RS060 Dr Böhm Dynamic 12/24 (Orla DSE): German EFF EHM

video upload by rejected synths

"Talking synths from Germany, quite a few companies come to mind: Waldorf, Doepfer or Vermona are popular ones still around and there are a lot more, some of them long gone like pioneering PPG. One company that hardly ever makes the list is Dr Böhm Organ. This might be down to the fact that Böhm weren’t exactly a company focused on synths at all but rather one that offered DIY kits for people to build themselves electronic organs.

Strictly speaking these organs were ‘synths’ too and when the 80s arrived, Böhm, just like companies like Sequential, Roland or Yamaha, started to utilize digital control and later digital synthesis in their ‘synths’ too, albeit utilizing interfaces more akin to traditional organs.

One other similarity to ‘real’ synth companies was that they also started to offer expander modules, that could be controlled by midi, expanding the variety of sounds while at the same time saving on space (no keyboard) and costs.

This is where today’s synth comes from. The Dynamic 12/24 was meant as an affordable way for Böhm’s customers of home owners and entertainers to expand their setup with some more organ but also other sounds like strings, e-pianos and some 80s-ish synth staples.

The technology used was taken from one of it’s electronic organs and while clearly trying to hide it (even going as far as filing the markings off the ICs) it was Yamaha FM Chips doing Yamaha sounding 4OP FM. The good thing is of course, that this is actually a great basis for a very wide range of sounds, especially as Böhm was kind enough to add user memory to enable creation and saving of your own patches. Also, editing can be done via midi and there are editors available too. What makes the 12/24 stand out from the crowd of 4 OP modules most though is the unique Böhm analog bucket brigade delay style ensemble effect, that ‘warms’ the FM sound.

Last but not least, the Dynamic 12/24s seem to be widely available and dirt cheap too, at least here in and around Germany. So grab one before they become cool, or anyone finds out they are actually the same as the Orla DSE, a synth that has been used by a guy that goes by the name of Richard David James…"

RS056 Casio FZ-1: Ferris' new synth

video upload by rejected synths

No talking demo video below.

"I’ve acquired my Casio FZ-1 quite a while ago and other than installing a floppy disk emulator, I hadn’t used it much before starting this video. Disks taking forever to load and the mostly mediocre patches I found online made me neglect this wonderful machine at first.

But from all the praise I read online and the very few videos that actually existed, I already knew that there had to be something special about the FZ-1. Countless hours later, I now understand that this sampler/synth really is a very capable machine that offered stuff in 1987 that must have been way ahead of it’s time back then. Not only is the, admittedly tiny by today’s standards, graphic display a great help when editing samples, Casio’s engineers really went out of their way to add as many features they could think of in terms of wave editing and creation. They even went as far as adding the possibility to expand the capabilities of the machine even further by additional tools that can be loaded as programs from a floppy disk.

The FZ-1 has unique analog filters, is 8 voice polyphonic and has 8 individual outs that can be assigned freely, filter cutoff can be midi controlled, it has a very nice low end and is built like a tank.

Yet nobody seems to care at all!

Yes it’s crazy how the fact that it says Casio on the back has kept this wonderful machine from receiving much praise at all, even second hand prices are FAR lower than those of comparable machines of the same era. It is said, that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. For me the FZ-1 has really turned out to be real gem :)"

RS056.1 Casio FZ-1 'No Talking Edition'

video upload by rejected synths

"This is a shorter 'No Talking' edit of my video about the Casio FZ-1 for those who prefer 'pure' demos without comments.

The patches used in this video (naming of demo patches references the individual disks) and some tools can be downloaded here: http://zine.r-massive.com/casio-fz-sa...

