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Rhodes

As a new decade was approaching, and at the height of the piano's popularity, CBS decided to put a new face on the Rhodes product line. The Rhodes Suitcase Piano was updated with a sleek black design, a removable music rack, and a flat harp cover for supporting an additional keyboard. Aside from these cosmetic enhancements, the "new" Suitcase pianos of 1979 were identical to the previous "Mark I" version. And after 10 years of being designated "Mark I", the Rhodes Mark II Stage Piano made its debut. Like the Suitcase models, it was a last-generation Mark I piano with the new all-black design. The Suitcase and Stage pianos continued to be available in 73- and 88-key configurations, but for some people, the Stage 73 was not portable enough. In 1980 the Rhodes 54 was introduced, a 54-key variation on the Stage model. This version covered the middle register of the piano, intended for players who were only interested in using the Rhodes for chords and melodic passages during live performance. During that year, plastic keys were introduced as an alternative to the wooden keys, which were found to be prone to warping after years on the road. As a result, the later Mark II-era pianos have an action that feels more like a digital piano. The plastic keys are most easily identified by looking inside the piano: the keybed is entirely black. Harold Rhodes was disappointed in this change, which was not his idea. He argued that it lowered the quality of the piano and had a negative impact on the feel of the keyboard. But this "improvement" was nothing compared to those found in the Rhodes Mark III EK-10, also released in 1980. This was a Stage 73 with an integrated synthesizer component, designed to create "futuristic" sounds by modulating, mutating and mutilating the Rhodes tone. The EK-10's front panel included the volume and EQ controls you would expect to find on a Stage 73, jumbled together with volume, filter and tuning controls for the synthesizer voices. Theoretically you could turn down the volume for the synthesizer, leaving only the pure Rhodes sound. Whether this worked in reality is unknown (and unlikely). Inside the piano, the pickup rail was wired to several circuit boards, which were configured as two separate keyboard zones (controlled by a switch on the namerail). This allowed the treble and bass ranges of the piano to be affected differently when fed to the synthesizer. All of these experiments on the part of CBS were in reaction to the evolution of polyphonic synthesizers, which were quickly eating up the keyboard market. As Major Key's John R. McLaren put it, you could "throw a synth in the back of your VW Beetle" a lot more easily than a Rhodes, and ultimately the Yamaha DX7 would put the nail in the electric piano's coffin. http://www.fenderrhodes.com/models/mark2.html

Korg MiniKorg 700

The MiniKorg-700S is an old and simple monophonic analog keyboard from Korg. It is a dual-oscillator synth related to Korg's first monosynth, the single oscillator MiniKorg-700. Most of the controls are located in an odd place beneath the keyboard so as to make room above the keyboard for a sheet-music stand. Some controls have bizarre names like Bender, Traveler and Expand for the auto-bend, filter and envelope, respectively. It has three ring modulators for some strange sounds and noises. Sometimes a decent bass sound for techno music can be achieved using the MiniKorg's hi-pass and low-pass filters. The two oscillators can be de-tuned and they offer triangle, sawtooth and square waveforms. There are some strange analog effects built-in as well such as portamento, a rudimentary repeat-delay, auto-bend (bender), vibrato and Chorus and Noise waveforms. This limited and quirky little synth is a nice collectors item but rarely seen or used anymore. It has relatively no performance controls like pitch/mod, but for ancient analog technology, this synth is quite stable and reliable. It is still quite capable of generating a very analog bass sound, thud, thump, growl or squeal. The wood side-panels and large primary colored knobs and sliders are a sure sign of Vintage status. It has been used by The Cure, ComaTeens, Kitaro, Human League, N-Trance, Vangelis, the Normal, Stevie Wonder, The Cars and Paul Hardcastle. http://www.vintagesynth.com/korg/mini700s.php

