Tom at Waveformless put together a fun post taking a look at going vintage on the cheap.

There are a number of really underrated synths that seem to go for consistently low prices. They’re awesome synths, but nobody seems to know about them, which means you can get a great deal.

Here’s the list of synths that he highlights:

1. Casio CZ-101 (typically less than $100)
2. Ensoniq ESQ-1 (typically $150-$300)
3. Moog (Realistic) Concertmate MG-1 (typically $100-$500)
4. Oberheim Matrix-6R (typically $150-$350+)
5. Roland HS-10/80 (typically $25-$100)
6. Roland HS-60 (typically $200+)
7. Roland MKS-7 (typically $200+)
8. Yamaha CS-01 (typically $150-$250)
9. Yamaha TX81Z (typically $50-$85)

See Tom’s post for his take on each of these synths.

Are these great synths? No – but you can get great deals on them and make some great sounds.

As an alternative to the Casio CZ-101, I’d recommend the CZ-1, which has twice the polyphony plus a velocity + aftertouch sensitive full-size keyboard. And is still dirt cheap.

Got other ideas for cheap vintage synths that don’t suck? Leave a comment!

The Yamaha CS-50, a vintage synthesizer from 1976,  is a scaled down version of the classic Yamaha CS-80 and CS-60 synths.

It offers 4-voice polyphony, with 1 oscillator per voice.

While it has a much simpler architecture, it offers a relatively inexpensive option for getting the classic Yamaha CS sounds.

If you’ve used the Yamaha CS-50, leave a comment with your thoughts!

Resources:

• Yamaha CS-50 at VSE
• Old Crow’s Synth Shop
• Video via lovesvintagesynth

Thomas P Heckmann’s studio is more than just a working studio – it’s a synthesizer museum with a fantastic collection of some of the hottest synths ever made.

This video, in German with subtitles, features Heckmann talking about his music, his amazing synthesizer museum and why he prefers making music with vintage synthesizers.

via robotstv, rebellen

This is a demo of a vintage Maplin 5600s analog synthesizer.

In the early 70’s, the Australian magazine Electronics Today International published Tervor Marshall’s designs for two partly digital, mostly analog, Electronic Music Synthesisers. the ETI 3600 and ETI 4600.

Both were made available as kits of components. Barry Wilkinson at ETI was responsible for the final packaging and kitting coordination. Maplin Electronics Ltd.(in the UK) subsequently picked up the designs, which they marketed as as the Maplin models 3800 and 5600s Electronic Music Synthesizers.

Video Details:

This sequence is based on his two transient trapezoid envelopes. It’s a very nice matrix synthesizer with many parameters …much more than an EMS VCS3. His Matrix has 30 x 30 contact points (900 in total) for complex I/O and control voltages. It has a built in spring reverb and an amazing cv controlled phaser. The “kick” come out from a RSF Kobol driven by the Maplin 5600 trigger.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Rhapsody for the Variophon

The Realton Variophon is  rare German wind synthesizer.

via taskent99:

I have own this wonderful instrument nearly 30 years.

Haven´t played Variphon for a long time…I had forgotten how lovely & expressive its sound is…

Other instrument´s on this little sketch are Cigar Box Synth, Digitech Vocalist VHM-5 & AdrenaLinn.

This is a demo of the Dr. Böhm Hobbyton – a DIY Stylophone.

via retrosound72:

Dr. Böhm is a German organ factory.

The Hobbyton is a good dubreq stylophone clone with a different square wave sound and vibrato from the late 70s.

Sorry of the bad sound quality of my little web cam

more info: http://www.retrosound.de and http://www.myspace.com/retrosound72

Image: rolandmks7

Saturday Synth Porn: This 1982 ad featured a clear plexiglass Sequential Circuits Pro One analog synthesizer.

Anyone know if there are any clear plex Pro-Ones around anymore?

via the Synthtopia Flickr Group

Image: kenji1127

Saturday Synth Porn: A great shot of a vintage Buchla 100 modular synthesizer.

via the Synthtopia Flickr Group

In this rather awesome video, the guys from Blorp Corp help you get to know the Roland Juno 106 keyboard synthesizer.

This video captures Defaudio’s first power on of the rare Soviet Synth Alisa 1387 MIDI version.

via DeftAudio:

Synth track has only long hall and compression. There are no EQs, warmers, impulse modeling and so on.It has been real-time operated with already prepared midi sequence.Made by Deftaudio.ru

This is an official overview video for the new Korg SV-1 Stage Vintage Piano.

via KorgUSAVideos:

Experience the SV-1 Stage Vintage Piano, a new instrument from Korg with stunning, detailed recreations of your favorite timeless keyboard sounds. Featuring real tube-driven amplifier modeling, period-accurate effects, and bold styling, the SV-1 is ready to join you center-stage. For more information, please visit http://www.korg.com/sv1 .

