Univox Jazzman JM115 Vintage Keyboard by Crumar

via this auction

"Here is a super hip and rare electric piano up for your consideration. The polyphonic 61 key Univox Jazzman JR115 keyboard was made by Crumar in Italy and was introduced in 1974. It was only produced for a few years, so this keyboard is definitely mid-70's. The two low octaves have their own level control which is helpful for blending these octaves with the upper three. While this is not the exact same model of Univox that Dr. John played on his 1973 smash hit "Right Place, Wrong Time," this Jazzman provides the same dirty harpsichord sound used on the song's intro. Every key on this 5 octave keyboard produces a sound, aside from the low F. The two low F#s only produce a kick drum sound, and the high E does not seem to project the same sounds that the neighboring keys do. The keyboard is in good shape, although is does show some wear. One of the hinges for the lid is missing a screw as well. Overall, it is an easy to use vintage keyboard that allows you to tweak the tones just enough to help you dial in sounds. This could be ideal for the home recorder or studio that is looking for a unique vintage key sound. There is a Wiki page for Crumar, if you would like to read up on the company's history."

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Endangered Audio Gristleizer - Throbbing Gristle Synth/Effects Box

via this auction

"The Gristleizer is either an lfo modulated VCA or VCF with adjustable Bias and variable wave-forms for the LFO. This Endangered Audio research effect is officially endorsed by Throbbing Gristle and offers everything from a classic analog tremelo effect to wild CV control throbbing woops from the variable VCF...

Background from the manufactures :
ASHEVILLE, NC APRIL 27, 2009ó Smashing Guitars has announced the release of the first of their new product line, the Gristleizer. The flagship of the newly formed Endangered Audio (a subsidiary of Smashing Guitars), the Gristleizer is an extremely rare and unique unit. Originally designed by Roy Gwinn in 1976, the Gristleizer is based on a design published in Practical Electronics and sold in kit form by Phonosonics. Chris Carter of the British industrial music and visual arts group Throbbing Gristle modified the kit in 1977, unleashing what is known as the Gristleizer. Lost to time, the unit has been re-designed and produced by Smashing Guitars Owner/Engineer Todd Kelley, with assistance from Charlie Howes. After months of research and consultation with Gwinn and Carter, the audio path has been kept original-- "we've taken what people love about the sounds of the original Gristleizer, and given them much more" says Kelley. The Gristleizer had its initial release at the sold out Throbbing Gristle performance at Logan Square Auditorium in Chicago on April 25, 2009, one of their first performances in the USA in 28 years."

Also see:
From Which the Gristleizer Came and Gristleizer PCB, two previous posts with history and videos on the Gristleizer.

hand built experimental noise pedal circuit bent laser octave

YouTube Uploaded by drmoonstien on Mar 7, 2012

drmoonstien on eBay (RSS)


via this auction

"This is a hand built noise pedal/machine built by me the plastic knobs are recycled. everything else is brand new. new electronics enclosure pots switches all that. it has true bypass to turn the effects on and off. it has a nice clean fuzz and 8 nasty octave circuit bent beefy static mutations that can be mixed together check out the video to see what it sounds like and how it works runs on 9v power supply standard -tip boss style not included."

Cool pics with comics.

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Announcing The Electronic Music Works EMW-200

via Electronic Music Works

“Next week EMW will be proudly launching the new EMW-200 Electronic Sound Lab synthesizer, an improved version of the old EML-200 synthesizer. Stay tuned.”

And some high quality audio demos of the EMW-200 (without external effects):

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Hiroshi Sakaguchi / Music for the Bride and Groom No.3 (2012)

YouTube Uploaded by FutureRetronics on Mar 7, 2012

"at Hotel Okura Fukuoka. Japan, on March 3. 2012,
Dedicated to Michinari and Narumi.
Composition and Performance is Hiroshi Sakaguchi.
Special Thanks for Kaori.
© 2012 frepi."

Roland GR-500. Created a Synth Weddings label for this one.

dub session with monomachine and modular

YouTube Uploaded by martinHETERJAG on Mar 7, 2012

"uploaded a dub jam 5 mins ago but forgot to record the sound. damn i suck sometimes :)
anyways this one is pretty similar, same patch at least but i think i liked the first recording better :("

Electrocomp & Univox

flickr By oliverchesler
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Bottom is OSC 4 on the Electrocomp 101.

You'll find a post featuring the 101 on Oliver Chesler's Wire to the Ear.

Arp Omni 2

via this auction

"This Arp Omni 2 was recently serviced and all the tantalum caps replaced by Bay-Area pro tech Chris Hewitt. (Who sent the photos of the inside of the board).

It sounds amazing. It has the famous Arp string sounds used by Joy Division, New Order, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, the Cars, etc. There are a couple of really deep chorus settings "Hollow Wave" and "Chorus Phaser" that make this synth famous.

It also has incredible Bass sounds- really LOUD, punchy and warm.

The synthesizer settings allow for creating very musical, spacey sounds, especially using the resonant VCF and the LFO. Also cool is the separate outputs for "Strings," "Synth," and "Bass" in addition to the main "mixed" output. This way, you can process each part through different effects, and send them to different amps. Really cool feature, especially for live playing.

Some notes about the condition of this synth: I am not a tech, but the synth appears to function as designed. The keys play well and are in good shape. They are not perfectly even, and some show minor wear and tear- a scratch here, a mark there. ALL of the voice settings work and sound great. The highest key does not produce sound. Some slider caps are missing.

This is a beautiful old synth."

Pics of the inside below.

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Vintage ARP Pro Soloist 2701 SN 473454

via this auction

"The low pass VCF in this is the same as the 4035:

'Overview This is a classic "moog" transistor ladder low pass filter with the usual 4-poles and 24dB cutoff. In 1974 ARP went back to their "moog" filter design (the 4012 module used in the 2600) and updated it to use transistor array chips and put it into the Odyssey as the 4035, and the Pro-Soloist and Explorer 1 as the 4034. This two modules are virtually identical and both are temperature compensated.'"

Some pics of the inside below.

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japanese analogue synth book

via this auction

"this book is all in Japanese! it's thick and full of pics of old analog synths and Japanese bands like Yellow Magic Orchestra. ideal collectors piece if u are into old synthesisers"

Added to the Synth Books post. If anyone knows more about this one, feel free to comment or shoot me an email via the email icon at the bottom right of the site.

Update: some info via an anonymous reader:

"Meaning of the title: Electronic Music in Japan
Author: Yuji Tanaka
Publisher: ASPECT

Publisher's site on the book:
http://www.aspect.co.jp/np/isbn/9784757208711/

In Amazon Japan, a revised book is still available. [link
- note the cover is different]

This book is not beautiful because figures are gray, but it is still great because
it includes history of not-famous Japanese experimental and popular electronic music."

Update via the world of next tuesday in the comments: "The first version seems to have come out in 1997. It's about just what the title says "electronic music in Japan", it's not a book about Japanese Analog Synths. The cover of the first edition says 1955-1981, maybe that was the first edition. I have the second edition from 2001 with the grey cover. It covers up until 1987. I see the last entry in the back page timeline says "D-50" then "M1" under an otherwise blank 1988. I found it in NYC in the mid 2000s. It contains a CD of example recordings dating from 1969-1987 and it's about 600 pages long. There are hundreds of very small pictures averaging about an inch, 1.25" square and b&w. There are some synth shots that size but nothing to really study. Maybe about 20 pages are color and the bulk of the 100s of images are album covers. It covers a lot of Non Japanese albums for context. The author did a second book in 2005 called "Electronic Music in the Lost World". It has a lot more small color images of vintage electronic music albums."