Mini Moog

The MINIMOOG® VOYAGER® Old School Synthesizer is a monophonic analog performance synthesizer. It has extensive patching facilities, and expanded modulation capabilities. The signal path starts with a bank of three wide-range, high-stability voltage controlled oscillators, one noise source and one audio preamplifier for externally-applied audio signals. The sound modifiers are two Moog filters and one stereo VCA (Voltage Controlled Amplifier). Control devices include a 44-key keyboard with velocity and afterpressure outputs, pitch bend and modulation wheels and many control/pedal input jacks.The MINIMOOG® VOYAGER® OS has a hinged, multi-position panel and a solid hardwood cabinet. The power supply accepts any power voltage from 100 volts to 240 volts. Oscillators Module Three wide-range, high stability VCO’s (Voltage Controlled Oscillators) with continuously-variable waveforms. * FREQUENCY controls (2) vary the frequencies of Oscillators #2 and #3 over a +/-7 semitone range with respect to Oscillator #1.* OCTAVE selectors (3) set the frequency ranges of the oscillators in six octave steps.* WAVE controls (3) provide continuous control over the waveforms of the oscillators, from triangular, to sawtooth, to square, to narrow rectangular.* 1-2 SYNC switch synchronizes the Oscillator #2 waveform to the frequency of Oscillator #1, for dramatic timbral effects.* 3-1 FM switch provides linear frequency modulation of Oscillator #1 by Oscillator #3.* 3 KB CONT switch disconnects Oscillator #3 from control by the keyboard, thereby enabling it to function as a drone.* 3 FREQ switch lowers the frequency of Oscillator #3 into the sub-audio range, thereby enabling it to function as a low frequency audio or modulating oscillator. Mixer Module Five-input mixer for combining the audio sources prior to filtering. * Input Level controls (5) adjust the relative levels of the oscillator, noise, and external audio input signals.* Input switches (5) enable the player to quickly switch individual audio signals in and out.* External Level LED enables the player to set the correct external audio signal level. Filters Module Dual mode filter module includes dual lowpass and highpass-lowpass filtering. Dual lowpass mode consists of two Moog lowpass-resonant filters in parallel, one per output channel. Highpass-lowpass mode consists of Moog lowpass filter in series with a highpass filter.* CUTOFF control sweeps the frequencies of both filters throughout the audio range.* SPACING control sets the spacing between the frequencies of the two filters, over a +/-3 octave range.* RESONANCE control adjusts the resonance of both filters, from none (pure lowpass response) to filter oscillation.* KB CONT AMOUNT control sets how much the filters open and close as the player presses different keys on the keyboard.* Dual Lowpass/Highpass-Lowpass switch selects between dual lowpass operation or highpass-lowpass operation. Envelopes Module The Envelopes Module generates two wide-range ADSR (Attack Decay Sustain Release) envelopes. The Filter Envelope sweeps the filter and is available for modulation shaping. The Volume Envelope shapes the overall volume.* ATTACK controls (2) determine the attack times of the envelopes.* DECAY controls (2) determine the decay time constants of the envelopes.* SUSTAIN controls (2) determine the sustain levels of the envelopes.* RELEASE controls (2) determine the release time constants of the envelopes.* AMOUNT TO FILTER control determines how much the filter envelope will open and close the filter, from full negative (inverted envelope) to full positive (non-inverted envelope).* ENVELOPE GATE SWITCH selects whether the envelopes will be triggered by the keyboard, on , or by an externally-applied gate. LFO Module Low Frequency Oscillator generates triangular, square, Sample & Hold, and smoothed Sample & Hold waveforms for use as modulating signals.* RATE control sets the LFO rate over the range 0.2 Hz (one cycle every five seconds) to 50 Hz (fifty times a second).* WAVE LFO selector selects Triangle, Square or Sample & Hold (Stepped or Smooth) waveforms for use with the Mod Busses. * RATE LED provides visual indication of the LFO rate. Enhanced Modulation Busses Module Selects the sources, destinations, and shaping signals for the two modulation busses.* SOURCE selectors (2) selects the modulation source from the LFO, Oscillator 1, Oscillator 2, Oscillator 3, noise or the external modulation input (MOD2).* DESTINATION selectors (2) selects the modulation destination from Pitch, Oscillator 2, Oscillator 3, the filter cutoff frequencies, the oscillator waveforms, or LFO Rate.* CONTROLLER selectors (2) selects the Mod Wheel, MOD1, Velocity, Pressure, Filter Envelope or Volume Envelope to shape the modulation signal on that bus.* AMOUNT controls (2) sets the overall modulation amount for each bus. http://www.moogmusic.com/products/minimoog-voyagers/minimoog-voyager-old-school#info-tab

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