"Attic find, pretty rare item on ebay. As you can see in the video it still works great. Does need cleanup but otherwise no major issues for a 40 year old analog synth.
Reading online most of these were factory assembled and looking at the tidy soldering and wiring I'd say this one was as well. It does appear to also have the second bus of the keyboard wired, hence the extra big connector (did not test).
There is a tons of materials on the web for this one. Here are a few interesting docs"
"This is an unique chance to own these vintage original ARP documents :
1.ARP Software & Accessory Catalog. This catalog contains 6 pages and is in very good condition.
2.ARP Arpeggio Newspaper Volume 5 Number 2 from 1976. This newspaper contains 12 pages and is in very good condition.
These ARP documents are a must-have for any vintage synthesizer/ARP collector as these are getting very hard/impossible to find these days, see the picture's for more detail."
"This is a classic analog drum machine by Roland, before the 808's and 909's. It's basically a series of loops and fills that you can actually sequence together into measures or you can manually hit the fills yourself. To my ear, itt sounds very similar to the 808 sounds. This is a great device if you want those vintage 808 type analog sounds. Albeit, much less versatile than the 808 of course, but for a much lower price!"
"GRENDEL DRONE COMMANDER: One of the coolest mono synths ever designed. In this video, you're hearing it totally 'dry,' with no effects (and, of course, in mono). Typically, I 'jam out' on this thing for quite a while, recording literally everything. Then I edit out all but the coolest bits and (if it will be used as a foundation for a track) "beatmap" them in Logic, so they're to a grid, then add effects (at the very least, timed delays). But, as you'll hear, with the few clips I included, the unit by itself is great for "precursor to event" tension-building sounds. It's one of my favorite gear pieces--and perhaps that's surprising, since I'm mainly a guitar dork!
This is one of about 750 that Eric Archer made (he has since created a modular version; check rare waves dot net). Indispensable for its beautiful, resonant sounds and very “playable” pulse drones. It has nine knobs--two manually-tuned oscillators and two LFOs, plus an unusually colorful and nasty filter. The manual details all knob functions, but here are a few: LFO1 is an analog variable-shape oscillator, and LFO2 is a pulse waveform that auto-synchronizes to LFO1 at a ratio of 2x, 4x, 8x, or 16x. Both LFOs can be routed to the filter for rhythmic patterns. A line-level output jack is provided for connection to amplifiers or effects. YUMMY!
"SIDRASSI ORGAN: This is one of my favorite 'exotic' synths, and is quite rare. Of the few videos of it on the web, virtually all focus on its 'noise-making' abilities. In this video, however, I attempt to showcase its unique MELODIC and RHYTHMIC capabilities. Enjoy! (It's totally "dry" in the video.)
The Sidrassi Organ has seven pressure-sensitive bars (buttons on front scroll each bar through random tunings). It's fantastic for making wild noisebursts/bleeps (the focus of virtually ALL Sidrassi vids on the web), but it's also highly “playable,” and I think, capable of BEAUTIFUL sound (my mission, with this quasi "TUTORIAL" video). In addition to the tuning buttons on the unit's front, there is a master pitch knob, as well as a master modulation/chaos knob. There are also 42 nodes to touch or weave with wire, making weird/unique tone combinations. It has two outputs: Press a bar, its sound goes left, release it, its sound goes right. An extremely fun/chaotic 'happy accident' synthesizer!
Designed by Peter Blasser (distributed by Ciat-Lonbarde)
PS: I'm using the BRILLO PAD at the end to randomly 'go modular' with the contacts at the top of the unit. I have some alligator clips... but didn't use those in this vid. Apparently people use coins, wires, skin... whatever, to mess with the random "modular" factor... (but the contacts all go to NOBODY KNOWS WHERE, intentionally, for more randomness!) Definitely one of those oddities that sneaks its way into some things... at the very least, in the background, gurgling away.
