From nobrand@teleport.com Fri Jan 20 11:03:32 1995 Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 14:32:31 -0800 From: Brian Coates To: analogue@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Subject: Some strange Roland! Wow! I just subscribed to this list, and I'm amazed at the number of people on it! I feel quite a rush to know that there are others out there that will continue to keep the analog interest alive. I have a 2 year old, and of all the knobs and sliders on my synths, he has already memorized where the filters are(a new generation!!). Anyway, with that out of the way, I've had a piece of equipment for a number of years, have used it as much as any other thing I've ever had, but have no background on it... It's a Roland SPV-355. Nobody I've ever talked to seems to have heard of it. It's a rack mounted synth module, consisting of(in order, L to R): 2 osc's (sq, saw, pul--indiv.tunable) Mixer (like the 101) filter (LP, resonant, key track, env track) Mixer2 (syn/direct) Filter and Vol. amount(for separ. CV in) CV/Gate in CV/Gate out Hold input Filt./ Vol. CV in Mono audio out And one other input, the Direct in. Not like an Odyssey ext in, where the signal is effected, but an input to track PITCH. Or rather, frequency, as it tracks in between notes as well as the note itself. There are three settings, one for voice, one for wind, and one for guitar(which, of course doesn't work with chords). Whatever you hum, or sing, or whistle into the mic., is tracked, converted to a CV, and routed to the VCO's and filter!! It has a pretty sweet filter, self resonating, nut not as peircing as say, a 101 or some Oberhiem filters. I have called Roland, and spoken to many MANY people. Techs that have been there for many years. The most common response is " hmmmm, was that a vocoder?" because of the 'V' in SPV-355. Apparantly, this thing never existed. It has the Roland logo, the Roland name, the Roland sound..Roland is even etched in the PCB copper. Judging by the font used, panel layout and colors, I'd say that it was made in the late 70's. Roland has no documentation, no schematics, ad slicks, or manual on file(there's a sticker on the front by the HOLD input that says 'refer to manual before using this input'..I've never used it). And get this- on the back- NO SERIAL NUMBER!! Do I have some finished prototype for a NAMM show or something? If anyone has even HEARD of this thing, please tell me!! I'll scan a picture and send it to the Music Machines page, it'll only be greyscale, but there's not much color to it, anyway. Sorry this is such a long post. I'll keep'em shorter from now on. Thanks for any help!! Brian ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Searching through manuals for silly instructions. From MGLINSKY@delphi.com Fri Jan 20 11:04:58 1995 Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 02:01:09 -0500 (EST) From: MGLINSKY@delphi.com To: nobrand@teleport.com, analogue@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Subject: Some strange Roland! Hi Brian - the SPV-355 was Roland's rack mount pitch-to-voltage converter, packaged in the same case as the SVC-350 Vocoder, SBF-325 VC Flanger, SPP-323 Phaser, and some other modules which included a guitar preamp, a bass guitar preamp and a Dimension D device. I have a couple of ads / promo sheets which show the SPV-355, though nothing which goes into any great detail. Seemed to be a pretty nice unit, like the rest of this particular series (let me know if you ever want to part with yours! :-) Would go nicely with my other modules, though I would guess I'd have to arm-wrestle Tom M. for it! Hope that's helpful - looking forward to the digest format!! Mark Glinsky - Orlando mglnsky@magicnet.net mglinsky@greatwall.cctt.com "Be seeing you..." - No. 6 [The Prisoner] "So long and thanks for all the fish....." The Dolphins [HHGttG] From mglinsky@greatwall.cctt.com Fri Jan 20 12:16:34 1995 Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 11:50:47 -0500 From: Mark Glinsky - ECC To: analogue@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Cc: analogue@magnus.acs.ohio-st.edu Subject: SPV-355 Hey Tom - here's the blurb that I have in a catalog from about 1984-6: The SPV-355 is a Pitch-to-Voltage converter with a self-containted synthesizer. The P/V synthesizer will accept any conventional audio signal and convert it into a voltage that is used to control the synthesizer. Thus, the guitarist [yeah,right...MSG], woodwind or brass player, or even the vocalist can, for the first time, make extensive use of the synthesizer (which has largely been the domain of the keyboard players in the past)[!]