Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.
video upload by ohm_studi_ohm
"First i demo a few patterns I programmed along some of the functionalities like "flam" (which affects either toms or snares depending on the state of the dedicated switch), "solo", "fill", "bass only", "second rhythm".
Then I program a pattern on the fly to show how straightforward it is to do (either in "TR" recording or in realtime).
After that I demo the presets of the unit and finally I hooked the Vermona to a Roland TR8S to use the latter as a MIDI pad and sequencer to play the DRM's sound."
"Analog drum machine from East Germany, often tagged as the "east block TR-808". I think it deserves better than this comparision, since it's a very nice sounding drum machine on its own, with many features for the time (MIDI, optional trigger input and individual outputs etc)
Unit was serviced, calibrated and is in fully working order. You could argue some switches sometimes mis trigger or double trigger but nothing major, and quite normal for a 40 years old technology.
Cosmetic is in very good condition with some wear of course."
Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.
video upload by ohm_studi_ohm
"First part I demo a few presets and most of the controls.
On the second part I enter test mode and let you listen to the 6 voices filter calibration.
This is a good test to check if your Juno 106 needs calibration. Most of the calibration procedure is dedicated to the filter setting, since oscillators are DCO they won't drift, but the filters can. By entering test mode and selecting bank 3 you basically recall a patch that has filter in self oscillation with keyboard tracking, thus you can easily hear if any of the 6 voices is off. Just play notes in the high and low notes and listen to the pitch (and amplitude). The 6 voices should sound the same, like on this unit. If one or more is way off it's time for calibration."
Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.
video upload by ohm_studi_ohm
"I've seen many string synths and this one is still one of my favourite. It's one of the happy few string synths I keep. I have one always plugged in my studio and it's actually the one I use the most (along with the Arp Omni 2). It's not the lushest, not the smoothest, not the fatest one and yet there is something I'm particularly attracted to. I like the combination of the 2 strings sounds with the harpsichord one. And on the other hand I really like the piano sound, played alone. It's my favorite of all the electronic piano sound I could hear, except for the Farfisa Professional Piano that is the best electronic piano there is (and with dynamic !).
Design is very close to the Elka Rhapsody 610 but I definetly favor the sound of the Welson. Like the Rhapsody it only embeds a double chorus, and that explain why the sound is not as lush as other stringer that uses triple chorus (most of them). Still they sound very nice IMO."
"Quite rare italian polyphonic keyboard with 4 sounds: cello, violin, piano and harpsichord.
Very simple design and yet very nice sounding. Check the demo I made.
You can mute evey section with its dedicated switch and you have control over individual volumes, as well as "sustain" for the string presets and "decay" for the keyboard presets.
Inside there is of course a BBD based chorus, using classic TCA350Y chipsets, like many famous string synth: Eminent Solina, Logan/Hohner String Melody, Elka Rhapsody etc
Like on the Elka Rhapsody it's only a double chorus, not a triple one, so string sound is not as lush as on the Solina or Logan. But these strings sounds very nice, better IMO then the Elka.
There are also seperate outputs for both sections. And furthermore the instrument is quite compact and leightweight (13.5 kilos) for a string synth, which makes a great live performer."
Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.
video upload by ohm_studi_ohm
"This is quite a rare tape echo manufactured by Dynacord. It seems to be one of the very last tape echo introduced by the brand (with the Echolette Echo 400).
It shares many parts with the Echocord line of delays like motor, pinch roller, heads, oscillator board etc
But this one useS op amps instead of only transistors for amp stages (the Echocord Super 76 also already used one op amp for the output stage).
The unit has 2 heads which you can mix with the dedicated pot. Otherwise classic features like input volume, tone, echo send level, echo feedback and echo level.
In the back the original DIN socket enabled output and aux input. In this case you only get the wet signal out of the delay, which is nice in a studio environment.
Unit was fully serviced and modded. [mods below]
I demoed it with 3 different instruments so you get a good idea of how it sounds with different sources. First is a Roland MC-202, analog mono synth, then an analog drum machine (Roland CR-78) and last an electric guitar (Squier Jagmaster, not in frame). Please note the SE-251 has no hi input impedance so I run the guitar through a DI Box first.
