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One of a Kind Synthesizers


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Whether homemade in a garage somewhere or exhibited at NAMM (or other MI show}, we've no doubt come across some interesting synths over the years. Note: these are units that only one or two were made but never hit the stores.

 

Here are two of mine... what are your favorites?

 

The OMG-1

 

http://www.synthtopia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/omg-slide-1-546x364.jpg

 

The infamous Con Brio:

 

http://synthmuseum.com/conbrio/conads20001.jpg

 

 

 

When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray.
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Ocean:

 

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6863/1447/400/DSCF0025sm.jpg

 

Prism:

 

584c5f55304d3_Kinetic_Systems_Prism_synthesizer(1).jpg.4cb903484d7c020d555fe4f543b2c1cd.jpg

 

Buchla Touché:

 

http://www.vintagesynth.com/sites/default/files/2017-05/touche.jpg

 

Trascendent DPX:

 

http://www.vintagesynth.com/sites/default/files/2017-07/powertranb.png

 

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The theover (my first name and first 3 letters of my surname) synth:

 

http://www.theover.org/Synth/HPIM1388b1.JPG

 

See my page on this Open Source digital simulation of an analog synth, started in the year 2005.

 

Lot ore recently I made this video with a bit of demo, including my volume control project:

 

[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/AlG3OLNh6sE

 

The fun of the synth project, apart from writing bare-metal C code for the Blackfins (DSP chips) and making display and midi interfaces and of course the synthesizer simulation code was that the latency of the machine to start up was less than a second, and the mid-received-'till-output-put-on-DAC-chip delay is 1 sample !!

 

Theo

 

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ARP Centaur VI polyphonic synthesizers. Two prototypes made, keyboard and guitar. The keyboard version was cancelled in favor of the guitar with the reasoning that there were 4x as many guitar players.

 

The Centaur VI was hopelessly unreliable which couldn't run for two hours without failing. It was a brute force attempt of polyphony using the available technology of the time with 115 printed circuit boards stuffed in the thing. ARP could never solve the glitches in the pitch-to-voltage converter. With the unsurmountable barriers facing its operation (and a $20,000 price tag), it was ultimately whittled down into the ARP Avatar which re-used Odyssey circuit boards.

 

These pics are the guitar synth, the keyboard synth is unaccounted for.

 

unnamed.jpg

 

unnamed-2.jpg

 

ARP Guitar Synthesizer. This showed up at a AHNE event. Nothing known about it. Appears to be more of an effects box than a synthesizer yet uses pitch-to-voltage converters. I can make out "stereo phaser" on the rear panel jacks, "reverb" on the front panel. Two effects systems with single VCO, multimode VCF (!), VCA, envelope follower, resonator bank, stereo phaser. Each effect system appears to be six voice polyphonic, one voice per guitar string ("VCF Bank" and VCA Bank" are clues - but not "VCO Bank"?).

 

http://www.alt-mode.com/AHNE2004/ARP_Guitar_synth_rear.JPG

 

http://www.alt-mode.com/AHNE2004/ARP_Guitar_synth.JPG

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The Resynator - very nearly one-of-a-kind (I think that there are two?)... I remember seeing an ad for this in (Contemporary?) Keyboard Magazine long ago and also remember being curious as to what it was.

 

The fun starts at 21:37

[video:youtube]

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The ARP Avatar was the source of much hype and dialogue in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Lots of promise and very little delivery in terms of functionality due to the P to V issues. This product segment had legs though.

 

KORG came out with their own guitar synth, the X-911, in the early 80s. The tracking wasn't bad. Back then, Randy Whitney was Unicord's guitar maestro and he performed a decent X-911 demo. Although, I don't remember taking one X-911 order during my three year stay with Unicord.

 

KORG-X-911-e1566213747564.jpg

Steve Coscia

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I have a Kurzweil VA-1, as I was writing the instruction manual for it before then-parent-company Samick killed the project. It's one of a handful of prototypes. I'd be happy to contribute some videos and sound samples of it.

Stephen Fortner

Principal, Fortner Media

Former Editor in Chief, Keyboard Magazine

Digital Piano Consultant, Piano Buyer Magazine

 

Industry affiliations: Antares, Arturia, Giles Communications, MS Media, Polyverse

 

 

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I have a Kurzweil VA-1... I'd be happy to contribute some videos and sound samples of it.

 

That would be terrific. Thank you!

 

9 Moog things, 3 Roland things, 2 Hammond things and a computer with stuff on it

 

 

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I have a Kurzweil VA-1, as I was writing the instruction manual for it before then-parent-company Samick killed the project. It's one of a handful of prototypes. I'd be happy to contribute some videos and sound samples of it.

 

Soooo... what happened with the VA-1? How far did development proceed on it? As a big fan of Kurzweil gear, I was eager to see it to market.

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Only three of these were made, does that still count?

 

Yamaha VP1 - a polyphonic VL1 basically, but with less sophisticated physical modeling I think from what I"ve read (no reed or wind models), but quite the machine, quite powerful in other areas.

 

AB5-A8-ABF-4-D32-4073-B6-D9-13120-D0714-AB.jpg

 

30-C2-DD10-0-CD3-4698-8-C76-AFA25-C181-E89.jpg

Yamaha: Motif XF8, MODX7, YS200, CVP-305, CLP-130, YPG-235, PSR-295, PSS-470 | Roland: Fantom 7, JV-1000

Kurzweil: PC3-76, PC4 (88) | Hammond: SK Pro 73 | Korg: Triton LE 76, N1R, X5DR | Emu: Proteus/1 | Casio: CT-370 | Novation: Launchkey 37 MK3 | Technics: WSA1R

Former: Emu Proformance Plus & Mo'Phatt, Korg Krome 61, Roland Fantom XR & JV-1010, Yamaha MX61, Behringer CAT

Assorted electric & acoustic guitars and electric basses | Roland TD-17 KVX | Alesis SamplePad Pro | Assorted organs, accordions, other instruments

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I have a Kurzweil VA-1, as I was writing the instruction manual for it before then-parent-company Samick killed the project. It's one of a handful of prototypes. I'd be happy to contribute some videos and sound samples of it.