. The synthesizer section contains two independently tunable voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs) as well as a sub-oscillator tied to VCO-1. This essentially gives the musician a three-VCO synthesizer which, when mixed with the original instrument's sound, makes for an extremely rich, full sound. The Oscillators can be varied between three different waveforms and over three selectable octave ranges. There's a small line drawing of it, and you can see the following controls: INPUT section, w/Threshold level and LEDs, gain switch, input jack Portamento control, with remote footswitch jack Dual VCO section, with selectable range/waveform switches THAT AFFECT BOTH VCOS at the same time, master tuning, and VCO 2 relative tuning Audio Mixer section (VCO 1, VCO 2 & input) Env Gen controls (3 sliders) VCF controls (cutoff and res), pitch follower and env gen level sliders VCA, switchable between ENv Gen and something else (!) Audio Mixer 2 (VCA output and original input?) Output jack, and then a couple of variable pedal control inputs. Looks like a pretty neat unit! BTW, I'm looking for a Steiner Master Touch Controller unit; this was a little black box with two thin plastic tubes sticking out of the front for breath and bite control of analog voltages passed through the unit. There was also a pressure sensitive foam pad on the front of the unit, plus a bunch of I/O jacks. Let me know if you come across one. Thanks! Mark - Orlando mglnsky@magicnet.net From gacki@sax.sax.de Wed Jan 25 10:16:01 1995 Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 11:02:11 +0100 From: Malte Rogacki To: Brian Coates Cc: analogue@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Subject: Re: Some strange Roland! (SPV-355) > And one other input, the Direct in. Not like an Odyssey >ext in, where the signal is effected, but an input to track PITCH. Or >rather, frequency, as it tracks in between notes as well as the note >itself. There are three settings, one for voice, one for wind, and one for >guitar(which, of course doesn't work with chords). Whatever you hum, or >sing, or whistle into the mic., is tracked, converted to a CV, and routed >to the VCO's and filter!! It has a pretty sweet filter, self resonating, >nut not as peircing as say, a 101 or some Oberhiem filters. I have called >Roland, and spoken to many MANY people. Techs that have been there for >many years. The most common response is " hmmmm, was that a vocoder?" >because of the 'V' in SPV-355. Apparantly, this thing never existed. It >has the Roland logo, the Roland name, the Roland sound..Roland is even >etched in the PCB copper. Judging by the font used, panel layout and >colors, I'd say that it was made in the late 70's. Roland has no >documentation, no schematics, ad slicks, or manual on file(there's a >sticker on the front by the HOLD input that says 'refer to manual before >using this input'..I've never used it). And get this- on the back- NO >SERIAL NUMBER!! Do I have some finished prototype for a NAMM show or >something? If anyone has even HEARD of this thing, please tell me!! I'll >scan a picture and send it to the Music Machines page, it'll only be >greyscale, but there's not much color to it, anyway. Sorry this is such a >long post. I'll keep'em shorter from now on. Thanks for any help!! First, this thing is NOT a vocoder! The SPV-355 was Rolands first 19" rack mount synth. It does contain a Pitch-to-Voltage-convertor. The switch on the left side (guitar, voice, wood/brass) allows you to select different "algorithms" for pitch detection depending on the input material. The synth is pretty bare-bones: Two oscillators, one sub-oscilltor, a 24 dB lowpass filter with resonance, an ADS envelope generator. That's it. No LFO, no puls width modulation and such. According to my sources this machine has separate CV/GATE in-and outputs. Not a "must-have" synth, but sure nice. Malte Rogacki gacki@sax.sax.de 100116.154@compuserve.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Don't forget to TURN ON THE SYNTHESIZER. Often this is the reason why you get no sound out of it." (ARP 2600 Owner's Manual) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------