(Smail3.1.28.1 #2) id m0noApR-000MUHC; Wed, 28 Apr 93 14:01 MET DST id ; Wed, 28 Apr 93 11:16 MET DST From: ricard@axis.se (Ricard Wolf) Date: Wed, 28 Apr 93 11:16:06 MET DST analogue@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Subject: Re: VCS3 / Synthi / AKS / Putney > Incidentially, I see no-one's mentioned the Synthi 100 here. This > was EMS's answer to the "monster modulars", built (supposedly) starting > around 1973. A _huge_ device, I believe it had 12 VCOs, scads of other Wasn't there a sequencer to go with the Synthi 100 that had a tempo knob with a zero-center, i.e. you could run it backwards by just setting the tempo to a negative value? /Ricard -- Ricard Wolf / | \ / | /- email: ricard@axis.se Axis Communications AB /__| \/ | \__ uucp: axisab.se!ricard S - 223 70 LUND / | /\ | \ Tel: +46 46 19 18 63 SWEDEN / | / \ | \__/ Fax: +46 46 13 61 30 -- "Tesla Girls, Tesla Girls, testing out feelings" -- (Smail3.1.28.1 #2) id m0noApD-000MTzC; Wed, 28 Apr 93 14:01 MET DST id ; Wed, 28 Apr 93 11:14 MET DST From: ricard@axis.se (Ricard Wolf) Date: Wed, 28 Apr 93 11:14:40 MET DST Subject: Re: VCS3 / Synthi / AKS / Putney Cc: analogue@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Analogue Synth Mailing List) > > >Does the VCS3 use 1v/oct for it's cv-format? also, does it REALLY have > >a built in sequencer? *wow*! > > No and no. The Synthis use a nonstandard interface scheme that is a > royal bitch to hook to other machines, and the"Putney" Synthi VCS3 > (the wood-cabinet model) has no sequencing capability, although it > does have a velocity sensitive keyboard, the "Cricklewood" DK-1. > > The KS Keyboard Sequencer is a metal touch plate keyboard with a > primitive sequencer built in; it is designed to attach to the inside > of the case lid of the "Portabella" Synthi A, the suitcase version of > the Synthi, which makes the resulting device the Synthi AKS, the most > popular of the Synthi packages. Wonderful! I've heard so many incorrect and lengthy explanaitions as to the VCS3/AKS/Synthi A differences that it's a pleasure to read this! /Ricard -- Ricard Wolf / | \ / | /- email: ricard@axis.se Axis Communications AB /__| \/ | \__ uucp: axisab.se!ricard S - 223 70 LUND / | /\ | \ Tel: +46 46 19 18 63 SWEDEN / | / \ | \__/ Fax: +46 46 13 61 30 -- "Tesla Girls, Tesla Girls, testing out feelings" -- (Smail3.1.28.1 #2) id m0noAon-000MTyC; Wed, 28 Apr 93 14:00 MET DST id ; Wed, 28 Apr 93 10:47 MET DST From: ricard@axis.se (Ricard Wolf) Date: Wed, 28 Apr 93 10:47:05 MET DST Subject: Re: VCS3 / Synthi / AKS / Putney Cc: analogue@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu > EMS does exist, and they charge a fortune for new Synthis. Well over $2000 > for an AKS as of my last price check. They have a Rehberg facility, as > Ricard noted, but I didn't know that the Synthis were being built there-- Actually, I don't know if they are, but have noted that 'Rehberg' appears on the panels. I thought they were made down by Rehberg, but I'm not sure at all. /Ricard -- Ricard Wolf / | \ / | /- email: ricard@axis.se Axis Communications AB /__| \/ | \__ uucp: axisab.se!ricard S - 223 70 LUND / | /\ | \ Tel: +46 46 19 18 63 SWEDEN / | / \ | \__/ Fax: +46 46 13 61 30 -- "Tesla Girls, Tesla Girls, testing out feelings" -- From: Andrea TONI Subject: -- EMS -- Date: Wed, 28 Apr 93 11:07:49 MET Organization: ESA-ESTEC (European Space Research and Technology Center) Keplerlaan 1 2200 AG Noordwijk (EUROPA) Phone: Int +31 1719 83606 Fax: Int +31 1719 84697 Machine: HP-UX sihp03 A.B8.05 A 9000/730 941406112 Mailer: Elm [revision: 66.33] Hi, I did post this last year .. hope it helps .. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Due to several requests here there are some infos concerning the status of EMS companies : EMS England Trendeal Vean Barn Ladock Truro Cornwall TR2 4NW tel 0726-883265 EMS Germany Finkenstrasse 4 7257 Ditzingen / Heimerdingen Tel 7152-53273 Availability and prices (from April 1992) Vocoder 5000 E.pounds 6500 Vocoder 3000 E.pounds 2450 Vocoder 2000 E.pounds 990 Synthi AKS E.pounds 1450 Synthi VCS E.pounds 1280 They can also provide reconditioned used AKS and VCS with full guarantee AKS 700 VCS3 600 DK2 140 (mechanical duophonic keyboard) KS 140 (keypad + sequencer keyboard) They also claim that some older stuff are still available on request : HiFli, Synthi100, Sequencer 256, Pitch to Voltage converter, Random Voltage, Octave Filter Bank etc ------------------------------------------------------------------------- They also have a cute device called Soundbeam (Master+slave) that is basically a "Distance to Voltage/MIDI" converter. It can grep your movements and send appropriate MIDI/voltage signal to a synth. I remember two years ago they show this box on stage coupled with a nice dancer and the effects was really nice .. You can even controlled lights of course . This year during the Music fair in Rotterdam