What
You now have the opportunity to get a Yamaha CS70m Midi retrofit by Kenton Electronics UK. It will be a redesign of the Kenton kit that was discontinued due to parts availability quite some years ago.

Scroll down to the end of the document to read the specifications.

How
This is a group buy, which means that we need at least 10 prepaid orders to start the production. Production and distribution will be approx 8 weeks.

Price
349 UK pounds + VAT which needs to be paid in advance to Analog Sweden. If we don’t reach 10 prepaid orders by the 1st of October 2009, your money will be promptly returned. Shipping cost not included.

Ordering & Questions
Use the contact form here

Deadline
October 1, 2009

Installation
The kits are not intended for installation by the end user. They should always be fitted by an experienced synth engineer. The kits are built and tested before dispatch. DIY-kit NOT available. Analog Sweden can do the installation.

Background
We at Analog Sweden have had a few enquiries about CS70m retrofits, so we got in touch with Kenton to investigate the possibilites for a new production run. Kenton wanted to have a group order to start the production, and here we go.

The Formanta Polivoks is a duophonic, analog synthesizer that was manufactured and marketed in the Soviet Union between 1982 and 1990.

The Polivoks was engineered by circuit designer Vladimir Kuzmin with the appearance of the instrument influenced by his wife Olimpiada, who took inspiration from the design of Soviet military radios. Its retail price upon release was 920 rubles and over its lifetime around 100,000 Polivoks were manufactured – sometimes with a production rate of up to 1,000 units a month.

According to Kuzmin:

We simply wanted the musicians to have the same colors of sound that all American and japan synths have. But at that time I didn’t know that for example the ordinary sawtooth signal can sound so different on the different analog synths and this depends on electronic circuits and components and their combinations. And of coarse I wanted the VCF to sound so sweety as on Minimoog. It seemed to me that VCF was the most complex module among all others. So I’ve spent hardly a year to develop the schematics of filter that was very different from others.

The Polivoks has some features that are either unusual or uncommon on most analog mono synthesizers including a filter that can be switched from low pass to bandpass and two envelopes that can be looped over the AD sections.

If you’ve used the Polivoks synthesizer, leave a comment with your thoughts!

Resources:

• Wikipedia entry on the Polivoks
• An interview with Vladimir Kuzmin
• Polivoks info at Russkeys

via lesingemonotone:

Trying out a Formanta Polivoks that has been modified with external CV/gate. A x0xb0x is the sequencer used in the clip.

These videos demo Emu Emulator II sampler library sounds.

Recognize the sounds of hundreds of 80’s songs?

Click here to view the embedded video.

via JMPSynth

Saturday Synth Porn: This is a Bourne-o-vision studio tour of the awesome Synthesizer Studio Hamburg, which features 38 analog synthesizers and 20 drum machines, “waiting for your recording.”

Have any readers visited the Synthesizerpark?

via sunnyvollherbst

1978 Arp Avatar Demo Record – this video documents a vintage 1978 demonstration flexidisc promoting the ARP Avatar.

The ARP Avatar was a guitar-controlled synthesizer manufactured by ARP Instruments, Inc. beginning in 1977. While innovative, being one of the first commercial guitar-controlled synthesizers, it was a commercial flop for ARP, and is widely credited with causing the financial collapse of the company.

via jafafah0ts, wikipedia

The Casio CZ-1 was the top of the Casio’s CZ synthesizer line. The CZ series were a family of low-cost phase distortion synthesizers produced by Casio mid-1980s.

The CZ-1 synthesizer offered the classic CZ sound, but also featured stored splits and layers , velocity and aftertouch sensitivity. The CZ-1 also featured a backlit display – an improvement over the rest of the series.

There were eight models of CZ synthesizers released:

• CZ-101
• CZ-230S
• CZ-1000
• CZ-2000S
• CZ-2600S
• CZ-3000
• CZ-5000
• CZ-1

Additionally the home-keyboard model CT-6500 used 48 phase-distortion presets from the CZ line.

The CZ series were flexible synthesizers, and their price made programmable synthesizers affordable.

If you’ve used the Casio CZ-1, leave a comment with your thoughts!

Casio CZ-1 Resources

• Wikipedia entry for the Casio CZ series
• Casio CZ-1 at SonicState
• The Casio CZ-1 at RetroSound
• Cosmo’s Casio World
• Deep Synthesis on the Casio CZ-1
• Casio CZ-1 Banks for Kontakt3, Wav
• Casio CZ-1 Editor/Librarian and Virtualizer for Windows and Macintosh OS X
• Patchman offers patches for the Casio CZ-101, CZ-1000, CZ-3000, CZ-5000, CZ-1

Video via AnjelicasBaby:

Hi Paul Leishman from British new wave, dance, electronic synthpop and pop music artist Anjelicas Baby here.

