DRUM KITS ON YOUR SOLTON PROGRAMMER 24

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video upload by

"We were asked to beta test a new modification for the Solton Programmer 24 - expanding the drum section from a single kit to 32 vintage drum machines.
It adds the classics like the three Linn Drum machines, the Roland TR-808, TR-909, Roland CR78, Korg Mini Pops 7 as well as lesser known machines like the Elka Drummer One, Elka Drum Star 80, EKO Ritmo 20, Siel MDP40, Wersimatic 24, CRB Computer drums and many more 🤩
The additional 31 drum kits will perform just like the original Solton Programmer 24 drum section.

This is a total game changer for more than the obvious reasons - the Solton Programmer 24 has a sequencer, 8 separate drum volume sliders and 8 audio outputs as well as trigger capabilities for the individual drum sounds. It also sends clock and has Midi in/out/thru so it can be easily incorporated to whatever you got cooking with other machines.

It’s a non-invasive modification and fully reversible - no soldering - no drilling holes anywhere - it's installed by simply removing the four original drums eproms inside and hooking up a small additional board in place of two of them.

The modificationis divided in 4 memory banks of 4 drum kits each - you program the banks to your preference - this way you can quickly switch between the drum kits you use the most - or you can of course toggle through all the 32 drum kits sequentially.
Programming the memory banks is easy and sll the instructions you need are provided on Reverb :

https://reverb.com/item/79089448-spec...

The Solton Programmers drum section can accomodate 13 drum sounds per kit.
Some of the drum machines included featured have considerably less sounds and in those cases Andrea, the inventor and seller of the drum chip, has added more drum sounds in the same realm as the drum machine in question.
Due to the architecture of the Solton Programmer 24 the sample rate is 8 bit PCM 22500 Hz which sounds low but is definitely sufficient to maintain character and punchiness - I think it sounds damn good.
This video was made a few months ago and features a trial version that's now been upgraded - clips and smaller issues sometimes heard in the video have been ironed out and fixed on the version that's available for purchase.

Here's the complete list of featured drum machines

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Wersimatic WM7 with Space Echo 301

Published on Jan 2, 2019 Italian Vintage Stuff!

"Some more fiddling around on the German 70's Wersimatic WM7 drum machine through Roland Space Echo RE-301"