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Synths in time


marino

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Ok, this is going to be fun.
I was browsing some images from various computer folders, stuff from all different periods... and thinking how privileged I was to have come across so many great instruments; in a way, different keyboards and synths have marked the differents eras of my musical life. So I thought to gather some of them in a little collection. And what better group of people to share it with, than my fellow keyboardists...
Not all of these instruments are, or were, mine: Several are/were from the school, and several others I found in some tech's workshop, especially my old pal Cesare, who sadly passed away a few years ago. Two or three even in music stores. The big modular system is from a friend's studio. In each instance, instruments that I got to put my hands on, some for 20 minutes, some for several years, and every degree in between. The only one I didn't play is the SY55 that I found beside a dumpster in the street...
Initially, I thought to leave the piano out of the picture(s)... but a few piano images snuck in somehow. :D
If you will, join me on this little journey, in total chronological disorder.

(As you can see, most of these images were taken with old cell phones)
 

4-voice + Ion.jpg

4-voice.jpg

4-voice+Prophet.jpg

4-voice+Prophet+me.jpg

Alfonso Jam.JPG

Alien MEK.JPG

ARP2600.jpg

Caffè Letterario.jpg

CarloKeysOld.jpg

CarloMini.jpg

chromastudio1985.jpg

Clavinet.jpg

Didattica 1.jpg

Didattica 2.jpg

DW8000 intero.jpg

DW8000+MEK.JPG

DW8000+XenoB.jpg

Electro+Motif Class.jpg

Electro+Summit.jpg

Evo+Xeno+SE1+K2600.JPG

EvoPolyEvo.jpg

Found SY55.jpg

GRPA4 Paolo.jpg

Ioni.JPG

IonMek.JPG

Jupiter8.jpg

JX-10.jpg

ManRay2009.jpg

ManRay2009big.jpg

Matrix12.jpg

MatrixHigh3.jpg

MatrixTotal2.jpg

MEK + Pro 12 ASB.jpg

MekMek.JPG

MekNordMod.JPG

MekVostok.jpg

MekVostokModular.jpg

MEKx2 open.JPG

Memorymoog.jpg

Mini.JPG

Mini+MEK.JPG

Mini+Moog15.jpg

ModularComposite.jpg

Moog 15.jpg

MoogOne.jpg

MS20Mini.jpg

NordQ.JPG

OBX8.jpg

OBXa Carlo.jpg

OBXa mani.jpg

OBXa.jpg

OBXeOB8.jpg

Odyssey.jpg

PianoAction.JPG

PianoAction2.JPG

PianoAlexanderPlatz.jpg

PianoMek.jpg

Polymoog open.jpg

Pro12+Controller.jpg

Prophet5.jpg

ProphetT8.jpg

Q+JX10etc.JPG

Q+MEK.JPG

Q+Pro12.JPG

Q+Xeno+MEK.JPG

R.A. Minimoog.jpg

Saggio 2023.jpg

SE1+Controller.jpg

SE1FrontRight.jpg

SH5 + Memorymoog.jpg

Sinthi AKS.jpg

Sledge+Mask.jpg

Sledge+MEK.JPG

studio cleaning.jpg

Studio Vittorio Genzano.jpg

Summit + Pro3.JPG

Summit+Iridium.JPG

Summit+Take5.JPG

Synket.jpg

SynketClose.jpg

Taurus.jpg

Trilogy.jpg

Villa Ada AZ1.jpg

ViscountLegendLive.jpg

XP80.jpg

XP80-perc.jpg

Inthestudio1984.jpg

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3 minutes ago, mate stubb said:

That Matrix and Prophet T8 were sure packed to the gills!

 

The Matrix-12 is mine, and it's not so crowded inside, if that's what you mean... the Chroma is *much* denser in comparison, not to speak of the CS80, which is a diabolical maze of cables.
The T8 in the picture was on the tech's bench, and while it's rather packed, looks reasonably organized. :)

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What, no Fairlight? 😛 What an interesting cross-section of Korg, Sequential and exotics like the Nord Modular. You zig where other people tend to zag! Its a beautiful GAS-fest.