If you like the background animations in my videos, go check out my new sub channel Rejected Synths Recycling Center, where you can download them for use in your own video projects:

/ @rsrecycling

0:00 Playlist
0:10 Demo Patch 1 CASIO103 Bank 07 ‘Galaxis’
0:58 Demo Patch 2 CASIO104 Bank 01 ‘Soundtrack’
1:24 Demo Patch 3 CASIO104 Bank 03 ‘Xoron’
1:42 Demo Patch 4 CASIO104 Bank 04 ‘Turbo Breath’
2:24 Demo Patch 5 CASIO104 Bank 08 ‘Starship2’
3:08 Demo Patch 6 CASIO105 Bank 05 ‘Focalize’
3:51 Demo Patch 7 CASIO115 Bank 02 ‘HebbenlyVox’
4:29 Demo Patch 8 CASIO116 Bank 01 ‘PolyPad1’
5:11 Demo Patch 9 CASIO116 Bank 03 ‘Prophecy’
5:29 Demo Patch 10 CASIO119 Voice 08 ‘Cat/Synth’
5:47 Demo Patch 11 CASIO119 Voice 12 ‘SqueezeSynth’
6:18 Demo Patch 12 CASIO119 Voice 13 ‘Perk-U-Later’
6:35 Demo Patch 13 Custom Patch ‘Junglist’
7:49 Demo Patch 15 Custom Patch ‘Thick Pad’
8:22 Multi Patch Demo Song
10:01 Outro"

RS054.1 Evolution Synthesis EVS-1 'No Talking Edition'

video upload by rejected synths

"This is a shorter 'No Talking' edit of my video about the Evolution Synthesis EVS-1 for those who prefer 'pure' demos without comments. If you like it, go watch the full video, it features additional information about the machine: [posted here]

0:00 Playlist
0:09 PCM Drum Demo
0:35 Preset Demos: 02 Warm Strings
1:04 Preset Demos: 07 Ethereal
1:25 Preset Demos: 09 SynthBrass1
1:42 Preset Demos: 10 X7Bass
2:13 Preset Demos: 12 DeepString
2:45 Preset Demos: 23 BloozyBox
2:59 Preset Demos: 30 MetalBrass
3:17 Preset Demos: 38 SweepSynth
3:38 Preset Demos: 47 SynthModWh
4:05 Preset Demos: 54 Hefern
4:34 Preset Demos: 58 VocalStrng
5:26 Preset Demos: 69 WarmStrng3
5:37 Preset Demos: 75 Swamp
6:09 Preset Demos: 77 Pretty
6:24 Preset Demos: 80 Plinkety
6:45 Preset Demos: 81 EinStein
7:27 Preset Demos: 83 Dissonant
7:54 Custom Patch Demos: deep_dream
8:27 Custom Patch Demos: deep_reso2
8:54 Custom Patch Demos: deep_revrb
10:07 Multitimbral Demo Song: Daftness
11:50 Outro"

Update:

RS055 RS Tech Support: EVS-1 Editor Setup Tutorial

video upload by rejected synths

See this post for an audio only demo.

0:00 Intro
0:14 Introduction
0:25 Wayback Machine
1:31 Atari editor running in Hatari/Linux
3:45 Win95 editor running in Windows 10
6:18 Outro

"The Evolution Systems EVS-1 is one of those machines slightly too far ahead of it’s time. Requiring a computer for convenient editing might be pretty common now, but back in 1990 it was a pretty new concept. So I guess many original users of the EVS-1 never actually used the editors and when the computer formats these editors relied on became obsolete, the EVS-1 was doomed to become an obscurity.

But today, through the wonders of emulation (and the surprisingly vast capacity of windows backwards compatibility) it’s quite easy to expirience and explore the EVS-1 the way it was meant to be used.

In this tutorial I will show you how to set up the editors for Atari (via emulation on Linux) and Windows 95 (inside Windows 10 through some fiddling), all you need is explained in the video, links to all files can be found below, as well as all the commands mentioned in the video (for convenient copy+paste).

First the links:

The editors, as well as some outstanding patches can be downloaded as zip files from deepsonic.ch (scroll all the way down):

https://www.deepsonic.ch/deep/htm/evo...

