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Roland SH-3a restoration: from sorrow to treasure!

Roland SH-3a restoration: from sorrow to...

The Roland SH-3A is an analog monophonic synthesizer released in 1974 by Roland. Known for its warm, rich analog sound, it was an early synthesizer that...

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Akai S-950 Upgrades Part 5: entire S900 factory library at a press of a button

Akai S-950 Upgrades Part 5: entire S900 factory...

The Akai S900 sampler, released in 1986, was a revolutionary instrument that became a staple in music production through the late 80s and well into the...

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4500 free patches for Ensoniq ESQ-1, SQ-80, ESQ-m

4500 free patches for Ensoniq ESQ-1, SQ-80,...

Please do not resell or redistribute on your own such as Google Drive, Mega. Patches are protected with a standard GNU licence. These 4500 patches originate...

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Akai S3000 vs S3000XL the ultimate test – which is better?

Akai S3000 vs S3000XL the ultimate test –...

The Akai S3000 and S3000XL samplers, iconic fixtures in the music production landscape of the 1990s, revolutionized the way musicians and producers approached...

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Cult of 990 – special JD-990 soundset for Roland Zenology

Cult of 990 – special JD-990 soundset...

I made this soundset for all of you who don’t have actual JD-990, yet want to get to the original hardware sound as close as possible. This is not...

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Restoring my SCI Prophet 5 rev3.3

Restoring my SCI Prophet 5 rev3.3

The Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 is a pioneering analog synthesizer that revolutionized the music industry upon its release in 1978. Designed by Dave...

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Keyboard and other music magazines content index search tool

Keyboard and other music magazines content...

Last September, a generous member of the music forums known as Clusterchord bestowed upon me his extensive collection of Keyboard magazines spanning from...

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Akai S1000 Upgrades

Akai S1000 Upgrades

Installed the LED based display. It is quite bright if not too bright actually. So I’ve drilled a hole in the back and installed a 1k LOG pot there....

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Finding the tightest hardware MIDI sequencer among a dozen (measurement tests)

Finding the tightest hardware MIDI sequencer...

Hardware MIDI sequencers have a rich history rooted in the evolution of electronic music technology. MIDI, or Musical Instrument Digital Interface, was...

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My Oberheim OB-X story and restoration

My Oberheim OB-X story and restoration

The Oberheim OB-X synthesizer stands as a hallmark of analog synthesizer excellence, emerging during the vibrant era of electronic music in the late 1970s....

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Roland JD-800 keys not working? Let’s fix it!

Roland JD-800 keys not working? Let’s...

Suddenly several keys stopped working. It was too suspicious, especially since they were 8 semitones apart. I did install the new rubber contacts, but...

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Ethical Dilemma Unveiled: A Conversation with a Student at The Royal Danish Academy Of Music Raises Concerns

Ethical Dilemma Unveiled: A Conversation...

IntroOn November 17, 2023, an email exchange with Kristian Alexander Pedersen, a student enrolled at The Royal Danish Academy Of Music, brought forth an...

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Matrix 1000 Factory Presets

Matrix 1000 Factory Presets

So you changed the battery in your Matrix 1000 and now all of the presets are gone. You go to the web to search for the factory patches, only to find incomplete...

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Korg DSS-1 Factory Library for Gotek Flash Floppy & HxC owners

Korg DSS-1 Factory Library for Gotek Flash...

Assuming you bought a Gotek Flash Floppy (eBay et al.) and decided to upgrade your Korg DSS-1 there are probably a lot of questions bothering you. To save...

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Demos of a few dozen hardware Reverbs

Demos of a few dozen hardware Reverbs

Far from any scientific or “professional” test, this is just a quick bunch of demos when a reverb is pushed a bit harder, say into the 10 second...

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Finally retrieved back my Yamaha VL1-m

Finally retrieved back my Yamaha VL1-m

It’s back. I totally regretted selling it without trying it fully. I stupidly followed an advice from some GS member that VL1 is essentially gone...

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And so I joined the Korg DSS-1 club!

And so I joined the Korg DSS-1 club!

What a beast! I don’t care for playing acoustic samples at this stage just using it a synth itself is enough power. I kid you not, this thing sounds...

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Scammer alert: Julián Calvo Orquín (aka Inspektor Gadjet)

Scammer alert: Julián Calvo Orquín (aka...

SCAMMER ALERT! Dear fellow musicians I’d like to share an experience we had in the past regarding a transaction involving Julián Calvo Orquín (also...