there was a similar , even more fancy device: A camera connected to an Archimedes Acorn RISC machine was able to covert the movement of your hands in some musical MIDI pattern and send everything to a MIDI DMP 7 Yamaha mixer connected to a TX802. Ciao, ------------------------------------------------ENV---ENV---ENV---------------- Andrea TONI (andrea@sihp03.si.estec.esa.nl) | | | Planetary and Space VCO-->VCF-->VCA--> DUCATI 900SS Science Division (SI) | | | ------------------------------------------------LFO---LFO---LFO---------------- From: dacc@cmp-rt.music.uiuc.edu (Andrew C. Crowell) Subject: Re: VCS3 / Synthi / AKS / Putney Date: Tue, 27 Apr 93 13:45:37 CDT Previously, metlay wrote: > > > >. Everything I have ever heard that uses the VCS3 is amazing, and the 'Matrix > >pin panel' must give amazing flexability. > > > >So: does anyone know what is up with this rumour that EMS still exists? > > And: How much one of these beasts would cost? > > EMS does exist, and they charge a fortune for new Synthis. Well over $2000 > for an AKS as of my last price check. They have a Rehberg facility, as > Ricard noted, but I didn't know that the Synthis were being built there-- > I thought the German plant was strictly for vocoders. Anyway, used ones > turn up at dealers like Analogics occasionally. My buddy William Sequeira > jut bought a VCS3 used there, and paid a little under $1000 for it. They're > very touchy machines in some ways, and the pins are expensive and fragile. > This makes them a nontrivial item to own, but WOW are they fun! |-> And, like noted above, _very_ flexible to program. One reason Eno _still_ uses them to this day (having started with a VCS3 back in the Roxy days, in '71) is because they not only are very flexible, it is easy to set up some complex and rather unpredictable programming on them. They're also a primo device for processing external sounds, which is one of the things Eno did with his back in Roxy. I myself got a chance to use a Synthi AKS back in '89 and '90, while doing my M.Mus. work in Knoxville, and I was hooked within 30 minutes of sitting down with the little bugger and playing with the knobs and pins. Incidentially, I see no-one's mentioned the Synthi 100 here. This was EMS's answer to the "monster modulars", built (supposedly) starting around 1973. A _huge_ device, I believe it had 12 VCOs, scads of other things, a double manual controller (the one in the EMS studios photo from the mid-70s has this), and a _mammoth_ 100x100 or so patchmatrix. Not too many of these monsters exist. One, however, was used by Karlheinz Stockhausen in the mid-70s to create his large-scale electronic work "Sirius". If anyone's interested, btw, I have a line on one of these used, in mint shape...for $10K, u-ship from Norway...(no foolin'!). I have been warned, however, by one person who has used it that the sound of this device isn't like the AKS and VCS3...it's rather thin...of course, that may just be what was arrived at due to the programming _overload_ of such a mammoth system. D.A.C. Crowell Computer Music Project/School of Music University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign (dacc@cmp-rt.music.uiuc.edu) -- From: metlay@netcom.com (metlay) Subject: Re: VCS3 / Synthi / AKS / Putney Date: Tue, 27 Apr 93 9:18:53 PDT Cc: analogue@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Analogue Synth Mailing List) >Does the VCS3 use 1v/oct for it's cv-format? also, does it REALLY have >a built in sequencer? *wow*! No and no. The Synthis use a nonstandard interface scheme that is a royal bitch to hook to other machines, and the"Putney" Synthi VCS3 (the wood-cabinet model) has no sequencing capability, although it does have a velocity sensitive keyboard, the "Cricklewood" DK-1. The KS Keyboard Sequencer is a metal touch plate keyboard with a primitive sequencer built in; it is designed to attach to the inside of the case lid of the "Portabella" Synthi A, the suitcase version of the Synthi, which makes the resulting device the Synthi AKS, the most popular of the Synthi packages. -- mike metlay * atomic city * box 81175 pgh pa 15217-0675 * metlay@netcom.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was looking for you. But I couldn't find you. I was looking for you...... Date: Tue, 27 Apr 93 12:13:32 -0400 From: jdisegi@acs.bu.edu (Jonathan Disegi) Subject: Re: VCS3 / Synthi / AKS / Putney Cc: analogue@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Does the VCS3 use 1v/oct for it's cv-format? also, does it REALLY have a built in sequencer? *wow*! -jonathan. From: metlay@netcom.com (metlay) Subject: Re: VCS3 / Synthi / AKS / Putney Date: Tue, 27 Apr 93 8:35:14 PDT Cc: analogue@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu >Several months ago I inquired into the purchase of a used suitcase-style >EMS VCS3 (also known as a Putney or a Synthi. Someone told me (ambiguously) >that EMS is indeed