The patch banks linked on the ancient Evolution site can be found here:

https://www.file-upload.net/download-...

An Atari ST disk image containing the editor can be downloaded here:

https://www.file-upload.net/download-...

Now about the commands you have to enter to install hatari on linux, to install snap support (if needed) enter these commands into a terminal:

sudo apt update

followed by

sudo apt install snapd

to install hatari enter

sudo snap install hatari-emulator

Now for the Windows 10 part, Installation.txt tells you to copy the file MSSTDFMT.DLL to the root directory c:\, you can find MSSTDFMT.DLL inside the Install folder.

Next you’ll have to bring up the command line prompt, this can easily be done by typing cmd into the windows search bar. Instead of just running the command line prompt, right click the symbol and select run as administrator. If you’ve done so, you can follow the next step from installation.txt and type

regsvr32 C:\MSSTDFMT.DLL

and press enter. This will register the dll file and make it executable

And now for the tricky part: the other file mentioned in installation.txt is called comdlg32.ocx an trying to register the file in the same way as MSSTDFMT.DLL will result in an error message because it’s a 32 bit ocx file and therefore needs to be registered in a special way. So unlike mentioned in installation.txt, copy the file into the c:\winodws\sysWOW64\ directory and type

%SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\regsvr32 comdlg32.ocx

I hope this works for you the way it has form me. If you run into communication errors, restart both the editors AND the EVS-1, sometimes it took me some tries with both editors but in the end it ususally ended up working just fine."

RS054 Evolution Synthesis EVS-1: Algorithmical

video upload by rejected synths

"Being ahead of your time has been a topic discussed on this channel more than once, as there are quite a few synths that ended up on rejected synths because they were too far ahead of their time in one way or another. So it’s no surprise that today’s synth, which managed to be ahead of it’s time in more than just one sense, ended up on this channel.

The Evolution Synthesis EVS-1 is a digital rack synth that brought (multi) algorhythmic digital synthesis and computer editing of patches to the table...eh, I mean rack as early as 1990. It may look like a very humble 1HE Rack unit with a tiny display and only very few connectors, but it actually is quite capable as it is eight part multitimbral (at 16 voices), has a full onboard PCM drum kit and a whole array (28) of more or less exotic algorhythms.

Sure, without the late 80s home computer at hand originally required to edit the 20 available user memory slots, many considered it to be yet another boring fm expander, and FM certainly is what most presets sound like. But dive deeper and you’d soon realize that this thing can output some very interesting, wavetably, otherworldly sounds.

Playlist:

0:00 Intro
0:20 Introduction
1:46 Standout features
3:48 Why did it fail?
4:41 PCM Drums Demo
5:13 Controls and Connectors
6:31 Preset Demos: 02 Warm Strings
7:00 Preset Demos: 07 Ethereal
7:21 Preset Demos: 09 SynthBrass1
7:39 Preset Demos: 10 X7Bass
8:09 Preset Demos: 12 DeepString
8:42 Preset Demos: 23 BloozyBox
8:56 Preset Demos: 30 MetalBrass
9:13 Preset Demos: 38 SweepSynth
9:35 Preset Demos: 47 SynthModWh
10:02 Preset Demos: 54 Hefern
10:30 Preset Demos: 58 VocalStrng
11:00 Preset Demos: 60 Chattring
11:23 Preset Demos: 69 WarmStrng3
11:33 Preset Demos: 75 Swamp
12:06 Preset Demos: 77 Pretty
12:20 Preset Demos: 80 Plinkety
12:41 Preset Demos: 81 EinStein
13:24 Preset Demos: 83 Dissonant
13:43 Available Editors
15:11 Custom Patch Demos: deep_dream
15:44 Custom Patch Demos: deep_reso2
16:11 Custom Patch Demos: deep_revrb
16:44 Custom Patch Demos: deep_waver
17:24 Multitimbral Demo Song: Daftness
19:27 Conclusion
19:56 Outro"

RS041 Novation Mininova: Big Bang Theory

video upload by rejected synths

"Have you ever wondered why music is ‚played‘? Is it because it‘s meant to be fun for those playing and listening? So why are there so many people out there who are as seriuos about their music as the Lego movie dad is about his Legos?

