Hi all,
Great to be back! I'm curious if anyone in
the forum/group collects or gigs with
vintage keyboards. (1970's/80's era.)
Just curious...Doug in Texas

Hey Doug,

Where have you been? Haven't seen a post from you in a while.

This is such a great topic. I don't collect classic synths, but have a profound appreciation for them. For economies sake, I try to collect sounds from classic synths and reproduce them with the two late model synths that I have. For me, I just can afford to collect them.

What is your favorite all-around synth of all time?

Regards,
Al

Hi Al,
Thanks for the reply. Growing up in the 70's
I do have a fondness for the ARPs & Moogs
of that time. Hope someday to be able to
afford an ARP 2600.
As a teenager I bought the manual for it
direct from ARP and learned about the basics
of synths reading it.
I also do love the sound of that old warhorse
the Mellotron. The original sampler!

Cheers,
Doug in Texas

Hi,
recently I checked the website keyboardmuseum.com and listened to a couple of digitalized records of original demo stuff the companies originally sent to customers. Doing that I dived deep into my past and listened to the Crumar T1C - quite a nice organ I started with - and the Yamaha SK 20 keyboard. The latter one I had put on the roof my house about ten years ago. A week later we had to gig at a really huge place and had to fill an amazingly huge stage. This made me think of my good old SK 20. Years ago I had abandoned it because of its weak sound in the higher grounds. That was the time when I was still using a Peavy KB 300 keyboard amp. So I took it to my gig and put it next to my Ketron XD 9 and my Yamaha PSR 3000. And I tell you. Amplified over our HK Elias system it sounded really great. A really hot organ sound and a from its very simple polyphonic synth a really full and round bass sound. The weight is still there and I will not be using it very frequently for the next years but it was really worth carrying those nearly 40 lbs.
I combination with a tube screamer and a smooth distortion I felt a little bit like John Lord while playing Smoke on the water or Child in time. It was a great evening.
Markus

I had a Korg DW8000 which had some of the best string voices I've ever heard. Then there was my experimental period with the PaIA synthesizers which came in a kit. I was into Heathkit products back then and decided to solder my own synthesizer.

It had Moog like qualities but it was more of a learning tool than it was a performance synthesizer. It did a lot to help me learn the basics of envelopes, Oscillators, Amplitudes, filters, modulators and more.... Learning synthesis for the first time during the 70's was some of the most fun times I've had.

Not much going on in terms of discovery these days. It's more about making music.

Al