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SY-77 Restoration

SY-77 Restoration

LCD DisplayWhat is the name of the ugliest display ever made? It’s the one for SY-77. Looks like some old 80’s calculator lol. Anyway, a friend...

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Akai S-950 Upgrades Part4: DD & HD floppy to image conversion

Akai S-950 Upgrades Part4: DD & HD floppy...

So your Akai came with a bunch of DD and HD floppies, you converted them to images, started a Gotek drive only to be greeted with a message saying unformatted...

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Akai S-950 Upgrades Part3: Floppy drive to HxC Gotek conversion / upgrade

Akai S-950 Upgrades Part3: Floppy drive to...

So i eventually made an order, despite the fact the floppy was working just fine, floppy emulator is a way better solution. Just a few days later, the...

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Akai S-950 Upgrades Part2: LCD display upgrade and modification

Akai S-950 Upgrades Part2: LCD display upgrade...

Some people are just greedy. In fact it was one of the eBay listings that made me inspire do a thread like this. Just take a look at these prices for these...

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Akai S-950 Upgrades Part1: Power connector upgrade & cosmetics

Akai S-950 Upgrades Part1: Power connector...

Step one: disassemble the unit. This is the easiest of the mods. For some reason some of the Akai S-950 use a 2 pin power connector which is not compatible...

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Don Solaris soundset for Waldorf Blofeld just became worldwide bestseller

Don Solaris soundset for Waldorf Blofeld...

Just got some interesting snail mail from the Waldorf Company today. I’ve opened it up and it looks like the Analog Voltage soundset which I’ve...

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Working for Waldorf – project Quantum 2.0 – part II

Working for Waldorf – project Quantum...

Intro This is a series of articles that will detail the process i went through when designing the new factory patches, wavetables and samples for the Waldorf...

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Working for Waldorf – project Quantum 2.0 – part I

Working for Waldorf – project Quantum...

Intro This is a series of articles that will detail the process i went through when designing the new factory patches, wavetables and samples for the Waldorf...

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Another Oberheim OB-X saved from harm

Another Oberheim OB-X saved from harm

While Clusterchord has been burning midnight oil lately in his studio I’ve been working on his OB-X. This is the third time I have been working on...

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Rack electric cable management

Rack electric cable management

Introducing my approach to cable management that banishes the chaos of racks overflowing with tangled wires: a streamlined solution that prioritizes precision...

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Korg MonoPoly modification – analog white noise

Korg MonoPoly modification – analog...

Believe it or not, first revision of Korg Monopoly features a digital noise source with that irritating loop sound. So in response to encountering the...

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Waldorf Microwave, Pulse etc. infamous Nextel faceplate repair, redo!

Waldorf Microwave, Pulse etc. infamous Nextel...

Older Waldorf synths used a Nextel paint based coating that gave them a nice satin finish that was soft to the touch. They almost felt like suede. They...

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New LED display is too bright? Here’s the fix!

New LED display is too bright? Here’s...

There are a lot of replacement LED displays on the market, however some of them have not been properly configured for some specific synthesizers. For example...

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Alpha Juno keyboard fix (intermit contacts)

Alpha Juno keyboard fix (intermit contacts)

In the realm of electronic music production, the Roland Alpha Juno synthesizer stands as a beloved classic, renowned for its distinctive analog sound and...

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Boss DE-200 gain mod for keyboards

Boss DE-200 gain mod for keyboards

To anyone who wanted to use DE-200 with synths, he most likely encountered two major problems which relate to signal levels and input impedance. Those...

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Boss CE-300 gain mod for keyboards

Boss CE-300 gain mod for keyboards

This mod lets you use CE-300 for synths as the original design is for guitar impedance / levels and connecting a keyboard will easily overdrive the circuit....

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Waiting for hard disk ready….SKIP (solved!)

Waiting for hard disk ready….SKIP (solved!)

If this ever happens to anyone, and the machine is hanging even after you press F7, the problem is the busted SCSI fuse. You’ll have to disassemble...

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Roland JD-990 revolutionary concept two decades later

Roland JD-990 revolutionary concept two decades...

It’s been 22 years since its release and the unit is still going strong. Even the latest in Roland’s series, Integra is in fact based on the...

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SCSI to CF “Blackbox” interface for samplers

SCSI to CF “Blackbox” interface...

If you own a lot of samplers, Blackbox is a more economical solution than filling each sampler with its own SCSI to CF (or SCSI2SD) interface. Because if...

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Ensoniq TS-10 wavetable and wavesequencing monster

Ensoniq TS-10 wavetable and wavesequencing...