‚Make it fun‘ does seem to be the wrong mantra for this demographic, because if you show them a Novation Mininova, they will be quick to point out how it looks and feels like a cheap toy, how those keys are just to tiny to be of any use and, of course, it‘s synth engine does just not sound ‚right‘.

Well, brace yourselves Lego dads, because here is someone who actually really likes ‚playing‘ with their toys (me!) and who is automatically drawn to machines that look like they are ‚fun‘.

What did I find?

Well, a lot of great sound!

Don‘t think so?

Then go check for yourself and hit that play button!"

Track-list:

0:00 Intro
0:17 Introduction
1:35 Just a clone?
2:44 A very short VA history
3:00 Synth engine specs
3:22 Software Editors
3:41 Controls and Connectivity
5:36 Let‘s play!
6:19 Animate
7:11 Arp
8:25 Arp plus Filter
9:08 Latch it!
9:48 Two Finger Magic Trick
10:50 One finger only!
12:00 Rage Wheel
13:05 Vocoder
13:43 Some nice patches
15:14 Conclusion
16:06 Outro

RS041.1 Novation Mininova 'No Talking Edition'


"This is a shorter 'No Talking' edit of my video about the Novation Mininova for those who prefer 'pure' demos without comments."

0:00 Overview
0:11 Animate
0:53 Arp
2:03 Arp plus Filter
2:44 Latch it!
3:24 Two Finger Magic Trick
4:25 One finger only!
5:33 Rage Wheel
6:34 Vocoder
7:01 Some nice patches
8:28 Outro"

RS040 Novation Drum Station: T-RD 809?

video upload by rejected synths

"When Behringer finally managed to deliver the RD9 to stores, everyone seemed to be very much hyped about it and why wouldn‘t you be? It’s a bit like a budget car brand releasing everyone’s favorite vintage sports car at the price of, well … a budget car … only that the car looks, feels and performs pretty much like the real deal, if not better. So it’s pretty clear everyone is hyped a.f.

But what if I told you it has been done before? Sure, the Novations Drum Station isn’t ‘the real deal’ in terms of some of the functionality, like the sequencer, but it more than makes up for that shortcoming by squeezing both incredibly realistic (for the time) 808 AND 909 emulations into a very compact and very (midi) controllable 19’’ rack unit.

And while RD8 and RD9 are much cheaper than those old school legends, if you just want the sound and control-ability, why not save another 300 bucks (and a lot of shelf space)."

0:00 Intro
1:06 Introduction
2:49 Controls and Connectivity
3:51 808 Sounds
4:13 808 Demo Pattern
4:31 909 Sounds
4:46 909 Demo Pattern
5:12 Midi CC Goodness
5:36 Live Tweaking Demo
6:16 Demo Track
7:36 Conclusion
8:10 Outro

RS040.1 Novation Drum Station 'No Talking Edition'


"This is a shorter 'No Talking' edit of my video about the Novation Drum Station for those who prefer 'pure' demos without comments."

Tracklist:

0:00 Overview
0:08 808 Drum Sounds
0:26 808 Demo Pattern
0:44 909 Drum Sounds
0:58 909 Demo Pattern
1:24 Live Tweaking Demo
2:01 Demo Track (ft. Novation Bass Station)
3:05 Outro

RS042 M-Audio Venom: The Bad Guy

video upload by rejected synths

"It one of storytelling's oldest tricks, the bad guy that turn out to be the good guy. From Dickens’ Ebeneezer Scrooge to Jane Austen‘s Mr Darcy, from J.K Rowling‘s Snape to (who ever came up with him!?) Jonny Lawrence from Corbra Kai, the tough guys aren‘t as tough in the end and often the bad reputation they carry isn‘t really their own fault.