00:00 ROLAND MC202
03:18 ROLAND CR78
06:16 SQUIER JAGMASTER"
- all electrolityc caps were replaced (except 3 bipolar ones )
- original 4x op amps were upgraded to better one (TL081)
- original DIN socket was replaced by 2 jack sockets, one for the output and one for the aux input. Also a pot was added to attenuate the level for the aux input
"One-of-a-kind drum machine. It"s a rhythm unit ripped from a 70s Farfisa spinet organ and built in a custom case (trying to remain faithful to the original look). Classic analog drum sounds like the ones you get out of the many boxes of that area (Roland TR77, Ace Tone FR-1 FR-2 FR-8, Hammond Auto Vari etc etc) It is very close in to the Farfisa Rhythm 10 unit that Kraftwerk used at its beginning.
10 rhythms that can be combined to get some more, controls for tempo and volume. Mono jack output, on/off switch and running on 12v-18v DC (power supply is provided). Case is DIY so don't expect manufacture quality. YSWYG."
"Since I just finished adding DIN SYNC24 to my Elka Wilgamat I decided to hook it to the Arturia Keystep pro and further added an Oberheim DX and a Powertran Transcendent 2000 to the game. Playing with the Wilgamat accompaniment part brought a known melody to my memory so temptation was high to follow this path...
The Transcendent can be seen in another video i made earlier this month. It was modded to add a sub oscillator and also to correct the peculiar CV/Gate it originally used in order to use it in a standard CV/gate environnment. It's now working fine when controlled externally as you can hear.
If you want to add sync to the Wilgamat there are 2 issues you need to adress: - the unit needs 4ppq so unless you have a device capable of providing such a clock frequency you need to convert the more conventional 24ppq to 4ppq. It's actually very easy to do by using a single 4018 chipset, which can divide by 6 the incoming frequency - second issue is that the clock on the WIlgamat ask for negative pulses so you need to convert the positive pulses to negative ones. I used a single op amp to do that (TL071)"
"Here is a Powertran Transcendent analog synth I just serviced. I took the opportunity to make some modifications, mainly adding a sub oscillator circuit. I used a simple 4024 chipset and routed the -1 and -2 octave outputs to the "noise" volume pot with a 3 positions switch so that I can chose either octave sub or the Noise generator as the source for that pot. I also made modification to the CV and gate circuit which originally are not the common 1v/octave V-trigger kind. Now it can be used with any standard CV / gate interface. And last modification was a lighter one: adding a LFO rate blinking led. Very nice synth, capable of quite a wide range of sound thanks to dual resonant filter mode (Low Pass / Band Pass), S+H, repeating enveloppe, PWM etc … and now with a sub oscillator :-)
PS: this synth is not unstable in pitch. If you look carrefully you'll notice there is a slight amount of lfo (saw) modulation applied to the OSC pitch almost all the time"
"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."
Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.
video upload by ohm_studi_ohm
"+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++@allrounderplus135
SYNTH IS FOR SALE: https://www.ebay.com/itm/305343063515
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Quick impro and functionnal demo of the underated Roland RS-09 MK2 polyphonic synthesizer. The Roland CR78 is mainly here to gather your attention :-)
Sure it would not be my first choice, and even not my third, when it comes to string synth but the RS-09 has some tricks up it sleeve that makes it worthy of interest. The main one is it's ensemble FX which is a 4 BBD stereo chorus with 2 modes. It's give a very rich sound, especially since it's stereo, and keeping with Roland's tradition of ensemble FX, it sounds quite different than your typical string synth triple chorus.
Next best thing is there is an audio input so you can run your favorite synth through the ensemble FX (and through the filter). Works very well with analog polysynth's pads.
The organ section on its own is not very interesting if you compare it to an actual organ. It lacks the percussive attack and bite of combo organs for instance. But if you consider this section as a way to build harmonic pads it can sound very sweet. And of course you can route it to the ensemble FX which dramatically changes things.
Last but not least of its quality is its dimensions and weight !"
"Analog polyphonic (paraphonic) poly synth with organ and string sounds.
It has a very nice sounding stereo ensemble fx, based on 4x Panasonic MN3004 BBD chipsets, just like in the VP-330 or the Jupiter 4 (which only has 2 of those). And most importabtly it has an audio input so you can run any source through this great stereo chorus. The audio input even goes through the filter ("tone").
Another very nice feature is its weight and dimensions ! You won't find many strign synth and/or organ you can carry so easily around.