Just been experimenting with a now very rare Casio CZ-1 Phase Distortion synthesizer in cubase. All sounds are off the Casio CZ-1 with the addition of modern computer FX and a house drum loop for added effect.

Angelicas Baby music now can be downloaded or listened to from the following sites: iTunes U.S., iTunes Australia/N.Z., iTunes Canada, iTunes UK/European Union, iTunes Japan, Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic, IMVU, Amazon MP3, Lala, Shockhound, Amie Street, last.fm, indiestore.com. In the near future there will be many more.

Many thanks for your ongoing support

The Ensoniq ESQ-M is a vintage synthesizer, the rackmount version of the ESQ-1, that offers eight voice polyphony. It can do basic splits and layers which can be saved as part of a patch.

Each voice features three digital oscillators, an analogue filter (a Curtis chip) three LFO’s, four envelopes, and four Digitally Controlled Amplifiers and a very serious modulation routing ability.

Ensoniq ESQ-M Resources:

• Ensoniq ESQ-1 page at VintageSynthExplorer
• Ensoniq ESQ-1 samples
• SoundQuest Ensoniq ESQ M Editor/Librarian and Virtualizer
  for Windows and Macintosh OS X
• Ensoniq ESQ-1, ESQ-m, SQ-80 patches at Patchman Music

via denha

The set includes:

• Minimoog V
• Moog Modular V
• CS-80V
• ARP2600 V
• Jupiter-8V
• Prophet V
• Prophet VS
• Also included the innovative Brass and the powerful Analog Factory.

10 Year Suite is available for Windows and Mac (VST/AU/RTAS) for $699 USD / 549 EUR.

Details below.

10 Year Suite features

• Each software instrument in THE 10 YEAR SUITE can be used as a stand-alone application or as a plug-in within your sequencer.
• Set to control with your external MIDI keyboard in just a few clicks.
• With the ability to work 32 bits/96kHz, you can now make music on your computer the way you would with a hardware synthesizer.
• For each of the available software instruments delivered in THE 10 YEAR SUITE you get high quality and innovative sounding presets.
• Classic synthesizers (Minimoog, Moog Modular, CS-80, ARP 2600, Prophet 5, Prophet VS, Jupiter-8)
  • Thanks to TAE, Arturia’s proprietary technology, the sound coming from the different synthesizer recreations is as pure and phat as the original.
  • Polyphony goes from 2 to 32 voices, with unison possibilities.
• Classic synthesizers (Minimoog, Moog Modular, CS-80, ARP 2600, Prophet 5, Prophet VS, Jupiter-8), all the features of the original synths have been recreated but more was added to take benefit of modern possibilities
  • Modulation matrices.
  • Step sequencers and arpeggiators.
  • Innovative modulation sources.
  • Additional effects.
  • New filter types.
  • Keyboard split and layer.
  • Smart preset management.
• BRASS
  • Three instruments available : Trumpet, Saxophone and Trombone.
  • 8 parameters to control the instrument in real time: Attack, Pressure, Pitch, Timbre, Noise amount, Vibrato, Vibrato speed, Mute (for trumpet or trombone).
  • Spatialization.
  • More than 500 pre-written riff presets in different musical styles (jazz, pop, reggae, etc.).
• Analog Factory
  • 3500 sounds that have defined the sonic palette of modern music.
  • All presets carefully selected from the Arturia Classic Synths.
  • Smart preset manager.
  • Straight forward editing of each sound.
  • 8 snapshot buttons (quickly store up to 8 snapshots for sound comparison, variations, etc.).

This is a demo of Peff using Reason 4.0 to control an Oberheim S.E.M. with CV and gate signals:

I had Reason sending Note CV and Gate CV signals out through the MOTU 896 into an old Oberheim CPS-1 / S.E.M. module. A bit of tweaking was required to get the note cv scaling set, but after finding the right settings, I had Thor acting as a MIDI to CV converter.

With this Thor patch, it’s possible to control analog synthesizer systems (in this case the Oberheim S.E.M.) from the Reason MIDI Sequencer, Thor Pattern Sequencer, Matrix Pattern Sequencer, any LFO source in Reason, and the RPG-8 Monophonic Arpeggiator. It should also be noted that because the Reason 4.0 sequencer is sample accurate, theoretically, the synchronization should be very solid when sending CV signals through the MOTU audio interface.

via PeffTV:

http://www.peff.com/journal/2009/06/12/reason-cvgate-to-analog-synths/ Reason CV signals converted to audio signals via the THOR Polysonic Synthesizer, will send a DC voltage through the Mark of the Unicorn 896 HD audio interface.

In this manner Reason 4.0 can be used to control a variety of analog synthesizers that comply to the traditional CV/Gate voltage protocols. I tested this configuration with the ARP2600, which also works very well.