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 "Sometimes not giving up is the most heroic thing you can do."
      ~ "Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom"

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Awesome pics, thanks for sharing!!  I think the old black & white young Marino is my fav.

 

The Covid facemask pics are a bit sad for me, here's hoping we never have to go through that again.

 

That Yamaha SY55 was found at the back of a venue the morning after Nine Inch Nails played a gig there.  (Not really, just joking...or am I???)

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The Players:  OB-X8, Numa Compact 2X, Kawai K5000S, cheap Korean guitars/basses, Roland TD-1KV e-drums.  Eurorack/Banana modular, Synth/FX DIY.

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Wow, what a collection!  Thanks for sharing!

 

2 hours ago, sunspot said:

That Yamaha SY55 was found at the back of a venue the morning after Nine Inch Nails played a gig...

 

I was thinking it could have been Five Finger Death Punch...

 

Old No7

 

 

Yamaha MODX6 * Hammond SK Pro 73 + Keystation 61 * Roland Fantom-08 * Mojo Pedals * Mackie Thump 12As * Tascam DP-24SD + JBL 305 MkIIs

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2 hours ago, sunspot said:

That Yamaha SY55 was found at the back of a venue the morning after Nine Inch Nails played a gig there.  (Not really, just joking...or am I???)

 

No Nine Inch Nails involved, that dumpster is right around the corner a few meters from my place. Actually, there was a bit of debate with a few friends, about what could have happened to the poor synthesizer... and the most likely guess was that the owner smashed it in a moment of rage.


I remember many years ago, in a tech's lab, I saw a big Kurzweil looking like someone had hit it with a huge hatchet, right in the middle of the keyboard. It was an unbelievable sight. The tech told me that during a quarrel with the wife, the owner became so enraged that he was about to hit her. Luckily, he diverted his fury toward the guiltless keyboard... from the look of it, the blunt object that he used was quite big and heavy. Ulp.

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1 hour ago, CrossRhodes said:

Man, I can only dream about having access to so many amazing instruments. Kudos to you and thanks for sharing!

 

Thank you - but just to be sure, I'd like to restate that this is not my rig. Maybe 70% of these instruments I own or have owned, the rest are from different places, and I just had the chance to play them. As an example: The Hypersynth Xenophone belongs to a student of mine, who left it at my place for almost three years, if you can believe it. During this time, I wrote a whole bank of 128 patches which was included in the instrument with the next OS upgrade, and I also wrote a review for Keyboard Magazine... the Studiologic Sledge, on the other hand, belongs to my school, where I use it for teaching; so I know it quite well, but no time to go into deep programming. I brought it home just once for a few days; I made about 30 patches and a short video with it, and that was it.

Really, I could tell little stories about every one of these instruments, and each one brings me memories of people and events of different periods. It seems to happen when you are getting older... :)

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The instrument I miss most is the Rhodes Chroma which burned in a fire. The instrument in your pictures that triggers feelings of "I just want to touch it and spend a few hours with it" is the Oberheim 4 Voice. I'm not sure why but I have always been fascinated with that machine. I cannot imagine playing one live. Saw a video of The Tubes using an 8 Voice on stage. It is hard enough to program a MiniMoog manually while performing. I'm guessing with an 8 voice you limit yourself to small filter tweaks and maybe adjusting the attack of an EG.

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This post edited for speling.

My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page

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8 minutes ago, RABid said:

The instrument I miss most is the Rhodes Chroma which burned in a fire. The instrument in your pictures that triggers feelings of "I just want to touch it and spend a few hours with it" is the Oberheim 4 Voice. I'm not sure why but I have always been fascinated with that machine. I cannot imagine playing one live. Saw a video of The Tubes using an 8 Voice on stage. It is hard enough to program a MiniMoog manually while performing. I'm guessing with an 8 voice you limit yourself to small filter tweaks and maybe adjusting the attack of an EG.

 

Surprisingly, no. Most of the 8 Voices were fitted with a programmer. You could store 16 presets with control over MOST of the important functions.