still in existance and making custom-built VCS3s that are >EXACTLY identical to the ones made in the early 70's. In addition, I was told >that EMS sells refurbished VCS3 synths for a much lower price than the new ones >. Everything I have ever heard that uses the VCS3 is amazing, and the 'Matrix >pin panel' must give amazing flexability. > >So: does anyone know what is up with this rumour that EMS still exists? > And: How much one of these beasts would cost? EMS does exist, and they charge a fortune for new Synthis. Well over $2000 for an AKS as of my last price check. They have a Rehberg facility, as Ricard noted, but I didn't know that the Synthis were being built there-- I thought the German plant was strictly for vocoders. Anyway, used ones turn up at dealers like Analogics occasionally. My buddy William Sequeira jut bought a VCS3 used there, and paid a little under $1000 for it. They're very touchy machines in some ways, and the pins are expensive and fragile. This makes them a nontrivial item to own, but WOW are they fun! |-> -- mike metlay * atomic city * box 81175 pgh pa 15217-0675 * metlay@netcom.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was looking for you. But I couldn't find you. I was looking for you...... (Smail3.1.28.1 #2) id m0nnkA6-000MTtC; Tue, 27 Apr 93 09:33 MET DST id ; Tue, 27 Apr 93 09:31 MET DST From: ricard@axis.se (Ricard Wolf) Date: Tue, 27 Apr 93 09:31:58 MET DST Subject: Re: VCS3 / Synthi / AKS / Putney > > Several months ago I inquired into the purchase of a used suitcase-style > EMS VCS3 (also known as a Putney or a Synthi. Someone told me (ambiguously) > that EMS is indeed still in existance and making custom-built VCS3s that are > EXACTLY identical to the ones made in the early 70's. In addition, I was told > that EMS sells refurbished VCS3 synths for a much lower price than the new ones > . Everything I have ever heard that uses the VCS3 is amazing, and the 'Matrix > pin panel' must give amazing flexability. Woing...! A bell rang... :-) It occurs to me that Maplin Electronics in the UK sold a kit for a synthesiser kalled the 5600S, which also used a pin-matrix patch panel. Anyone in Britain on the list ever see/build/use one? A friend of mine has the construction manual, but he never built it. As for VCS-3's, a German firm called Rehberg builds them, and they look identical apart from the logo 'EMS-Rehberg' on the front panel. But I think someone else on this list knew more about it. /Ricard -- Ricard Wolf / | \ / | /- email: ricard@axis.se Axis Communications AB /__| \/ | \__ uucp: axisab.se!ricard S - 223 70 LUND / | /\ | \ Tel: +46 46 19 18 63 SWEDEN / | / \ | \__/ Fax: +46 46 13 61 30 -- "Fahr'n fahr'n fahr'n auf der Autobahn" -- Date: 26 Apr 93 22:27:42 EDT From: dennis barton <70531.2124@CompuServe.COM> Subject: VCS3 / Synthi / AKS / Putney I keep hearing that EMS is still around but I can't find a number for them and see no other evidence that they exist. I have an AKS, and just got a manual today (thanks to Tom Moravansky!) that has the number from 197x. It *was* (and may still be) 071 874 2363, but I haven't tried calling it yet. Please let me know what you find out - I will do the same. Date: Mon, 26 Apr 93 18:50:46 -0400 From: jdisegi@acs.bu.edu (Jonathan Disegi) Subject: VCS3 / Synthi / AKS / Putney Several months ago I inquired into the purchase of a used suitcase-style EMS VCS3 (also known as a Putney or a Synthi. Someone told me (ambiguously) that EMS is indeed still in existance and making custom-built VCS3s that are EXACTLY identical to the ones made in the early 70's. In addition, I was told that EMS sells refurbished VCS3 synths for a much lower price than the new ones . Everything I have ever heard that uses the VCS3 is amazing, and the 'Matrix pin panel' must give amazing flexability. So: does anyone know what is up with this rumour that EMS still exists? And: How much one of these beasts would cost? thanks, jonathan. From: metlay@netcom.com (metlay) Subject: Re: VCS3 / Synthi / AKS / Putney Date: Wed, 28 Apr 93 18:49:22 PDT Cc: analogue@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu > Incidentially, I see no-one's mentioned the Synthi 100 here. This >was EMS's answer to the "monster modulars", built (supposedly) starting >around 1973. A _huge_ device, I believe it had 12 VCOs, scads of other >things, a double manual controller (the one in the EMS studios photo from >the mid-70s has this), and a _mammoth_ 100x100 or so patchmatrix. Not >too many of these monsters exist. The one I know best is the one in the master electronic music studio at Melodiya, the Soviet state music label. It was the primary axe of a whole generation of socialist-realist composers.... -- mike metlay * atomic city * box 81175 pgh pa 15217-0675 * metlay@netcom.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was looking for you. But I couldn't find you. I was looking for you......