The mighty modular synth

This is a very impressive project and I look forward to hearing it when it’s finished. I also enjoyed the live Seq2.

Davesax1965 wrote: Hawkwind used an off the shelf EMS VCS3, a synth so unstable that it was basically no use as an instrument, more - really - as a sound generator.

This makes Zanov’s Green Ray (1976) all the more impressive, considering it was recorded solely on a VCS3.

Similar to Wendy Carlos' Switched-on-Bach (1968), Mike Hankinson's The Unusual Classical Synthesizer (1972) is an album of classical covers played on a synthesizer, the VCS3 instead of the Moog.

Tom Ozric wrote: The VCS3 stuff on Floyd's DSOTM is superb (On The Run, Any Colour You Like)......

According to Comfortably Numb: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd, the VCS3 was used on Breathe, while Brain Damage, Time, Any Colour You Like and On the Run used the more compact and portable version of the VCS3, the Synthi A. I can’t tell them apart, either .

Note to self "perhaps it may become apparently that a VCS3 is not modular at some point." 

Edited by Davesax1965 - October 31 2015 at 11:21

Davesax1965 wrote: 3.5v inverters here, but still going to be some noise.......

Perhaps not.... 3.5v in maybe but the output will likely be 100v at 1KHz to excite the phosphor coating of the wire. Some of the cheaper ones can even make an audible whine.

Putney is the area of London where the EMS factory was ... the hardware of the VCS3 was given that nickname.

Hi Replayer, sorry !! Off work with the flu !!

Davesax1965 wrote: Modern oscillator. Size of a cigarette packet. Totally reliable.  Easy to build and calibrate as well. You could fit six or seven of these into the footprint of the ARP one above. And ARP were pretty good. For the time.

Davesax1965 wrote: Yes, that's a new reissue MS20 mini. I used to have an original MS10 - which did PWM as well. I'm a big Korg fan. The new reissue is pretty damn good. There are lots of frustrations about using them, mainly the fact that they don't work on Volts / Octave, but there are workarounds available. The MS20 used a classic Sallen-Key topology filter - the eagle eyed will possibly have noted that I have one built into the modular.

I was thinking of buying an MS-20 mini as my first analog synth (I don't know nearly enough about sound synthesis to start off with a fully modular synth), but I decided to go with the Novation Bass Station II. In spite of only having a two-octave keyboard, the BS2 won me over due to the fact that it included a sub-oscillator, I could save and export patches and not having to buy a separate sequencer such as the SQ-1.

I've read good reviews of the MS-20 mini and heard Korg did an excellent job on the remake. Here's a interesting sound effect of a car engine igniting and revving up:

Here's probably the better way of describing it. 

Right, the modular is over to the left. Not plugged in. There's a Doepfer Dark Time sequencer connected up to the Korg by electrical trickery. Above the Korg is a Minibrute. 

Coming up soon is another MS20, another Dark Time sequencer, and the modular just had a MIDI interface fitted. There are also two MIDI keyboards. You can imagine what all this will sound like live, but here's the MS20 being sequenced, with just a bit of delay added to it as well via the computer. 

And this is where modern modular synths deviate hugely from their 70's forebears - one MIDI to control voltage interface.

So now it plugs into the PC. ;-)