EMS Synthi 100

Interesting thread on the EMS Synthi 100 on Vintage Synth Explorer. Two interesting tidbits that got me to post this. One in the History page of the EMS Site it lists Belgrade in The Users section. Optimus prime on the thread followed up and it turns out they have a Synthi 100. Two, the Synthi 100 is featured on Meat Beat Manifesto's later work including some shots of it in a DVD called "Tino Vision." I will definitely have to check that out.

Ray Kurzweil

Seems like Kurzweil has been making the rounds lately. Aside from Kurweil Music Systems he is one the most prolific inventors of our century. Click here for a CNet article on him.

Fairlight CMI

Retro Thing has a good post up on the Fairlight CMI. Very cool. Enjoy.

Synthesizers.com 44-Space System for Sale

Yowsa! Click here for more including some beautiful shots. I saved the shots here, as I'm guessing they will eventually come down off the site.

"What can one say about .com? It's the modular Bob Moog himself regarded as the contemporary modular "that got it right." I think that appraisal is a bit fairer to .com than to some other makes I also admire, but there it is from the big man. Various owners who are conversant in electronics report amazement at the bomb-proof quality of the circuitry, wiring, and construction. It really is built for the long haul, as John Mitchell used to trumpet on AH."

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New Synth Shots and Progsounds Synth Forum from Luca Capozzi

Luca Capoza from Italy sent this my way. Click here for his forum, Progsounds and Zioaxiom will take you to his Flickr set. There is an articles section on Progsounds available to registered users. Thanks Luca!

Alesis MMT8 Sequencer

Two shots of the MMT8 including one of the inside sent my way via Andre Vezina. I remember when these were considered "IT" for sequencing. They were the standard and considered the best; so much so I remember there being classes on how to use them in an audio engineering program. I always wanted one at the time, but couldn't afford one. Amazing how simple it looks. I love this shot without the original face plate. Very industrial, which was appropriate for it's time. Thanks Andre! Click hear for his site including more pictures and music all made with the MMT8. Listening to Quartz now. Good stuff.

"After many years of utilisation, the switch board of the Alesis MMT-8 was in bad condition. I did'nt want to get rid of it simply because in my case, this is the perfect tool and I know it by heart.So I decided to fix real switchs directly on the circuit board. After one day of working, the result became an hideous polymorph thing with all fonctions working perfectly.

Maybe one day I will decide to make a more fashion panel."

I say keep it the way it is! It looks better to me. : )

Synth Shots from Josue Arias

EMS Synthi pic in from Josue Arias. Thanks again, Josue!

Driscoll Modular

Update: Some comments with additional info from Ken below. Click on comments at the end of this post.

Wow. Josue Arias sent this to me. You can put this on the list of the rarest of the rare. I'm not one to benchmark rarity against, but I've never seen or even heard of one of these before. The only thing that comes up on Google is this site with a brief reference of the Driscoll. The Analog Heaven archives come up dry as well.

Josue refers to the Driscoll as a Driscoll/Serge modular. He states, "the 'serge' part is just because the similar modules in it (Slope generators, Random voltages, cv processors, Analog shift register,...) and because my system even have a serge 5 stage sequencing programmer!, but driscoll designed the same functions than the serge modular using another electronic aproach and design, so is not a clone(!)"

The Driscoll was built in the 70s by Australian composer/designer/engineer Julian Driscoll. Josue, believes the original Driscoll was a 10-12 panel system.

As for the sound?
"The sound for this synth is incredible, its really "organic", it sound like creatures more than electronics : ) I have it next to my 4 panel serge and I really like the driscoll sound a lot more."

http://www.cyndustries.com/bugmusic/17.mp3

"All the water drops/woodblocks/marimba/rithms, comes from the driscoll. I think it show the organic qualities. I`m ataching you a couple of photos but they are from my old studio"

Wow. Thanks for sharing this Josue.

Update:
Josue gave me the ok to post the following thread. Thanks Josue!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I`ve found some of the conversaions I had with australian composer
Warren Burt, He used the Driscoll and even it have a CD now for sale
made with it!:

"Hello Mr. Burt,

I`m Josue Arias, a musician and sound engineer from Madrid(SPAIN)
I just got the old Segemodular tape from 1983, and I`ve found you have
a nice piece there called "You want, maybe, something a little intense
diatonic?"

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Korg MS-20 - New Flickr Shots

Awesome shots of the Korg MS-20 via Flickr.

Modded Roland TR-606

Update: More on Analogue Haven. Mod doc here.

On the'bay. Wow. It almost looks photoshopped to me. Hrmmmmm... If it wasn't on auction, I don't know if I'd believe it. Nice though. : )

From the auction:

If you think this is just another TR606 with a couple of tweaks then you are wrong..!! This is the most modded TR606 on the planet and it has to be seen and heard to be believed. It has had the following upgrades and mods:-
All switches have been replaced with new parts (They get unreliable with age, this acts and feels like new)

All Led's have been replaced with blue Leds, and Led's have been added to each voice too, so you can see as well as hear which drum is sounding.

It has a full Analogue Solutions tonal mod (costs £140 inc vat), this adds the following extra controls:-

BD; Tune1, Tune2. SD; Tune, Snappy, Noise Decay. LT/HT; Tune, Sweep. CY; Mix (between 2 sound sources), Decay. HH; Tune (affects CY too), OH Decay.

It has individual trigger outs for each voice and longer gate outs too (with selectable voltage), these were added so that it will drive Analogue Solutions and similar Drum modules.

It has individual outputs for each voice in addition to main output.

It has trigger buttons for each voice added, so that individual sounds can be auditioned without the drum machine running.

It has a fine tempo control added for emmm fine control of tempo..!!

Both the internal clock and accent are available as external triggers so that they can drive envelope gates for filters, VCA's, frequency shifters etc on modular synths.

It has Midi clock input added so it can be slaved to an external sequencer or Cubase, Logic etc.

It has a large capacity Lithium memory backup battery added so that you don't have to worry about loosing patterns if the batterys go flat - this should last about 10 years.

The drum volume controls and the dinsync socket have been moved from the TR606 panel to the expander panel to make them more intuitive.

It has a built in power supply with a 230v IEC connector, mains lead is included.

It has a high quality 12 channel stereo mixer with pan controls added, use this with internal voices via patchcords or use it with external triggered drum modules.

It has an 8 way multiple included too (ideal if using this 606 as part of a Doepfer modular setup).

It is in perfect working order and comes with a bound copy of the TR606 manual. It does NOT include the original vinyl carrying case because it's now too big to fit into it..!!

The panel itself is standard 6U size so it will fit into a rack, however it includes a custom made wooden case with rack rails so it can be free standing too.