This is an early model,white front panel 'EMS Synthi AKS' with a prestopatch bay, produced in december 1972 (acording to it's serial number 4658ks and confirmed by robin wood from EMS) .
currently the synth belongs to avi nisim, a member of the psychedelic-trance duo "astral projection" based in israel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_Projection_(group)
astral projection works together since 1989 and considered to be one of the first psy-trance groups in the world.
while checking the front pannel i found a little logo sticker ,which later was recognized with the group "zorch" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/zorch
who were pioneers in the british synth music, as britain first "all syhths" group. zorch were the only band ever recorded in peter zenovieff's EMS studio in putney. this synthi confirms as one of the 3 synthi's that were used by the group during the early 70's. this specific one was howard scarr's personal synthi .
cosmetics: considering the synth almost 40 years, and it's history, this synthi looks quite good.
some scuffs and marks on the sides and on the front panel, some marks on some knobs caps,
some of the matrix pins needs a replacement (still available at EMS) . but the overall condition is good, i would say at least 8 out of 10.
electronics: DC power rails were checked and they both at -9v and +12v exactly as they should. power lines are clean and steady. no humming through the synth's outputs. some scratchy knobs ,and one broken (output off) switch lever. all the 3 circuits boards and connections looks clean and the parts looks original. the 3 circuit boards havn't been removed during the check. however, i would guess that it's time to service the synthi, replace/clean some of the knobs, replace some capacitors, fine tuning etc. quite a normal procedure for this equipment at this point. the synthi has some mod's which includes: center zero trapezoid, wave shapers, filter hi/ low, osc 3 frequency switch, and more.the synth functions has been tested (although it's quite impossible to test the endless possibilities and each of every matrix pin hole of that beast...) but i can say that all oscillators, noise source, VCA, filter, ring modulator, reverb, mic input's ,outputs, envelope shaper, trapezoid,the meter,the internal speakers and the joystick are all working fine, and everything sounds great and beefy .
the keyboard sequencer is faulty and partially works, it has some cracks and missing some parts on the upper case (see detailed pictures). with the right patch on the matrix, keyboard touch pads are responsive to touch and triggers sounds.the random pad is responsive as well and it triggers some random notes whan touched. but the sequencer doesn't work.
all the mod's that i mentioned above are working and has effect on the sound. the keyboard control and keyboard inverter mod's needs a certain matrix patches (as seen on the stickers on the matrix) which i'm not familiar with, so i'm not quite sure how these mod's supposed to work. it is also impossible to test these mod's without a fully functional keyboard.
during the last 20 years , this synthi was installed i a custom wooden rack ,in astral projection's studio ,and it does'nt have the spartanite briefcase.
update:
the "inverter pin" mod was tested as well, with the kind directions from Mr. Howard scarr himself. this mod is fully functional and quite amazing. the pin acts like a normal pin , but it actually inverts the signal of where it's positioned (the frequency is controlled by the inverter blue knob), so for example you can output the normal output of osc.3 and at the same time output the filtered- inverted signal of the same osc.3. this opens a whole new world of sounds and possibilities... pure fun!
this EMS synthi AKS is now on "vemia" auction site
the auction will end on may 1 2010.
please note:
the synthi was throughly tested for more then 10 hours, and as far as i know (i own one Synthi Aks myself) it's in a good working order, and physical shape,
however, this is quite an old piece of gear and it will be sold as is, no returns and no refunds.
a great care will be taken when packing and handling/shipping the synthi, and it will be fully
insured.
i did my best to describe the synthi as accurate as possible, for more info, please contact:
thanks for watching :)
some videos
1 comment:
Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent. See the link below for more info.
#noise
www.ufgop.org
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