So, will a synth that is both notorious for being little more than a dub step noise machine and a cheaply built and quickly abandoned piece of glossy white plastic actually turn out to be the hero of the story?

It very much depends on who tells the story here, as M-Audio‘s Venom clearly has it‘s strengths if you can overlook the questionable design decisions made during it‘s inception. Like the hard to read grey on grey lettering or the fact that M-Audio thinks it totally ok for a stand alone hardware synth to heavily rely on a software editor that requires a PCor Mac to be able to utilize most of its extensive set synth engine features. Even the Virtual Analog Synthesizer claim that is prominently featured on the synth itself, it a bit of a hoax, as the Venom basically is just a souped up Rompler running on Amtel‘s Dream series ICs that were also found in PC sound cards and Karaoke Machines in the late 90s and early 2000s.

If you ignore these shortcomings and manage to get the editor running, you might be surprised of what the Venom can actually do. Apart from all the obvious dirty and distorted stuff, a lot can be achieved with the synth engine. Also as it was designed as an all in one solution for music beginners, you can even use it to record and process other instruments and even your own voice (vocoder anyone?).

Last but not least, the Venom might be pretty much the only synth whose price tag doesn‘t seem to have skyrocketed during the pandemic, here in Europe, you can still regularity find one for around 100€!

Curious? Then go ahead and press play!"

0:00 Intro
0:46 Introduction
1:29 The ugly parts
2:10 The bad parts
3:12 The good parts
4:35 Controls and connectivity
6:07 'Sick and Nasty' Patches
8:40 'Mad FX' Patches
9:29 'Whirling Pad' Patches
13:19 'Clean Keys' Patches
14:54 'Stained Keys' Patches
18:12 'Amazing Arp' Patches
20:46 'Traditional' Patch
21:13 Some Drumkits
22:39 Multi Mode Demo
25:31 Conclusion
26:10 Outro

RS042.1 M-Audio Venom: 'No Talking Edition'


"This is a shorter 'No Talking' edit of my video about the M-Audio Venom for those who prefer 'pure' demos without comments."

RS053 Death Star xp2: Red Sound Dark Star

video upload by rejected synths

"Sometimes one seemingly smart idea is enough to kill a whole company: The DeLorean DC-12 looked great on paper (and in Back to Future) but buried DeLorean as a company, Jiucero soon went out of juice, when people realized that DRM juice was actually as bad an idea on paper as it was in reality and the Red Sound Dark Star, well it was probably a tad bit too ambitious for the company that created it.

Sure, Virtual Analog was the next big thing, when the Dark Star was being incepted. and sure, the Virus was another VA synth by a small company that still managed to very well. So at the time, creating their own take on a VA synth most certainly sounded like a sound idea for Red Sound and, again, on paper, it sounded like a great product: Eight voices, five part multitimbrality, very solid built quality, stereo audio ins, built in expandability and, at just below 500€, a price much lower than what others were asking for.

So how could it fail this hard even after the price was lowered to well below 200€? Was it really as bad and laggy as people seemed to agree it was? Or did it just fall victim to a bad reputation? After all, the internet was another ‘product’ on the rise at that time and with it, of course, came people hating on the poor Dark Star in forums all over the net.

Sure, the Dark Star can suck, it can be slow and laggy, but as I think I’ve showed time and again on this channel, ‘bad’ synths can also often rise above their reputation when you use them just right. And of course, thanks to it’s reputation as the ‘worst VA’ it’s still one of those rare cases where you can still find an old synth at very reasonable prices.

Curious? Well then go board the ship, we’re about to take off…"

Tracklist:

0:00 Intro
0:21 Introduction
1:36 Sound Engine
3:34 Demo Song Snippet
4:23 Controls and Connectors
5:58 P35 Fat Saw Bass
6:43 P07 Plank Spank
7:44 P09 Jupitous
8:34 P41 Flower
9:30 P15 Brightly
10:32 Demo Song 1: House Org
11:30 Demo Song 2: Trance Layer
12:47 Conclusion
14:35 Outro

RS053.1 Red Sound Dark Star 'No Talking Edition'


"This is a shorter 'No Talking' edit of my video about the Red Sound Dark Star for those who prefer 'pure' demos without comments."