 

https://www.matrixsynth.com/2016/05/rare-vintage-oberheim-programmer-eight.html

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Moe

---

 

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1 hour ago, RABid said:

The instrument in your pictures that triggers feelings of "I just want to touch it and spend a few hours with it" is the Oberheim 4 Voice. ... I cannot imagine playing one live.

 

1 hour ago, mate stubb said:

Surprisingly, no. Most of the 8 Voices were fitted with a programmer. You could store 16 presets with control over MOST of the important functions.

 

The 4-Voice you see in the pictures is one of the early models, with no programmer. I made a little video with it when it came back from restoration, and it was a nightmare - tweaking *every* program on each module, trying to match the values. Plus one of the modules was out of calibration, *and* Cubase ate half of the audio... :freak:
I hope to have another go at it some day.

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I used a DW-8000 for about a year, around 2004-2005, that I was borrowing from our bass player. He had programmed a couple of cool sounds on it. I had no idea what I was doing at the time, so I am sure I barely used its capabilities.

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21 hours ago, harmonizer said:

I used a DW-8000 for about a year, around 2004-2005, that I was borrowing from our bass player. He had programmed a couple of cool sounds on it. I had no idea what I was doing at the time, so I am sure I barely used its capabilities.

 

The DW-8000 is one of my favorite 80s analogs. I restored mine, but after a while I decided to sell it, to make room for new gear. As usual, I made a little video before packing it:

 

 

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3 hours ago, marino said:

 

The DW-8000 is one of my favorite 80s analogs.

 

 

It's a Hybrid synth actually: the oscillators are digital, and they are paired with the Korg NJM2069 chips that have analogue filters and an analgoue VCAs on a single chip.

 

I got mine as a broken synth for a very small cost after I had hacked a Poly-800 which has the same VCF+VCA chip and I liked the sound of the filter. It just needed some cleanup, a change of battery (it had leaked) and a transfer of patch data again.

 

I still like the sound of the filter, but I noticed that there is a certain 'veil' of harmonic distortion over the sound, giving it a 'plastic' character. I plan to tap the Synth Voices mix out to check whether it's the Digital Delay that affects the sound and to then get the pure Analogue Mix output.

 

I hacked a custom audio input interface with 8 channels to go into the DW-8000's 8 VCFs + VCAs chips to then route the 8 individual outputs of my Kurzweil K2500XS into it, creating my own massively powerful Hybrid, where I can use the whole of the V.A.S.T. DSP chain to create more complex Oscillator sections since I don't need to add filters in the V.A.S.T. section in that configuration.

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Kurzweil K2500XS + KDFX, Roland: JX-3P, JX-8P, Korg: Polysix, DW-8000, Alesis Micron, DIY Analogue Modular

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16 minutes ago, YashN said:

It's a Hybrid synth actually: the oscillators are digital, and they are paired with the Korg NJM2069 chips that have analogue filters and an analgoue VCAs on a single chip.

 

I know that... I have had it for a number of years. I find that the sound on the sawtooth wave is very well matched with the filter response and even with the delay, which is surprising versatile for an on-board effect in 1985.

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I had a DW-8000 for many years. (Bought new when they first appeared.) Still in mint shape, but sold it not too long ago when I came across a local EX-8000 rack unit in good shape (same synth with no arpeggiator) for $100. Considering I hardly ever used it anymore, it was worth swapping it out for a rack unit that wasn't taking up space, plus eliminate any "regret" factor knowing those sounds were still around if I ever wanted them again.

 

I sold the DW-8000 for a lot more than what I paid for the EX-8000, so win-win. I used the DW-8000 a lot of the time MIDI'd to a couple of FM rack synths. They complimented each other nicely and sounded great all layered up together and enhanced with fx.

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I had a pair of DWs, each feeding a Prophet-600 and a couple of effects sends. I was all that and a box of chips for a while. I had an ungainly notebook propped up between them, featuring my various patch settings. Prehistoric, ain't it? Still, it worked well enough that I never accidentally triggered a fart patch. I'd been playing a MonoPoly at home and enjoying it, but the DW-8000 is the one that turned me into a Korg fanboy.

 "Sometimes not giving up is the most heroic thing you can do."
      ~ "Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom"

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