Don't ask... you know the answer. :D Just do it, please! ;)

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Yamaha VP1 - a polyphonic VL1 basically, but with less sophisticated physical modeling I think from what I"ve read (no reed or wind models), but quite the machine, quite powerful in other areas.

I would die to put my hands on one of those. I used to have a VL1m Version2 which I had to sell (aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhh) and I heard every demo of the VP1... seems to sound gorgeous.

 

 

 

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Some favorites, off the top of my head:

 

http://www.synthstudiodevries.com/e107_images/custom/V80FDa.jpg

Yamaha V80FD - only one prototype made, Yamaha reportedly had it crushed when the project was cancelled

 

k5000x.png

Kawai K5000X - a K5000S and K5000W in one 76-key case with a full front panel covering both machines and red endcaps. Played the prototype, wanted one, it never shipped.

 

http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/riday_t91.jpg

Riday T-91 keytar - used a very unusual alternate keyboard layout. Very comfortable to play. Had the prototype for a while, returned it to Rick Riday, he had one other one built (shown in the picture) that incorporated one or two design suggestions of mine, and then vanished...

 

img_6677.jpg

 

img_6696.jpg

Motorola Scalotron - there were a few of these, but only one or two with the George Secor keyboard, a massive multicolored hex-grid keyboard for extremely fine microtonal scales

 

 

Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) :D

Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant

Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1

 

clicky!:  more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my bookmy music

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Yamaha VP1 - a polyphonic VL1 basically, but with less sophisticated physical modeling I think from what I"ve read (no reed or wind models), but quite the machine, quite powerful in other areas.

I would die to put my hands on one of those. I used to have a VL1m Version2 which I had to sell (aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhh) and I heard every demo of the VP1... seems to sound gorgeous.

 

 

The VP1 was quite quirky compared to the VL1, due the the different model implemented. The VL was a 'continuous' energized system, the VP was an 'impulse' energized system. It inherently created non-sustaining timbres. The manipulation of the model parameters allowed unique behaviors such as realtime control of damping/excitation resonances and inharmonicities within the waveform harmonics. It really had to be played with multiple controller input - just playing it as a regular poly synth it was actually quite boring. Which IMHO was the reason they didn't actually put it into larger production - far too 'niche' for something so expensive.

 

A few years later when processing power dropped significantly in price, Yamaha made an 8 note poly version of the VP1 (the original was 16), packaged in an AN1x / CS1x 5 octave keybaord / standard controller format to make a $1995 pricepoint -- kinda like the VL70m was a trickle down of the VL1. We showed it to various artists / studio players down at Buena Park, and to call the reception 'tepid' would be an overstatement, all because without the controllers of the original, the sound is flat with just velocity and a single mod wheel input.

 

The VL1/VL70m model in contrast needs only three significant inputs - Breath Controller, velocity and note articulation (i.e. legato) to get 90%+ of it's expressivity, which is why the VL70m was so successful at IIRC $895 compared to the $4995 VL1 & $2995 VL7. Plus, they sold a lot of VL PLG boards...

 

Manny

People assume timbre is a strict progression of input to harmonics, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timbrally-wimbrally... stuff

 

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Some favorites, off the top of my head:

 

http://www.synthstudiodevries.com/e107_images/custom/V80FDa.jpg

Yamaha V80FD - only one prototype made, Yamaha reportedly had it crushed when the project was cancelled

 

 

Actually 4-6 protos were built of the V80 IIRC, as we had at least 2 here in the US and 2 in Hamamatsu. We demoed 2 in a private room at the Hilton for 1989 Anaheim NAMM showing to press and dealers. I was really fond of it, as is pushed the limits of what 6 OP sine wave FM was capable.

 

Right call to cancel it as it was a somewhat kludgey stopgap to wait for the SY77 to come online. I'd posted on Soundcloud a few months ago the original demos I did with Scott Plunkett. Best aspect of it was the 'modular' expansion feature that evolved into the later PLG cards, though that was never operational before the plug was pulled.

 

I can confirm they were all crushed. Knowing its fate I conveniently managed to 'forget' to take mine back to Yamaha for quite a while, and it was the last one to go...

 

Manny

People assume timbre is a strict progression of input to harmonics, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timbrally-wimbrally... stuff

 

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I was reading an old SoS article about the Buchla Series 200e and in that article, they mentioned the Series 500, of which 3 were built and just 2 survived. That sounds about right for this topic!

 

buchlae500system-JizkkQnqIQBYMhosnYqUIPOVTv5VftfJ.jpg

Trumpet player by trade, but fell in love with keys too.
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A few years later when processing power dropped significantly in price, Yamaha made an 8 note poly version of the VP1 (the original was 16), packaged in an AN1x / CS1x 5 octave keybaord / standard controller format to make a $1995 pricepoint -- kinda like the VL70m was a trickle down of the VL1. We showed it to various artists / studio players down at Buena Park, and to call the reception 'tepid' would be an overstatement, all because without the controllers of the original, the sound is flat with just velocity and a single mod wheel input.

Wow, thanks for this info - I had never heard of that!

Btw the AN1x also had aftertouch and a ribbon... just add a BC, a couple of sliders and a pedal input... :)

 

 

 

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