I built the PE Minisonic sound synthesizer in the mid 70s, i still have it.

That was hilarious. I’ve had an indecent fixation with string synths and their melancholia since around the time of the PE article when I was a spotty 18 year old. I avidly read the articles at the time. Far more exciting than anything to be found in the local hedgerows. I’ve accumulated 3 stringers since then and remember hearing someone playing one in a local music shop around 1977 and was instantly hooked. Synths were relatively, an awful lot more expensive than now, way beyond my means at the time. I’ve wondered since how many of the PE design were successfully built, what it sounded like, and whether it came anywhere near what was available commercially. Yours seems well built, and for a kit doesn’t sound too bad at all, especially after you tweaked the chorus unit. Every string machine needs a Switch of Misery if it doesn’t sound depressing enough as standard! That transformer had me sweating a bit in places though ⚡ 👻. Interesting comments about perfect pitch. I used to envy this ability but I suppose it’s a mixed blessing. I’ve been told by pro musicians (which I’m most definitely not!) that if instruments are deliberately detuned it can be disorientating in the way you describe: I often play my Roland and Behringer stringers tuned down by a minor 3rd as to my ears they seem to have a sweet spot around there. One I’d really like to hear is the Transcendent DPX, a stringer designed by Tim Orr and published in ETI magazine around a year after the PE machine but a bit more sophisticated. I respectfully suggest it needs additional root vegetables however.

@VintageKeysStudio

Жыл бұрын

Thank you very much for your very interesting comment. I must seek out one of those Transcendent DPX stringers. We at VKS hope that you have had at least one of your 5 a day of the recommended root vegetable switches. All the best.

I remember seeing the original article, but couldn't find the time to build it because I was drenched with funking GCSE homework - learning about so called leaders who were basically corrupt as hell and started wars. Good job we don't have them anymore... . . . . . . 😞 Actually I did manage to build the *Everyday Electronics electric guitar with my Dad. *Like Practical Electronics, but with short trousers. Great video Steve, your playful inquisitiveness is infectious and I'm feeling inclined to pick up a soldering iron again! 🙂

@VintageKeysStudio

Жыл бұрын

Haha cheers Mark! - yes get that soldering iron warmed up! :)

A risky purchase, and yet there were no strings attached ;)

@f33fifofum

Жыл бұрын

Quality Dad joke

It's a joy to watch your videos , I love vintage keyboards and it is amazing to see someone like you who is so passionate about those lovely instruments.

@VintageKeysStudio

Жыл бұрын

Thank you :)

Funny, and common also in transistor organs) how they called "brass" "wood" and "strings" but it's basically the same oscillator with different filter and base octave. Very nice and usable mods!

@VintageKeysStudio

Жыл бұрын

Yes it’s all the same really haha - thanks very much!

That special marked pitch knob could be the best excuse for swearing in the studio ;-)!

Brilliant. I owned the Solina/ARP string ensemble many years ago. Thank you for your excellent presentation.

Big props for having scanned the articles! Gonna have a read :)

It’s nice that you have the little knobs beneath the AC transformer, in case you need to fiddle with the voltage a little bit while you’re playing.

Made me laugh before you even got going ......thanks.Brilliant as usual.

@VintageKeysStudio

Жыл бұрын

Thanks 👍

That is a nice Keyboard Steve, and it reminds me the sound of a Hammond organ with an electronic Leslie effect.

@VintageKeysStudio

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! Yes it’s very organic sounding

@jesusbencomo3495

Жыл бұрын

@@VintageKeysStudioSteve, If I ever go to London ,I will visit Vintage Keys Studio for sure !!

