V.A.I. 54 Elka Wilgamat / Multivox MX-3000

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"These two machines match up quite well to our ears so we made a bunch of videos - more coming soon.
The Elka Wilgamat is probably a bit familiar to our viewers by now - an Italian auto-accompaniment machine with three sections:

1. Analog drum machine section
2. Bass section with 2 sounds and variations
3. Chord section with 3 sounds

Harmonically controlled by a two-octave keyboard with a fill-in bar on top, it has a great warm sound that's unmistakably mid-1970s to our ears, the drum machine alone sounds great.

The Multivox MX-3000 is a pretty rare Japanese string machine and monophonic synth combo.
A bit similar to the Farfisa Soundmaker or maybe Solina String Synthesizer (the BIG one - not the regular String Ensemble) or the Crumar Composer but with a more complex polyphonic - or rather Divide Down - section.
Lots bells and whistles here.

It basically has three separate sections:

1. A bass synth section with multiple preset sounds and attack, decay and tone controls.

2. A polyphonic section with preset sounds that are modifiable in quite a few ways with a very nice and aggressive filter section, attack/decay, two different choruses, two glide modes and more.

3. Single Oscillator monophonic section. No presets but a few different wave forms, a very nice filter, portamento and the usual mono stuff for great leads, basses and even some space effects.

The Polyphonic filter and choruses are very cool on these, maybe that's what we got it for initially but it's turning in to our desert island machine, there's really a lot going on here, it's a versatile instrument with quite a unique and somewhat rustic sound.

They're famously hard to service due to lack of a good set of schematics.
The build-quality is strangely bad for late 1970s Japanese keyboards so they somehow always break down.

Enjoy, more coming."

Elka Wilgamat analog drum machine and accompaniment unit SN 1227

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.
video upload by ohm_studi_ohm

via this auction

Note the listing is for only 1 unit.

"The Elka Wilgamat was an accompaniment unit intended as an add-on to some of Elka's organ line and also as a standalone unit with dedicated 2 octave keyboard. It consists of a rhythm unit, a bass section and a chord section. All sounds are of course fully analog. It is very similar in features and sound to theGodwin Drummaker, Wersi Wersimatic WM24, Elgam Carousel or Böhm Böhmat."

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VAI 50 : Elka Wilgamat III / Elka Solist 505

video by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"The Elka Wilgamat III is an analog auto-accompaniment machine from 1982 It has four sections:
An analog Drum machine
A Bass sections
A piano / brass chord section
And an arpeggiator

Apart from the auto rhythm to each section, you can play the bass and piano/brass sounds just like a synth, no modulation capabilities.
The Elka Solist 505 is a monophonic preset synthesizer from 1976 with a unique / quirky timbre, great filter on this one. And a great look :)"

Exploring the Cosmic Beauty of the Elgam Carousel

video upload by HAINBACH

"Form changes function - the Elgam Carousel first appeared as part of a big organ. Elgam quickly realized that they could a make a standalone product out of this, for the more mobile musicians entertaining crowds at business and family functions. They set a trend - CRB and Elka followed with the Computerband 2000 and Wilgamat. These standalone keyboards can be called the first groove boxes. In this video I demo this cosmic sounding wonder and show real world applications in scoring.

Music, Soundpack and thanks:
https://www.patreon.com/hainbach

LISTEN TO My Music: https://hainbach.bandcamp.com"

You can find additional posts featuring the Elgam Carousel here.

ELKA Wilgamat 1 SN 239

via this auction

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Elka Wilgamat mk1

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

via this auction

You can find some demos in previous posts here.

The Forgotten Synthesizers Of Marche Region

video upload by HAINBACH

Update: you can find additional posts featuring The Museo Del Synth Marchigiano here.

"The Marche Region in Italy was home to a thriving industry of music instrument production from the 1950s to the mid-90s. Tens of thousands of people made organs, accordions and small runs of synthesizers that were like nothing else in the world. Much production closed in the 90s, leaving only a few companies around, and many people lost their jobs. The history of Marche synths was not talked about, too bitter were the memories. The Museo Del Synth Marchigiano aims to change that - a motley crew of synth lovers work together to get the story about this special time in music instrument history out.

I was invited to play a show at Acusmatic Festival in Ancona and visit the collection before. I was overwhelmed by the amazing sounds these machines made, so I captured them on tape and for use in my performance. I also just had to film every synth I could get my hand for you to enjoy. You will find instruments by Siel, Elka, Elgan, Farfisa, Crumar, CRB and more here.

https://www.museodelsynth.org"

Timeline:

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Rare Elka Wilgamat III Analog Drum Machine

via this auction

WERSI WERSIMATIC II

video upload by

"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

RARE Vintage 70's ELKA WILGAMAT 111 Analog Drum Machine III

via this auction

"Made in Italy. 16 drum beats. Bass, chord, and arpeggio controls..."

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ELKA WILGAMAT (1975)

video upload by Synthesizer Home

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

rare birds: Welson Ritmo / analog drum and accompaniment unit

video upload by ohm_studi_ohm

Also see this one from 2022 with a smaller keyboard controller.

"The Welson Ritmo was a accompaniment unit intended as an add-on to some of Welson's organ line. It consists of a rhythm unit, a bass section, a chord section and an arpeggiato section. All sounds are of course fully analog. It is very similar in features and sound to the Elka Wilgamat, Böhm Böhmat and Wersi Wersimatic CX1. They are actually built around the same chipset family (SGS M2xx), but the Ritmo cannot be programmed.

It was never intended as a standalone unit so I built a custom keyboard to make it so.

Unit is very easy and straightforward to use with some nice features: for instance you can play it in "free chord" or 'one finger chord'. In the first mode you need to make a 3 notes chord to trigger the arp sound. With one or 2 notes you only trigger the bass and chord sounds, this make for some nice performance variations. The bass section can be set to 'walking bass', and in this mode you also need 3 notes to trigger the melody.

In 'one finger chord' you play a major chord with one key. There is a pedal input on the back to make the chords minors. I also added a switch on the keyboard to alternate between major and minor chords when playing in the "one finger chord" mode.

Other nice features are "keystart" (obvious functionnality) and 'memory' which holds the played notes (and rhythm). And like almost all the preset rhythm units you can combine different rhythms together."

Pics via SALES.OHMSTUDIOHM@GMX.FR

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Moby's Drum Machines For Sale

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

You can find them on Reverb here.

Don't miss the video here.

Update: some pics and details captured. I made the mistake of trying to capture them all and then realized how many were listed. :) I ended up switching to the more esoteric models. Quite a few have never been featured here on MATRIXSYNTH before. What's a little bit interesting, is only two new labels were needed, one for Domino and one for Side-Kick-Er. All other brands have been featured before. See the labels at the bottom of this post. Side note: Blogger limits the number of characters to 200 for labels, so I wasn't able to capture them all for this post. You can always search for the brand names featured for more. I assume most do this anyway. The labels are more for maintenance and for finding posts that may not feature brand names in descriptions.

Pictured:

Realistic Concertmate Electronic Accompanist-Metronome

"Fully analog rhythmic companion utilizing 5 beat buttons to combine how you wish. Features metronome, speaker and line out, and tempo control.

Serial: 42-2103. Works with no issue."

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Elka Wilgamat

Ohm. Studio

"Simple demo of the unit I’m selling to show it’s present working condition.

Basically drum machine and bass section work fine but accompaniment part is not. Sometimes it produces sound, sometimes not and most of the time it makes bass section do strange things when activated."

ELKA Wilgamat III

via this auction

ELKASONG VGPG

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ELKA Wilgamat 3

via this auction