Alex Ball

A look at the Korg Stage Echo which is a tape delay from 1977 with some interesting features that allow for some creative possibilities.

The System 700 from 1976 was the most expensive instrument Roland ever made. A comprehensive, semi-modular monster that was at the cutting edge at the time, the full system cost the equivalent of around £35,000 - £45,000 (around $45,000 - $50,000) and as they made so few of them; they have been known to sell for even more than that on the rare occasions that they emerge on the second hand market.

The Roland System 700 was a cutting edge and overly engineered masterpiece from 1976 that is both rare and curious. As so few of these Systems were made, there's only a couple of dozen videos on YouTube showing them and several of those are just quick phone recordings.

I've had a dozen requests to cover this synth and I said I'd do it if I was able to get hold of one and I'm glad to say that that happened. The CS-15 is a two-oscillator analogue monosynth from 1979 that has an awful lot more to it than meets the eye. The signal and control routing is so much more flexible than many other comparable synths from this era that command legendary status and so I'm kind of baffled as to why the CS-15 doesn't seem to be held in the same high regard.

A look at the original Simmons Drum Synthesizer, the SDS-3 from 1978. This instrument was built by Dave Simmons when he was working for a company called Musicaid in the late 70s and it served as the precursor to famous SDS-V with its distinctive hexagonal pads that cropped up on many hit records in the 1980s.

Whilst synth clones are cropping up left, right and center at the moment, it isn't a new idea. A case in point is the Studio Electronics Midi Mini from 1989. From asking around I've gathered that SE started this concept by taking the boards out of actual Minimoogs and housing them in a rack mountable case with extra features and midi. The midi to CV was done by Frankensteining a Roland MPU-101 into the rear of the synth and this was dubbed the "Midi Moog". At some point SE started cloning the boards themselves from scratch and I presume this was because they wanted to produce bigger quantities and sourcing old Minimoogs and MPU-101s wasn't really practical when it came to that ambition. This new version was called the "Midi Mini" and that's what we're looking at today. To confuse things, I'm told that there were some Midi Mini's with original Moog boards inside them too.

Ken Danger (332 The Rhumba of the Beast) takes up the challenge of making heavy metal with synthesizers and a drum machine.

In 1974 Roland released the RE-201 Space Echo. It went on to become the industry standard appearing in studios and live rigs the world over. They released numerous other successful models (before and after) but the rarest of them all is the RE-5 Digital Space that had a very short run in Japan in 1988. Its intended application is also quite surprising and in this video we take a look at what it does and contrast it with its famous older brother.

In 1979 Roland released one of the most famous vocoders of all time, the VP-330, but some may not realise that it had a lesser known sibling; the SVC-350. The 350 is essentially the same vocoder found in the 330, but in rackmount format and without the synth parts. That said, it does have some unique features that don’t appear on the 330. The 350 went on being made quite late into the 80s and the serial of this particular unit dates to July 1985 which ties in with Roland’s move towards rack mount and module-based gear at that time.

A closer look at Roland's System 100m synthesizer from 1979. I demonstrate four patches to give a little flavour of this fantastic synthesizer and then explain each patch in order to give an understanding of how it works.

Following on from the "closer look" video, here's a full performance with the Roland System 100m from 1979. I tried to demonstrate the versatility of a setup like this by making things like full drum kits, squelchy basses, phased and delayed textures with sequenced filter mod, synth guitars, ring mod nastiness, audio rate down-sampled formants, voltage processed LFOs, lush Jupiter-esque polyphony, a singing and gliding lead, sounds that can't really be described and more. Many sounds were also created in groups together at one time because you can! The eagle eyed among you may have noticed that there were actually five 191-J cabs used in the video, although only four at one time.

This week we're going to take a quick look at the Yamaha TX81Z which was an affordable 1U FM synthesizer released in 1987. Whilst other FM synths are more revered, (DX1, DX5, DX7) the TX81Z made a name for itself because it contains sounds (particularly the "Lately Bass" preset) that became favourites for producers in the late 80s and early 90s. In fact, the "Lately Bass" equivalent on the earlier DX100 called "Solid Bass" was equally popular. I've listed a few well known songs that used either of those versions of the sound below.

If you’re after a classic Roland Juno-106 or TR-707, you might not know that both (plus a bass synth) are found inside the MKS-7 or “Super Quartet” from 1985. Roland made various rack mount versions of their 80s synths in the MKS range, but the Super Quartet is a little different and is somewhat related to their earlier CMU-800. In this video we take a look at what it does, how it was intended to be used and how it can be used in ways that weren’t intended.

A video looking at the AMS 1580S and the AMS RMX 16, which were early digital effects units that helped define the sound of recordings in the late 70s and early 80s. In the video I use them to process sounds within a song I’m recording and demonstrate what they do during the production.

This is an original composition and performance I made with the ARP Odyssey from the mid-70s. A few days ago as I was finishing this video I heard that Buena Pearlman had sadly passed at the age of 93. I had the pleasure of briefly speaking to her on a Skype call last year whilst we were recording with an ARP 2002 and she said "I remember those" with a wry smile when we proudly showed the instrument.

The WASP is an iconic British synthesizer designed by Electronic Dream Plant in 1978. EDP were Adrian Wagner (yes, he was a relation of Richard), Chris Huggett and Steven Evans. They only traded until around 1982, but that wasn't the end of their synth story. Chris Huggett in particular has had a prolific career in the industry, founding the Oxford Synthesizer Company in 1983 and releasing the (also iconic) OSCar and subsequently (after work with Akai), he joined Novation, who are still trading to this very day. Back to 1978, the concept of the WASP was to build a powerful, low cost synthesizer. That seemed to have worked as one of the original reviews I found uses the headline "The Synth we can all afford" but still dubs it a professional instrument.

The Grp Synthesizer A4 is an Italian analogue synthesizer originally released in 2012. Combining classic subtractive synthesis with modern desires, it's got pretty tasty spec. To save the longest video description ever, here's a link to Theo Bloderer's comprehensive breakdown: https://greatsynthesizers.com/en/revi... In this video I tried to make use of the A4's architecture, whilst keeping things musical. It's very easy with this much power at your fingertips to overcook it and just make either a sonic mess, or a sound that only works in isolation. Hopefully I've struck the balance.

Today we take a look at the Crumar Multiman-S, an Italian string synthesizer from 1977. We also look at the concept of a string synthesizer in general; an instrument that served as a stop gap, but that forged its own identity due the distinctive sound and the records they were used in. Originally conceived by Ken Freeman, others saw the impending gold rush and got their instruments out. When I say there was a "string synth heyday", I'm not exaggerating.

A brief look at an early Theis Modular Synthesizer (TMSS) from around 2002. This particular unit was originally owned by Richard D James / Aphex Twin.

After having the privilege of demonstrating so much wonderful gear on my channel, Florian came to me during an out-of-body experience to show me the path to true enlightenment – Bad Gear! …and boy was it bad!

In 1984, Fender put out a synthesizer – the Chroma Polaris. This short film explains why and how that happened.

The Prophet is back baby!

A look at Yamaha's CS-30 monophonic synthesizer from 1977. This was the closest Yamaha got to a modular synth before their attention moved wholesale into FM synthesis. Yamaha released their first analogue synth (the SY-1) in 1974 and their last (the CS-01 II) in 1983. They've never made an analogue synthesizer since, although they have made analogue modelling synths.

I borrowed two rare vintage Teisco synthesizers from the early 80s, the 110F and SX-400. As the former has several videos about it on YouTube, I decided to focus on the latter, which doesn't. We also look at a curious link to ARP Instruments which has (understandably) caused much confusion.