Brian, can you talk a little about this beast? I think you have the only one left but I'm not sure.

Does it still operate? Is it intuitive and useful or just a big novelty?

How did it come into your possesion?

I got it "broken" with seemingly the 8" floppy drive being the problem. I've had one of the original inventors over to see it, test it and tell me some stories. The brains of it seemed to function, only the OS is stored on the floppys and boots each time. We've spent many hours of "back burner" time looking for a matching 8" floppy. As you might suspect, they are not easy and not all compatible. I have a vintage computer expert who may get the drive going again in the next few months.

It's a wonderful machine, specwise, and clearly superior to many "successful" digi designs of the era....

It came from David Campbell (famous arranger and Beck's father)who had bought it new in 1980. He had used it mostly for it's pioneering feature - it took keyboard parts played and printed crude sheet music. Then he gave the parts to proper transcription staff for his sessions.

It's interesting - a powerful digi synth doing many things the Fairlight or Synclav can do; FM stuff etc. But no sampling - as they decided "that should be in a different package". What they didn't realize was that people were impressed by sampling more than synthesis power, and Fairlight took off, and Synclavier soon sampled too...

is it the 200 or the 200-R?

Fascinating!

So it seems to engage and turn on, but needs to boot the OS from the drive...I wonder if you could mount a different drive on there some how. Probably a lot of work but might be possible.

then install linux on there. hahaha

Thanks for the info. good luck.

Any other wonderful analog synth delight stories? Have you ever played a GX-1?

I thought that Al Hanson, who was a 'happenings' artist here in NY in the 1960s was Beck's father

It's spelled "David Campbell," but it's pronounced "Al Hanson."