@andyg1957

Жыл бұрын

If you co back to the start of string ensembles using bucket brigade devices (BBD chips) you discover the legendary Eminent 310u organ. It's said that Eminent were trying to recreate the sound of a Leslie, but discovered the ensemble effect by accident. How true that is, I don't know but that came from a source within the company! I, and other organists, were already using a string voice with light vibrato and slow leslie for strings back then. Eminent used three delay lines for a very smooth effect. If you had just two, the effect wasn't so good. In addition, the 310u was three channel with the outputs of the delay lines being sent individually. Later, they'd create a pseudo third channel and just have stereo amplification in the organs and the Solina String Ensemble (badged as ARP in the USA). I worked for the Kawai company and they entered into agreement with Eminent for their string ensemble effects, we had very smooth strings compared to the rather busier Italian makes or the very 'busy' sounds of Lowrey, for example. I used to carry a very long insulated screwdriver with me and before a concert I'd open up the organs, and wind the slow and fast modulation pots to zero. Then advance the slow mod to create a 'slow leslie' effect. Then advance the fast mod pot until I got that smooth ensemble. I got fed up with this and eventually showed the Japanese team how to do it. They couldn't believe that I was doing it by ear rather than their way of using an oscilloscope to see the waveforms. In the end, they just used my settings on all the organs! :) Alas, the string/brass/choir polysynth that I helped to design for Kawai in 1979 never got past prototype stage. It sounded great and would have sold well but they were "Stick to designing and voicing the organs please!" So I did! For a two delay line instrument this one doesn't sound too bad.

Thanks for the scanning the articles. It's always very interesting to read how these things works.

A joy of an instrument played by a joy of human kind 😇 xo 💕

I built one from a kit in 1982. I put the controls to the left of the keyboard instead of under the keyboard. It was playable, but somewhat unfinished!

Oooo - good old Clef! Nice video! :-) I once bought an additive synthesizer for use with the BBC micro from them, the Clef Computer Music System. It was serial number 1, and I suspect that there never was a serial number 2... If anybody knows otherwise, please speak up!

@VintageKeysStudio

10 ай бұрын

Fantastic! Not heard of that one! We shall see if anyone knows! :)

@Trottelheimer

10 ай бұрын

@@VintageKeysStudio There's an article about it on mu zines.

@hodgheg

23 күн бұрын

I worked for Clef at the time and we actually sold around 30-40 Computer music systems though it was fraught with difficulties based around the fact that the design was thrashing its chips to the absolute limits so distortion and background noise sullied the sound. We also discovered early on that the ribbon cable between the BBC Micro and the system had to be kept as short as possible to prevent glitches. This meant the computer had to sit right next to the keyboard which made the whole thing about the length of a piano. I've now been in business for nearly 40 years and put my success partly down to always asking the question 'What would Alan Boothman have done in these circumstances' and then doing the polar opposite.

It;s really Amazing Steve !!!... (or what ever new name you come up with...) How one can be a superb musicianary, as you most certainly are, and still got enough brains left for understanding, and nicelly explaining all these technical mumbles and bumbles you'r talking about !!! (not forgetting the oranges and lemons, of course....) I lastly did a repair on an Elka Rhapsody 490 and had to replace all these capasitors (49), who indeed regulate the a, or aa, aaattack and the sustainssssssss.... For as when they short out, they leave the significant "keys" for dead in the trences ! (at least this appears to be soo, in the Rhapsody...) I love you're vids, they keep me hooked on your channel, Bravo !!!

@VintageKeysStudio

Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much! You are very kind :)

Amazing big sound! Thanks for shareing. Love cheers =)

I enjoy your videos. They’re always inspiring!

The mod is really cool man that thing has a great sound .

Well done!

I love anything old with tropical fish caps (assuming it’s working, lol).

I worked for Clef electronic Music (boss A J Boothman) for a few years and the String Ensemble was quite old hat by the time I started there but with judicious tweaks of the controls I thought it was easily the best sounding thing he ever did. I put that down to him actually spending some serious design time getting the sounds right (as right as the technology allowed at the time!) whereas he normally had a very rushed attitude to a new product, because we always needed the money. A typical bad business decision of his was to only ever produce the String Ensemble as a kit, I think it could well have competed with the Solina Strings etc if given a decent look and sold in Music shops, but he was a brilliant electronics designer and a singularly lousy businessman (I mean, he took me on as a manager!)

@VintageKeysStudio

22 күн бұрын

Haha brilliant - it’s a fantastic instrument

I don't have perfect pitch, but I have pretty good relative pitch. I can't use pitch shifting on keyboards for the same reason.

Oh beehive!#!

the best electric shock I've ever given myself was lifting the lid of my Roland Jupiter-4 to try to improve the tuning ...

@VintageKeysStudio

Жыл бұрын

My best one was from an Ondioline output transformer which has bare wires of 400v DC above the chassis where you are least expecting them

More synths need a "Bitch" knob

"Perfect Bitch" 🤣

👉🏼⚡️☠️

Marvellous stuff! unsubscribed