Unit was serviced and is in full working order. The organ "ensemble" switch can be a bit temperemental but nothing major.
Cosmetic it has many scuffs and doesnot look so nice so that's why you can grab it for cheap. "
"Since these days I have on hand 2 classic - shall I write cult ? - drum machines that I retrofitted with MIDI interface it was very tempting to compare them in real time, playing the same thing. So I did !
The Korg MiniPops features the Tubbutec Unipulse interface (https://tubbutec.de/unipulse/) and the Roland CR-78 was upgraded with Tauntek MCU replacement (http://tauntek.com/CR78.htm). Bless these guys for everything they give to the synth community. In this video I don't go deep into the MIDI functionality, i simply wanted to compare the raw sound of these 2 units. It would not be fair to compare them features wise. 10 years or more separate them and in many aspects the technology gap seems abysmal. BUT they are more alike one can think at first. What makes them very close is the nature, number and choice of drum sounds. The MP7 has 15 of them and the CR78 14. They have those sounds in common: Bass, Snare, Rimshot, High-Hat, Cymbal, Cowbell, Conga, Large Bongo, Small Bongo, Claves, Guiro, Tambourin. The MP7 adds a second Snare sound (longer decay) whereas the CR78 has a second Tambourine sound (longer decay). The "maracas" on th CR78 can be interpreted as Cymbal 2 on the MP7. Actually soundwise the big difference is the "Quijada" sound that's on the MP7 and is nowhere else to be found. Quite a jaw dropping sound it is ! So anyway i MIDI mapped the MP7s sounds to their respective CR78 ones as best possible so I now have 2 analog expanders rack :-)"
Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.
video upload by ohm_studi_ohm
"Quick demo of a recently serviced and upgraded Korg Keio Mini Pops 7.
Every single electrolytic capacitors were replaced, instrument calibrated and fitted with Tubbutec Unipulse card which adds MIDI synchronisation AND triggers to this classic drum machine.
First part of the demo I use an Arturia Keystep Pro to sequence and program the Minipops and on the second part I simply use the Keystep to clock and start/stop the machine, showcasing a few of its patterns."
"Quick demo of an Elka Drummer One I just serviced. Every single electrolytic capacitors were replaced. You really HAVE to do it on those units, otherwise it doesn't sound like it should, and deserve. There is no way the bad quality capacitors italian manufacturers used in the 60s and 70s could still be in shape 50 years after. And it impacts the sound a lot in those analog drum machine, especially the attack and decay of the sounds. Apart from that and trimmers that need attention it is a quite well built unit and easy to service. I tuned the sound with quite long decay, I like when the sound, especially toms and congas, are bouncy. You could of course make them tighter if you like. It's a pity the unit doesn't have more patterns that use the Cowbell and Conga sound. There is only one pattern using them each. It is however easy to add MIDI or trigger input should you want to play the sounds as a regular drum expander.
Please note there is a slight distortion at some point in the video, it doesn't come from the Elka but from the Teisco Vocal 120 mixer it is plugged in, which has some very dirty gain attenuator switches i never manage to really clean, so eventually i'll replace them. Anyway, here is the Elka Drummer One. Listen with headphones or decent speakers !"
"Here is a glimpse of the analog drum machine range from japanese manufacturer Ace Tone. Quite popular in the late 60s and early 70s, they were probably the leader in those presets rhythm units at the time before Roland came into the game.
Full analog, only transistors and diodes, no integrated circuit yet.
FR1 and FR2 are basically the same unit. They do sound similar (same PCB) and have the same presets. The main difference is the cancel buttons. On the FR1 you can cancel "bass drum", "cowbell", "claves" and "cymbal", whereas on the FR-2L you can cancel "snare", "claves" and "cymbal".
Of course it is very easy to mod these units and add other mutes buttons, individual levels, outputs etc
The FR20 is quite similar soundwise to the previous ones. The patterns are different, they are fewer but you have 3 "customizable" presets with differents variations of snare and cymbal, thus effectively giving it a wider range of possible patterns, and this time you have cancel for "bass drum", "snare" and "cymbal" which make more sense then the previous ones' choices.
But the main feature of the FR-20 is that it has a built in amp powered speaker cabinet. And it sound loud and deep, it's a great combo. Plus ther is an input so you can plug you organ or synthesizer and play along the rhythm (start stop with foot pedal is possible on all units btw).
