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Unusual synths... past and present


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The EML Synkey, the first programmable synthesizer, and it had second-touch.

 

All you had to do to program it was, whip out one of your blank punch cards and punch out a rectangular hole in the appropriate location on the punch card, and the punch tool was included. Then just insert the punch card into the Synkey and viola your program was there.

 

Also it was monophonic / polyphonic (sort of) You could only play one note at a time, but that one note could play a base tone plus up to 12 additional preprogrammed semitones. (It had a button for each semitone) I had one when they first came out in the seventies. It was pretty cool at the time, but evidentially not many were ever made.

 

[video:youtube]

 

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Then just insert the punch card into the Synkey and viola your program was there.

 

Seems a shame they limited it to only viola ...

 

-sorry

 

 

Oops,.....voil'a. (dyslexia sucks)

 

Actually I'm glad you pointed that out, or I would have just kept writing it that way.

(The bad part is I proofread my post three times before posting, and it looked fine to me each time.) :pop:

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The EML Synkey, the first programmable synthesizer, and it had second-touch.

 

...

 

not many were ever made.

 

Reason for that was unlucky design choice and timing. RAM memory was still expensive in the initial design stage so they elected for the punchcard reader. When it was released, RAM turned the corner and became more affordable rendering punchcards obsolete. Unfortunately any RAM retrofit was not cost effective and the lack of demand sank the SynKey along with EML.

 

The only artist I know who used one was Herbie Hancock. And maybe Stevie Wonder.

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Slightly O.T. response but I recall right out of high school applying for jobs that worked with punch cards.

 

Then I found out that for each one you mess up, they deduct $1 out of your pay check.

 

Since minimum wage in 1975 was $1.60, I decided not to risk it.

 

:o:sick:

 

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Slightly O.T. response but I recall right out of high school applying for jobs that worked with punch cards.

 

Then I found out that for each one you mess up, they deduct $1 out of your pay check.

 

Since minimum wage in 1975 was $1.60, I decided not to risk it.

 

:o:sick:

 

Man, I would have ended up owing them money.

 

I squirreled up a few of my Synkey punch cards trying to program what I wanted, and it only came with 25 blanks. All you had to do was miss the correct spot a little bit, and it may or may not work correctly.

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Casio VL-Tone. Played with it in college with my Rhodes Suitcase-73. Learned to cover all of Rush's Moving Pictures with it back around 1984 while saving up for the Juno 106.

 

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/120/313908025_bc767d8dca.jpg

J  a  z  z  P i a n o 8 8

--

Yamaha C7D

Montage M8x | CP300 | CP4 | SK1-73 | OB6 | Seven

K8.2 | 3300 | CPSv.3

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Casio VL-Tone. Played with it in college with my Rhodes Suitcase-73. Learned to cover all of Rush's Moving Pictures with it back around 1984 while saving up for the Juno 106.

 

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/120/313908025_bc767d8dca.jpg

 

 

Are we those keys actually just buttons? If they are, hats off to you for being able to play Rush.

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And then there's this unusual beast from Elka... looks like a combination of a CS-80, Neko, and an accordion.

 

Maybe a place for punch cards as well. :)

 

 

http://www.combo-organ.com/Elka/Concorde9021a.jpg

 

When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray.
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  • 2 years later...

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PZgCxn1SFP8/TOxxAyLImoI/AAAAAAAAAP8/hyAMu9N70as/s1600/CRW_1547.jpg

Like an organ mixed with a CS-80 and GX-1. Not that rare either.

Yamaha MX49, Casio SK1/WK-7600, Korg Minilogue, Alesis SR-16, Casio CT-X3000, FL Studio, many VSTs, percussion, woodwinds, strings, and sound effects.
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  • 1 year later...

Concerning Yamaha VP1:

Not true, there's probably 10 to 20 pieces, most of them are in Japan. I'm maybe the only musician who has recorded double CD "VP1 Impressions" in 1997 at Yamaha Europe in Hamburg, Germany, on one of three pieces which were in Europe. I could buy it for good price but still too expensive for me. So that one was bought by Austrian colleague, later he sold it to one German doctor who still has it in his collection. There are threads about it in some other discussion forums. You can hear some of my improvisations on my page

www.soundclick.com/forrotronics

 

And thanks to my cooperation with Yamaha as a Product Specialist, Demonstrator and Clinician I'm one of the first musicians who started to use VL1. Still I have two pieces, plus two VL1m, and more VL engines in other instruments. That's a pity Yamaha abandoned this way...

 

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http://dt7v1i9vyp3mf.cloudfront.net/styles/news_large/s3/imagelibrary/d/davo1header.jpg

 

Ha, this was the very 1st "synth" I played as a teenager when my main instrument was a VOX combo organ.

It was disappointing ´cause I had too high expectations I guess.

To me, it felt more like another, different combo organ than a synth ...

 

A.C.

 

 

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