If i would have to choose one ROM-pler to hit the category mysterious, it would definitely be TS-10. First of all i never understood why such high second...

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Moog Voyager O.S. Mods (PWM, filter poles)

Moog Voyager O.S. Mods (PWM, filter poles)

After hearing Moog filter in two pole configuration, while working on one Voyager Performer, i KNEW i need to get this filter configuration possible on...

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Roland LCD-1 sample CD finally available on S-550!

Roland LCD-1 sample CD finally available...

And it’s not a joke. I’ve found a way! For those who don’t know LCD-1 is a sample CD ROM that was built for Roland S-550 sampler. In...

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Yamaha A4000/A5000 Review

Yamaha A4000/A5000 Review

When its older brother Yamaha A3000 came out in the mid 90’s it was one of the more affordable samplers on the market that featured a full synthesis...

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Why using old hardware samplers?

Why using old hardware samplers?

Here is a common question that pops up from time to time on various music production forums: “I am really curious…WHY would anybody want a...

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How to upload SYX files to synthesizer via MIDI or USB

How to upload SYX files to synthesizer via...

Synths with MIDI interface I will describe the procedure for the PC, though exactly the same process applies for other computers such as Mac, Linux etc....

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Korg Trident MkI Demo

Korg Trident MkI Demo

After many years of search, and one unsuccessful purchase of a busted MkII (that i’ve never managed to repair) i’ve finally found a good condition...

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Waldorf Streichfett Demo (making of)

Waldorf Streichfett Demo (making of)

And so it came. One little package i’ve been eagerly waiting to receive from Waldorf Music. There was no particular timeline by how soon i need to...

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The ultimate Roland JV, JD, XV F.A.Q.

The ultimate Roland JV, JD, XV F.A.Q.

Super JV vs XV series Following the JV/XP series were Roland’s XV series: 5080, 5050 and 3080. XV-5080 is mixed content 32kHz and 44.1 kHz. I got...

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Dynacord DRP-20 review

Dynacord DRP-20 review

German classic from the late 80’s (manufactured in 1989). For those on the other side of the great lake where this company is not so much known,...

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ASR-10 synthesizing industrial sounds

ASR-10 synthesizing industrial sounds

I love ASR-10! Here’s a Roland TR-909 cymbal turned into a factory drone. I will provide a step by step guide here on how to create one. To get this...

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ASR-10 synthesizing an organ

ASR-10 synthesizing an organ

Here is a video tutorial I’ve made some time ago. If you use software such as Chickensys Translator it is very easy to transfer samples from a computer...

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Eventide H3000 as a formant synth

Eventide H3000 as a formant synth

Here’s an interesting “Formant Morph” processor i’ve recently designed using the Patch Factory (aka algorithm 111). As you may know, Patch Factory...

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Andromeda A6 sound improvement

Andromeda A6 sound improvement

  Disable Background Tuning (i mean, do it now!) This will provide your Andromeda with more fat sound, due to routine in Background tuning (which...

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Deep FM bass on Roland JD/JV/XV series

Deep FM bass on Roland JD/JV/XV series

Compatibility: JV-80 and up Although Super JV/JD have the FXM section that is based on a frequency modulation, it is actually quite limited terms of real...

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How to achieve PWM on Roland’s SuperJV / XP and XV series

How to achieve PWM on Roland’s SuperJV...

Compatibility: JV-1080 and up Audio example: PWM.mp3 The super JV series features two saw waves that have inverted amplitude to each other. A little bit...

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Roland JD emulation on Super JV and XV synthesizers

Roland JD emulation on Super JV and XV synthesizers

Starting with model JV-1080, some waveforms from the JD-800 were transferred into JV-1080. Which meant back then that some of the patches could technically...

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Roland JD-990 Resource Centre

Roland JD-990 Resource Centre

JD-990 Software / Patches:Patch OrganizerPatch Converter JD-800 -> JD-990Free Patches (61 bank total)JD-800 Factory Patches (converted to JD-990 format)SR-JV-04...

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Roland JD-800 Resource Centre

Roland JD-800 Resource Centre

JD-800 Software / Patches: Patch Organizer Free Patches JD-800 DAC Calibration: A noise can occur during long release times. If this is the case, you will...

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Synthesis types

Synthesis types

Additive (Fourier) synthesis Amplitude (ring) modulation FM synthesis Granular synthesis Linear Arithmetic (LA) synthesis PCM sample playback synthesis...

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Synthesizer basics

Synthesizer basics

The structure Structure of almost all synthesizers is basically the same. It starts with the tone generator whose function is to create the sound. On analog...

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