The FR6 is quite a different beast. It sounds very different to the other 3, soundwise and in terms of patterns. Sound is brighter, crispier even harsher.
Note all the units where fully recapped so difference in sounds isn't due to ageing component but to design. I don't have the schematics for this one but it's definetly not the same layout. It might have been designed or "inspired" by some other model available at the time. (could be the Roland TR-66 with which it shares many features).
So here is a demo of the first one: The FR-1.
Recorded through a Teisco 120 to add some reverb."
"The Sequential TOM was already a great drum machine at the time it was released, with a lot of nice features, especially regarding MIDI implementation. You could play, record, synchronise the machine over MIDI and adjust sample direction, volume, pitch and pan of every sample either on the device or over MIDI, in real time and for every step ! That gives you lots of possible variations. Not many drum machines could could achive that at the time.
And now thanx to another amazing engineering by Tauntek you can have 16 kits in the instrument at all time, without the need to switch cartridges. And even more important: you can swap the internal kit samples as well as the cartridge ones, enabling for any combination of 2 kits you wish. This is impossible with cartridges or other upgrade available, and only possible thanx to Tauntek firmware. And that makes a huge difference. Note that you can only have 15 sounds at hand not 16. The 8th pad from the cartridge layer is always a trigger out message and won't trigger a sound, even if the loade kit has 8 sounds.
You can even make your own kits if you have access to an Eprom programmer. Check Tauntek dedicated page for more info (http://www.tauntek.com/TOM16cart.htm) This unit also had its RAM maxed out, expanding the internal 8k to 32k and thus bringing the stock 2,300 notes capacity to a whopping 10,400. And believe me you run very quickly out of memory if you make some complex patterns with different variations.
So here is the demo, i didn't make patterns demos for each of the 16 kits but you'll get the idea, and I didn't go too deep into external MIDI playing/programming but bare in mind you can record instrument tuning pitch, volume, pan and sample direction (reverse) for every instrument on every step.
Here is the timeline: 00:00 stock kit patterns 02:28 TR808 kit patterns 03:56 TR909 kit patterns 05:08 TR606 kit patterns 06:25 CR78 kit patterns 07:17 sound preview of all the kits included in the box 11:18 quick realtime patterns programming using external pads
list of the kits included in the TOM16: SCI Internal SCI Basic Percussion SCI Contemporary SCI Latin Percussion SCI Special Effects Drumware Rock Drums Drumware Techno Drums Drumware Orchestral Drumware Percussion 3 Drumware Hippefex Drumware Analog Drums Roland TR808 Roland TR909 Roland CR78A Roland CR78B Roland TR606"
"Here is another "one man band" from the 70s I just serviced. Many dead CMOS chipsets, lots of bad connections on the motherboard daughterboards sockets (broken pins, bad solder joint) and a dying voltage regulator, among other things.
Custom built keyboard to trigger the accompaniment unit, with jack socket input for pedal that introduce drum breaks.
A different flavor than the Welson Ritmo I recently demoed but definitely in the same mood.
Recorded through a Teisco 120 to add some reverb."
This appears to be the first post to feature the Elka Wilgamat 1. Note the "1" on the right. The Elka Wilgamat minus the "1" has been featured on the site before in previous posts here. Which came first? :) You can find additional Elka Wilgamat models here.
Update: according to Ohm Studio: "Electronics are exactly the same. I think this one is later and was an add for some Elka organ, maybe Concorde or something. The black color is I think factory since it’s all over the case even inside. It’s clearly the same fake wood as the original but painted black, probably to better match the organ aesthetics. I definitely remember seeing auctions with Elka organ and this wilgamat unit bundle. Also the complete wilgamat electronics and controls are fitted in some Elka organ, spinet and combo. Don’t remember which model but I did scavenged à spinet one to retrieve all the pcbs."