Tracklist:

0:00 Tracklist
0:08 Factory Demo Snippet
0:42 P52 Fat Saw Bass
1:27 P07 Plank Spanker
2:28 P09 Jupitous
3:18 P41 Flower
4:14 P15 Brightly
5:06 Multi Demo 1: House Org
6:03 Multi Demo 2: Trance Layer
7:22 Outro

RS053.2 Red Sound Dark Star Factory Demo Songs


"Time for some bonus content again, I've created some visuals for the Factory Demo Song(s) of the Dark Star.

These can be accessed by holding Audition and pressing Modulation

Enjoy!"

RS050 Waldorf Rack Attack: Analog Virtual

video upload by rejected synths

"Being way ahead of your time more often than not isn‘t actually that great. Sure, sometimes innovation pays off big time, but for some reason, pushing boundaries and conventions often won’t instantly get you the acclaim you actually deserve.

This happened more than once in general history (and in synth history too) and it is certainly true for the VST plugin turned Rack unit featured in this video. These days, it’s fairly common for us to see manufacturers squeezing what are essentially plugins into tiny shiny boxes (Roland Boutique anyone?) and while you could get the same sound for less (or free?) in your DAW, physical buttons an knobs always have a tendency to spark creativity and fun in a way that is seldom achieved sitting in front of a big screen, squeezing virtual buttons and knobs with your mouse cursor.

While The Waldorf Rack Attack certainly isn’t as portable and/or affordable as your average Volca, for me it’s an absurdly fun machine. When I took up collecting the actual hardware synths I could not afford as a teen I was absolutely baffled when I learned that Waldorf had also released a hardware version of the Attack, one of my all time favorite VST plugins, in 2002. I instantly wanted it but it took me several years to find one at an even remotely affordable price.

On the very few occasions I managed to find a unit at a reasonable, I was always too late and someone snagged it away from me before I could make an offer. This way I learned that I don’t seem to be the only one to appreciate this freaky machine. But with some patience (actually a few years of patience) I finally manged to find and buy one myself. To my surprise it turned out that the Rack Attack was even more awesome than I had expected, because Waldorf was kind enough to add some extra magic to the rack version of the Attack, it isn’t just an incredibly wild sounding percussion and drum synth but can also be used to create all kinds of synth sounds and even comes with a built in sequencer. It turned out that, with some planning ahead, you could create full tracks on a single Rack Attack and the pattern sequencer can be a great tool in any dawless setup.

Only very few people seem to know about this absolute gem of an machine, not much at all can be fond on YouTube itself, well until now that is ;)"

Tracklist:

0:00 Intro
0:43 A pretty long Introduction
4:38 The Attack Sound Engine
6:09 Rack Attack Demo Song
7:36 Controls and Connectivity
8:58 Preset Drumkit Demo Patterns
11:03 Plugin Mode Sound Demos
12:53 Pattern Sequencer
15:38 Plugin Mode Demo Song
18:48 Conclusion
19:27 Outro

RS050.1 Waldorf Rack Attack 'No Talking' Edition

"This is a shorter 'No Talking' edit of my video about the Behringer Neutron for those who prefer 'pure' demos without comments."

0:00 Factory Demo Song 3
1:30 Preset Drumkit Demo Patterns
3:35 Poly Mode Sound Demos
5:14 Pattern Sequencer Demo
7:35 Poly Mode Demo Song

RS050.2 Waldorf Rack Attack: Factory Demo Songs


"Aa a little bonus goodie and to celebrate the fact that I replaced my ancient 2012 graphics card with a slightly less 2017 one, I did practice some more blender fu and created some visuals for the other two demo songs I haven't featured in my original Waldorf Attack video."

