Are there any "extinct" synthesizers?

walkathon · Post by **walkathon** » Thu Nov 29, 2012 3:48 am

_seph wrote:well, there is Con Brio... which might as well be extinct. Only two ADS200 and one ADS200R are known to exist and I believe they are all now owned by the same person and who knows if they still work.

2007 vid, Kehew owns it these days, right? ... I'll be truly gobsmacked if Coupland's baby is still running in 20 yrs time.

Xces · Post by **Xces** » Thu Nov 29, 2012 5:10 am

I'd be surprised if there are any Buchla 500 Systems still remaining as well as any 400s, I know there are some Buchla 700s remaining since there is a demo of one that some guy posted onto myspace of him playing with one, and Ive been told that here was one auctioned off at ebay years ago.
Maybe the Buchla Touche is extinct.
The Audity could also be one that's gone completely
The Teleharmonium is definitely extinct, and that's all that I can say.

schmidtc · Post by **schmidtc** » Thu Nov 29, 2012 6:30 am

I think there was 2 ARP Centaur VI built. It would have cost about $20K had it hit the markets, but it was hopelessly unreliable. This is the only photo I know of: a former employee of there custom engineering dept. Has anyone seen a better picture?

Phollop Willing PA · Post by **Phollop Willing PA** » Thu Nov 29, 2012 2:55 pm

I haven't seen many of these around altough to be fair, it's probably a shell for an ARP 2500.

White · Post by **White** » Thu Nov 29, 2012 3:23 pm

Get hold of these books - "Vintage Synthesizers" by Mail Vail, and "The A to Z of Analog Synthesizers" by Peter Forrest. The latter is in two parts.

Phollop Willing PA · Post by **Phollop Willing PA** » Thu Nov 29, 2012 4:30 pm

White wrote:Get hold of these books - "Vintage Synthesizers" by Mail Vail, and "The A to Z of Analog Synthesizers" by Peter Forrest. The latter is in two parts.

I have that. It's a great read.

Post by **cornutt** » Thu Nov 29, 2012 9:06 pm

Phollop Willing PA wrote:I haven't seen many of these around altough to be fair, it's probably a shell for an ARP 2500.

As I understand the Centuar, it was sort of a cross between a polyphonic 2600 and an Avatar. I believe the guitar interface was going to be sold as an accessory, and that it would use a proprietary interface to the synth proper. Al Pearlman had done a calculation where he plugged in all of the MBTF numbers for all of the circuitry used in the Centuar, and figured out that the synth's overall MBTF was going to be on the order of a few hours.

And calling the Audity "extinct" is a bit of a stretch because, in order for something to be extinct, it has to have existed first. My understanding is that some of the boards that were supposed to go into the Audity were never actually built.

RawBC · Post by **RawBC** » Thu Dec 20, 2012 8:29 pm

schmidtc, i believe that the picture of that arp technician is john, and he used to have a repair shop in kenmore square in boston. he used to have that exact (actually maybe the original, even;) picture near his bench behind the counter there. i guess he live out in central or western mass somewhere. he's a really interesting guy to talk to and a great technician.

balma · Post by **balma** » Thu Dec 20, 2012 9:53 pm

http://www.vintagesynth.com/misc/edp_wasp.php

WASP synths.... I wonder if there are a fully functional WASP nowadays.

tim gueguen · Post by **tim gueguen** » Thu Dec 20, 2012 10:22 pm

Seem t be more than a few vids on Youtube featuring the Wasp.

Post by **Tiger Jackson** » Fri Dec 21, 2012 2:07 am

Do they still make modular synths these days? Where you connect all the stuff together with wires over the interface.. is there anything in particular special about em?

tim gueguen · Post by **tim gueguen** » Fri Dec 21, 2012 3:43 am

There are lots of modular synth makers these days. There may be more now than there were when ARP and Moog were still making modulars. http://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/

schmidtc · Post by **schmidtc** » Fri Dec 21, 2012 9:59 pm

RawBC wrote:schmidtc, i believe that the picture of that arp technician is john, and he used to have a repair shop in kenmore square in boston. he used to have that exact (actually maybe the original, even;) picture near his bench behind the counter there. i guess he live out in central or western mass somewhere. he's a really interesting guy to talk to and a great technician.

Yep! I started working in kenmore sq after his shop closed, but I wish he was still in the business, and people with his level of electronic insight are hard to find. he's been selling off some really hard to find synth parts over the past few years on ebay.

question is. . . where is that Centaur VI now and why hasn't it surfaced?

splitpoint · Post by **splitpoint** » Tue Dec 25, 2012 12:57 am

So who has a working Passport Sound Chaser? There can't be many of those left.

Post by **rhino** » Tue Dec 25, 2012 3:01 am

The Synergy Support page states that there may be only 100 functional units left. Synergy II+ would only account for a fraction of those.
And by the way: How many intact Arp Avatars are around?

Are there any "extinct" synthesizers?

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