"if you've watched some of my videos you know I love string synth and string ensemble FX, I collect the former and build the latter. I wanted to test how an Arp Omni would sound through a Wersivoice unit. To do so I used the synth section of the Omni and plugged it to the Wersivoice, since the waveshape of the synth and string section of the Omni are basically the same. In the first part I A/B the 2 chorus sounds by using a foot switch. It's quite obvious which is what so you'll figure out. As you'll probalbly find out the Omni built-in chorus sounds mellower than the Wersi, which is brighter and harsher. Not better or worse, just a different taste. It's worthy to note the Omni 2 chorus is build around Reticon SAD512 BBD chipsets (so is the Moog Opus 3 btw) and this Wersivoice is build around Panasonic MN3004 (the same used in Roland Jupiter 4 / VP330). Early Wersivoice units (FM76s and WV3 / WV7 pcb) are build around philips TDA1022 and sound mellower. I'll make a demo with the Arp and one of those at some point.
Then in the second part this is when it gets really interesting... Since we use the synth section of the Omni we have access to a full ADSR enveloppe and a resonant filter with control over it by enveloppe, LFO and external pedal. And this allow for a much wider sound palette. Thanks to the enveloppe shaping the VCA you can get some string articulations that are not possible in the string section since it has a ASR enveloppe (meaning you can control Attack and Release but there is no Decay and Sustain is always maxed). Great for swell, staccatos, stabs etc It's also worth mentionning that the release of the ADST (synth) enveloppe is tied to the string section release, this one being the "master" or final release. If you want a long release on the ADSR you have to bring the String release up. This is not an issue, it is the way it is designed and that's one of the drawback of paraphonic design. And then comes the resonant filter... with it you can shape the tone of the sound to almost choiry / vocaly ones. And you can bring this more lively by using the LFO or an external pedal to open the filter like I did at some point. And of course you can always run the string section through the Wersivoice, which I did in the last part. And that, when the builtin Omni's chorus is set to phaser mode gives a very thick (sick ?) sound. Hope you like the video.
00:00 builtin chorus / Wersivoice comparision 02:48 quick discovery of ADSR and filter 05:19 example of ADSR use for string articulation 08:19 example of Filter use for tone shaping 10:56 use of external swell pedal (not on screen) to control filter and then LFO 14:41 BONUS string section in phaser mode through Wersivoice"
"The Crumar Multiman S (Orchestrator) is one of those classic multi instruments of the 70s. 4 sections: bass / brass / piano / strings Each section (except for the bass) can be assigned left or right of the keyboard with dedicated volume faders and mute switchs. Brass has a Moog inspired ladder filter with simple AD enveloppe and cutoff and resonance control (resonance can get wild if you want to). Strings are composed of Viola and Violins, with timbre adjust. It uses a triple chorus based on the TCA350Y BBD chipsets, basically the same as the Eminent String Ensemble. You have control over the release of the strings (called "sustain" on the panel). This also control the release of the Brass sound. Piano section consists of Piano and Harpsichord sound. You can control the sustain (again it's the release actually) with a pedal only. Without a pedal plugged in the release is always at its maximum. And the release is common to the bass sound, which by the way sound huge. And to finish you have a vibrato that affects all the section."
"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."
"Demo of a recently serviced (and converted to 230v) Technics SY-1010 analog mono synth.
Only produced for the japanese market you don't find many out of there.
Very simple design but very nice sounding, a bit like Roland SH-101.
The VCA initial gain control, continuous oscillator pitch adjustement and fast LFO give this little synth a lot more possibilities that you would first think of.
Extremely compact and lightweight too.
Get in touch if interested: sales.ohmstudiohm@gmx.fr"
"Demo of a Wersi CX1 I just serviced. Showcasing the general functionality of the instrument by fiddling with some presets I made.
This unit is actually more a CX2 since it was upgraded at some point to a CX2. This was a possibility given by Wersi when they released the CX2 not too long after the CX1. Basically it replaced the full analog drum sounds with 12 bit PCM drum samples. Otherwise the CX1 and CX2 shared the same analog arranger and programming unit.
There are still 4 analog drum synthesized sounds in the CX (maracas, claves, tambourine and "synthdrum", the latter being only manually triggered).
The CXs also have 3 SSM2044 filters for the 3 analog parts (bass, chord and arpeggio) and it features a great Wersivoice BBD triple chorus card to give that ensemble sound to the string presets sounds (check my videos about these units if you dont know how they sound).
Both drum and arranger parts are programmable and you can store your own 16 presets, in top of the 48 builtin presets.
Instant 80s and italo disco sound with this unit. Very close in philosphy and sound to the mlighty Bohm Digital Drums, with the latter being a much more advanced unit though."