Doepfer Musikelektronik MS 404: Modular at Heart

video upload by rejected synths

"Ah, the 90s! Those were easier days. No Covid, no masks, and sadly also...no 303s!

While this is an issue that has prevailed ever since, back in the 90s, when Techno ruled supreme, this lack of 303s also gave rise to a whole cottage industry of 303 cloners, companies small and tiny, set up to give ravers what they wanted: one of those shiny acid boxes or, a bit later, when techno production became more professionalized, handy 19 inch rack clones that integrated well into a studio setup, complete with midi and controls over parameters.

Dieter Doepfer, possibly best known for fathering the Eurorack standard, also tried his hand in the cloning business, or at least it seemed, because apart from the obvious naming reference, the MS 404 actually has very little to do with a faithful 303 emulation. Doepfer instead went ahead and created a far more capable machine, that can do about 101 things a 303 can‘t, but, ironically, also can‘t really do 303.

In this video, I will show you some of these things, also including this one thing it obviously can‘t.

So lean back and enjoy some fine German engineering!

Tracklist:

0:00 Intro
1:05 Introduction
3:39 Controls and Connectivity
6:50 Demo I: Not quite 303
8:45 Demo II: Noisy
10:35 Demo III: Does it PWM?
12:36 Demo IV: Dual LFO Mayhem
14:49 Demo V: Filter Input
16:32 Demo Jam
20:21 Concusion
20:59 Outro"

RS046.1 Doepfer Musikelektronik MS 404 'No Talking Edition'


RS047 Tech Support: Doepfer MS-404 - Some Simple Mods

video upload by

"As a kid, growing up on shows like A-Team and Mc Gyver, I used to think that, with some knowledge, you could just hack things together, like they did on these shows, building useful gear from junk that happened to be around. This fascination never quite left me and led to me unscrewing broken electronics to have a peek inside, imagining I would be able to build something cool.

But, growing up in the 80s meant there still wasn’t any YouTube or even basic internet around just yet, so the only resources where I could have learned some basic electronics stuff were wildly confusing and much too complicated for me back then, so I resorted to Legos.

Much later, I learned how to (barely) handle a soldering iron and toyed around with some simple electronics projects, collecting some knowledge here and there. So when I finally ended up with the service manual of the MS 404 I knew the time had come to try some synth modding.

The Service Manual didn’t only provide me with schematics but even included some suggestions on how to mod the 404. Even better, during it’s very design, the synth had already been created with expandability/moddability in mind. And because it ain’t no tiny electronics Volca, even my limited soldering skills are suffice to realize some of these modifications.

The first, and probably easiest thing I did, was to tap into multiple jumpers layed out around the board, this way, it’s super easy to add switches for LFO waveform selection and filter envelope behavior.

The second mod is a little more demanding, it’s something I came about when trying to build a tiny crossfade mixer. Utilizing a pot, it’s actually possible, to mix the signals of the saw and square wave VCO outputs, so I did that as well as adding a second pot in order to be able to mix in some noise into the VCO signal, sh101 style.

I’ve tested my ideas thoroughly before going as far as drilling holes into the faceplate, and from what I’ve learned about electronics so far, which isn’t too much to be honest, they should be safe modifications when applied correctly. Still, I just want to make it a 100% sure that I will not take any responsibility when you damage your 404 while applying any of these mods."

Böhm Dynamic 4x9 Vintage FM Synth with Analogue Phaser + Ensemble

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.
RS051.1 Dr Böhm Dynamic 4x9 'No Talking Edition' video upload by rejected synths

"This is a shorter 'No Talking' edit of my video about the Dr Böhm Dynamic 4x9 for those who prefer 'pure' demos without comments. If you like it, go watch the full video, it features additional information about the machine:"

You can find additional demos and a brochure of the 12/24 model in previous posts here.

RS051 Dr Böhm Dynamic 4x9: FM Tank

video upload by rejected synths

Dopfer gets a mention at 2:17.

