PNW06: Stephen Talks About his Custom Wood Cased Pro One

Stephen Talks About his Doepfer Ribbon Controller


Two more via this year's Pacific Northwest Synthesizer Meeting. You can see the Prophet T8 minus keys that Stephen refers to here. You can find Stephen's custom woodwork on Synthwood.

PNW06: David Skinner Demos his Synthesizers.com Modular

Two more of David Skinner and his Synthesizers.com modular at this year's Pacific Nortwhest Synthesizer Meeting. Click here for two previous posts.

Ondioline

Click here for shots pulled via this auction.

via Dave.

More on the Ondioline on 120 Years.

Via wikipedia: "The Ondioline was a vacuum tube-powered keyboard instrument, invented by Georges Jenny, which was a forerunner of today's synthesizers.

The Ondioline was capable of creating a wide variety of sounds. Its keyboard had a unique feature: it was suspended on special springs which made it possible to introduce a natural vibrato if the player moved the keyboard from side to side with their playing hand. The result was an almost human-like vibrato that lent a wide range of expression to the Ondioline. The keyboard was also pressure-sensitive, and the instrument had a knee volume lever.

Jean-Jacques Perrey first acquired an Ondioline in the mid-1950s [1], and used it on all his older albums from the late 1960's."

You might recognize the name Jean-Jacques Perrey from these posts (you can see him playing it in the first post). I saw him play live with Dana Countryman and he had the Ondioline with him. It sounded just like a theremin. Jean-Jacques Perrey stated that the Ondioline was his favorite instrument.

Stupid Trivia

So in the comments of this post on Synrise, dan s. calls out that Synrise has had the same site design since 1999. It occured to me that I might actually hold the record for the synth site with the oldest original design! I know, exciting stuff. The original Matrixsynth, which is still up, btw, has had the same exact crappy design since Oct. 1997, when I originally put it up. If anyone knows of another synth site with an older design that is still up, feel free to comment. And yes, the blog link is new, but the overall site really has been the same since day one minus adding and updating links. Appropriate title, huh?

tower

flickr by saftpackerl. Title link takes you to more.

EMS Synthi Sequencer 256

Click here for shots pulled via this auction.

Details:
"You are bidding monstrous EMS Synthi Sequencer 256 (formerly known as Synthi Moog Sequencer), very rare separate version of the Synthi 100 sequencer . Very few of them were produced back in the very early 70's. Designed by David Cockerell. Features the following options:

-Layers with 2 Control Voltages plus Key Parameters
-Fourth Key only Layer
-Five Octave Velocity Sensistive Keyboard
-256 Event x 42 bit Memory
-Each event comprises 2 x 6-bit Control Voltages and 13-bit Start & Stop times
-Internal (0.1 - 200 Hz) or External Clock
-Plays Forwards and Backwards
-Editing

Classic piece of electronic music history, it was surely the most sophisticated sequencer of the early synth years. List price in 1974 was $6500 in the States or 2500 pounds in UK. Looking incredibly cool. Every picnic would need a Synthi like that. The world would be different. I would not sell it I have not to. Cosmetic condition is very good (some traces of being used in the studio during the years, see the pictures; never on the road), working condition should be very good either , however sold as is because of the age. It was originally part of the one of the few modern electronic music studios fully based on EMS equipment founded in 1973. Serial number 6023, what means it is probably 23-rd unit ever produced. I guess not many more than 50 units were produced in general. Power plug included. To be picked up from Hayes, London or I will ship everywhere, however it might be expensive as the unit is quite big and heavy (more than 40 lbs)."

More info:
http://www.ems-synthi.demon.co.uk/emsprods.html#seq256
http://members.tripod.com/werdav/vosyn100.htm
http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/machines/ems/index.html


Sent my way via Johan.

The Davolisint

This image popped up on AH today. The synth in the center is the Davolisint. Title link takes you to a page dedicated to the synth with specs, samples and more shots. Anyone know what the synth below it is?

Clear Moog Etherwave Theremin

Title link takes to shots pulled from this auction.

Deatails:
"This is a one of a kind Moog Etherwave Theremin. It was built for display to show the insides. Now thats cool and the fact 4 total clear units ever made is even cooler, But this is the only one that had a strobe light and a LED back light made for this Clear Theremin. Its one of a kind. Its electronics are made by Bob Moog. It works and comes with the two Theremin Videos to show how to play. The videos are new. The Theremin mounts on a standard mic stand. And when played on stage its LED light shines a beam of light across the stage, and you turn on the strobe it lights up the player and the electronics to the audience, but the eyes of the thermin player are sheilded by the PC board of the theremin. It looks great on stage. Its a 110 volt power. It has 1/4 audio out. all the same controls of the Moog Theremin : Volume, Pitch, Waveform & Brightness controls and an extra power switch for the strobe. Here is the amazing Moog Etherwave Theremin designed by the legendary, Grammy Award winning Theremin and synthesizer designer, Robert Moog! Dr. Moog's Etherwave Theremin is of the same high quality as his earlier designs from the 1950's and 1960's, with 3/8" nickel-plated brass antennas. It completely puts the imitators to shame! The Etherwave has an enormous pitch range that allow the player to shake the room or play notes that Celine Dion would have a hard time following. You can plug it into your stereo, mixer, or guitar amp, and sounds amazing with reverb or delay added. It comes complete with two video tutorials : "Clara Rockmore: the Greatest Theremin Virtuosa", and "Mastering the Theremin", featuring Lydia Kavina."

Custom Paia Synth

This one came in via AH. According to Harry Bisell:

"From the names of the modules and the number of jacks on each... its a re-packaged PAiA 2720 synth. The LPF, BPF, and "Sine Converter" modules are dead guiveaways !!!"

VEMIA Auction Nov 4

Via Peter Forrest. Note the VEMIA auction usually has some pretty interesting stuff. Last year some gear from Brian Eno including his DX7 were included. Definitely worth taking a peak. Here are some previous posts mentioning VEMIA.

"Next VEMIA auction has some good stuff coming, including 22 lots (actually probably nearer 40 or 50 lots) starting at 22 uk pounds with no reserve.

Some items are already up online at www.spheremusic.com

They include an ARP 2600 (but that's already had some keen bidding); an Obie 4-voice (at 110 pounds at the moment); some Metasonix items - two already listed; and, to come, a Moog Taurus, a MIDI'd Odyssey module, and quite a few other interesting pieces.

No hidden reserve on anything in the auction - one bid gets it if no-one bids higher. 10% buyer's premium, but you get personal service and protection for that, plus the ability to pay in a variety of ways for free. Auction ends Saturday Nov 11.

Thanks! Peter Forrest"