via
this auction"Akebono is extremely rare and most strange japanese electronic musical instruments
it was originally made for japanese traditinal music circa. 1980.
Akebono was a very expensive and top of the line of KOTO synth series
it built in cool brown custom suitcase like EMS synth, one side of the suitcase is a speaker
so you can play without external amp or mixer but don't worry it has audio output too.
keyboard itself is built in beautiful plastic case and design look little bit like Roland TB-303 BASSLINE
keyboard is separatable from it's case
this unique KOTO synthesizer was very expensive and made very limited quantities those days
made for the very small circle of the people who seriously studying japanese traditional music
so i'ts very hard to find even in Japan nowadays...
it's your chance to get this bizarre vintage synthesizer!
it has 2 rows of button keyboard
this keyboard specially designed for playing glissando easily like koto(japanese harp)
front row of the keyboard is japanese scale,so just playing randomly you can easily get exotic japanese melody!
it has big unique joystick for pitch-bend and volume accent and effect button for various effect for each instruments(vibrate,accent,change sound etc..)
there are various switchs and dial for special japanese tuning,octave,etc
it has special scale change switch,you can easily set many japanese exotic scales to keyboards
and it also has play/rec section,you can record and play your performance
and play another instruments over your playback recorded sound
many sounds are selectable,various japanese traditional instruments like shyakuhachi(japanese bamboo flute),koto(japanese harp),shamisen etc..
in drums mode it become exotic rhythm section full of japanese traditional drums and percussion
and you can play all these percussion by keyboard
sounds are high quality,warm and strange!,very unique original sounds
I recommends Akebono for the artist who tired of western electronic instruments and seeking for new and bizzare sounds
also recommends those who seriously studying japanese traditional music"
This has no other link with a mellotron and is very different in the fact that it is a Drum machine. It works by playing 8 track tapes at variable speeds to create rhythms. There are 8 Tapes with the unit with various styles like Motown, Samba, Funk, Twist, waltz, Bossa nova, Quickstep, mambo.