"Japanese manufacturers today are the big players in the synth world and they have been so for quite a while. But just like there are today, there have always been other choices too. Small manufacturers from many different countries add their own distinctive ‚flavors‘ and always have.

Take for example today‘s synth, the Dr Böhm Dynamic 4x9. It‘s a very German fully programmable 4OP FM-Synth monster. Big and heavy (and some might say over-engineered) like a German sedan. Stuffed to the brim with the latest technology (from the mid 80s) it clearly exceeds the capabilities of most of it’s contemporary peers. Featuring a whooping 36 voices (and 36 part multitimbrality), it is equipped with dual midi ports, lots of outputs, two analog effects boards and abundance of memory for patches and takes up a LOT of parking, ehm, rack space.

The biggest difference of course is, that you don’t have to built you Mercedes or BMW yourself, (and didn’t have to back in the 80s). A Doctor Böhm however was a DIY affair, to own one, you had to built one yourself. It’s no surprise then, that the 4x9 never became too popular or even widely known outside of it’s native country. So it’s actually much less a Beamer and more like a Bitter SC Sedan… or a German tank, if you go by its impressive weight or the thickness of the metal used for the casing ;)"

via this auction

Pic of the inside below.

"This one‘s a real hidden gem.

Developed in 1987 by the german organ factory Böhm (formerly known as Dr. Böhm) the Dynamic 4x9 is a 9 voice multitimbral 4 Operator FM Synthesizer with Bucket Brigade Effects Phaser and Ensemble. And it‘s got Yamaha (YM2203) ICs.

4x9 means you can route 4 Midi Channels, each with 9 Voices, separately. You got a stereo out and you got four single outs to mix each of the four channels separately.

Dynamic means you got aftertouch and velocity.

The attached video shows all functions and what the 4x9 sounds like.

Device works flawless, some scratches on top, no leaked battery. Looks fine inside.

220 Volt.

For 110 Volts you need a voltage converter"

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An Interview with Barry Schrader

Hi everyone! As you know Barry Schrader will be giving his farewell concert at CalArts on September 26. The following is the beginning of my interview with him. I opted to post the questions and answers as they come in.  New QAs will get a new post so you do not miss them and they will be added to this post so we have one central post for the full interview. This should make it easier for all of us to consume in our busy lives, and it will allow you to send in any questions that may come to mind during the interview process.  If you have anything you'd like to ask Barry, feel free to send it in to matrixsynth@gmail.com.  This is a rare opportunity for us to get insight on a significant bit of synthesizer history, specifically with early Buchla systems, and I'd like to thank Barry for this opportunity. Thank you Barry!

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pearl_drxDemo_dance.flv

YouTube via stereoping — May 21, 2010

"A realtime-arrangement-demo of my modded Pearl DRX-1 drumsynth. Normally this excellent drumsynth must be painfully programmed by 4 buttons on the front and had 8 storagememories. i rejected this digital circuitry and added 40 pots, one for each of the 8 parameters of the 5 voices. In contrast to the simmons-things the voices are nearly identical: Pitch, Decay, Attack (adds a short enveloped noise, not just a click), Filter (slightly resonant), Bend (just piuuu) and Overtone (adds a second detuned oscillator) and Level. Sequencing comes from mc-909, the triggersignals come from my modded CMU-800 which holds (besides its modded analog drumvoices) a 16channel- midi to trigger interface. The CMU also runs the Pearl Syncussion in the background. Other synths used: D-550, Fantom and V-Synth. Just Pearl and Roland-Gear :) It is not a perfect song/arrangement but i guess you like it more than just listening to the drx alone."

pearl_drxDemo_soft.flv

stereoping — May 21, 2010

Another much softer demo of my Pearl DRX-1. Normally this excellent drumsynth must be painfully programmed by 4 buttons on the front and had 8 storagememories. i rejected this digital circuitry and added 40 pots, one for each of the 8 parameters of the 5 voices."