When this Minimoog Model D arrived a couple of years ago, it was probably the absolute most thoroughly wrecked synth I had ever agreed to work on. I made a deal to do it for a flat fee, even though I knew it wouldn’t be technically “profitable,” under the condition that I could take my time on it, kind of as an absurd challenge to myself and because I knew it would be really satisfying when I finally finished it. Since it is finally done and restoring it was such an insane gauntlet of tasks, I thought it might be worth reviving the long-neglected Shop Blog with a post about it! Continue reading “Restoring the Saddest Minimoog in the World”
While we’re working from home due to the virus and have all of the synths and all our recording gear in the same place, we took the opportunity to make this video about the restoration of two Prophet 10s we’ve restored recently. One of them proved to be one of the most arduous restorations we’ve ever done due to massive damage to its microprocessor system. It was a long road to get it working, but when it was done, we celebrated by MIDI chaining the two of them (which we had also both retrofitted with MIDI) and making some fantastic and massive PROPHET 20 sounds! Check out this video for a recap of the restoration process and some demos of the synths’ powerful sound.
PCBs and kits are now available for the circuit we use to add 1V/Octave scaled input to the ElectroComp EML-100 and EML-101 synthesizers!
The EMLs use between 1.2 V/Octave and 1.4 V/Octave (varying from one unit to another) with an offset of between 4.2V and 4.6V. Our board allows you to feed in conventional one volt per octave control voltage from another synth, controller keyboard, sequencer, etc. and scales it up so that the EML’s second-voice oscillators (Oscillators 3 and 4) can track it. Using a sequencer especially opens up amazing possibilities for this already very powerful synth!
Our original version of this circuit just performed the summing and amplification and required the installation of a new external switch to turn the mod on and off. Our new version uses a multiplexer to automatically perform this switching task when a plug is inserted in the CV input jack. This means that it can be completely invisible– no hole needs to be drilled, and the synth functions 100% as original when nothing is plugged in.
The mod can be used on both versions of the EML-101. On the later version that has a “Sequencer” jack, the Sequencer jack becomes the 1V/Octave input, and on the earlier version, another jack can be selected to be the new 1V/Octave input (we use CM3).
The PCB will come with schematics, bill of materials and detailed installation and tuning instructions with lots of full-color photos. The kit will come with all of the above plus all required parts and the jack already partially wired (because this is probably the thing people are most likely to mess up!)
We forgot to take a picture of it when it was done, so here’s a picture of it when it was dirty!
The owner of this ARP 2600 got it in an insane trade in the late 80s… in exchange for a Peavey keyboard amp and a TR-505! A lot of it had never worked in the entire 30 years he had had it.
When we do restoration of an ARP that’s in bad shape, we’ve learned that there’s really only one good way to approach it. We basically strip it down to its bones and do everything we possibly can in one fell swoop before even trying to test different systems. It ends up being so much more efficient that it actually costs less than taking a more step-by-step approach.
Because I am now one of those people who thinks they are very busy, I am just going to share a “quick tip” today.
In one of several Odysseys that we rebuilt recently, the “Proportional Pitch Control” pads (otherwise known as PPC, those three spongy white pads that Mark III Odysseys have) were so bad that no amount of cleaning could revive them. I finally was forced to look for another solution, and tried using some FSRs (force sensing resistors) and the results were great.
A Moog modular restoration is a very unique and specific kind of restoration experience, which I’ll try to show mainly in photos because it’s less boring for you. It will be like a vacation slide show with a fun anecdote to accompany each picture. Continue reading “Moog Model 15 Modular”
This is a really fun synth! EML was a lesser-known American synth company competing with Moog and ARP during the 1970s and made some unique instruments. The EML-101 is a semi-modular duophonic synth similar in structure to the ARP 2600 and very unique and powerful. The bulk of our work on this involved designing and installing a circuit that allows the synth to accept standard 1 volt per octave-scaled CV via its “SEQ” input, as its oscillators have an unusual scale of 1.4 V/octave with a 4.6-volt DC offset. Continue reading “EML ElectroComp 101 – 1 volt per octave conversion mod”
