A question for owners or users of the Synthacon.

[Shanesaw]

Short of building a small modular and installing Elby Design's Synthacon filter clone, are there any synths out there that would get me close to the same quarkyness and tone of the real thing? How does the Arp Odyssey compare or does it?

[Synthacon]

The Filter is unique, obviously some of the modular clones are very good indeed, the other thing I loved about the Synthacon was the modulation etc, it really is a deep bit of gear. So a modular with a Synthacon VCF is the best way forward.

[schmidtc]

I'm actually building a Synthacon filter clone this afternoon. The parts for the Yusynth Steiner VCF cost all of a few dollars, and it's a breadboard friendly project. One of the simplest multimode VCFs out there, quite different from any of the filters in the Odyssey, which are also rad.

[slowalan]

I have an Elby Synthacon and I reckon the Doepfer Wasp filter gets pretty close, . However, the Synthacon as reworked by Stone/Elby has incredible resonance which just before it begins to shreik is a "quarky" chunky sort of distorted edge which the Wasp cant cover. It can sound like a Vocoder in this range. I would say the Wasp can do about 70% of the Elby Synthacon . The DIY Synthacon Clone is a tricky beast to set up...sort of a love it or hate it module..I love it because it does unexpected things, especially when you are feeding in different signals. the Wasp cant do this, as it only has one audio input.

[Micke]

I love the sound of the old Steiner Parker synths. I recommend you guys to check out the Apocalypse Now
soundtrack for some great use of the the double-synthacon, synthasystem modular and EVI. Brilliant stuff!

[ndkent]

Remember with the Doepfer Beauty Case you can indeed build a very small modular for not a lot of money.

Doepfer's take on the Synthacon filter is the A-101-1.

I wouldn't myself say the Synthacon filter is very similar to their Wasp based filter ( the A-124) but perhaps the way the poster typically uses it might have a sonic similarity.

[stikygum]

The only other Synthacon filter I know of in Euro format is the Livewire Frequensteiner, but that seems more along the lines of the filter in the Synthasystem. I'm thinking about getting one of these 3 filter clones.

[Shanesaw]

Nice to know there's at least a couple of synthacon filter clones out there. If I ever get around to building up another modular, I'll probably add one of the clones. The thing that I liked the most about the filter is when you crank the resonance up and modulate the filter with VCO 3, you get this amplified formant quality in just a couple of spots when manually sweeping the filter while its being modulated. I think that's how it went....

I love the sound of the old Steiner Parker synths. I recommend you guys to check out the Apocalypse Now
soundtrack for some great use of the the double-synthacon, synthasystem modular and EVI. Brilliant stuff!

Thanks Micke... gotta check that out.

[iProg]

I love the sound of the old Steiner Parker synths. I recommend you guys to check out the Apocalypse Now
soundtrack for some great use of the the double-synthacon, synthasystem modular and EVI. Brilliant stuff!

Best movie ever, best soundtrack ever (probably)

[Micke]

Nice to know there's at least a couple of synthacon filter clones out there. If I ever get around to building up another modular, I'll probably add one of the clones. The thing that I liked the most about the filter is when you crank the resonance up and modulate the filter with VCO 3, you get this amplified formant quality in just a couple of spots when manually sweeping the filter while its being modulated. I think that's how it went....

I love the sound of the old Steiner Parker synths. I recommend you guys to check out the Apocalypse Now
soundtrack for some great use of the the double-synthacon, synthasystem modular and EVI. Brilliant stuff!

Thanks Micke... gotta check that out.

This is my favorite cue from Apocalypse Now, I simply love it:



On this cue Nyle Steiner played a Steiner EVI & Synthasystem modular and Shirley Walker
played a Steiner double synthacon w/custom built vibrato bar and breath interface.

For the string parts, Nyle and Shirley both played many single string tracks which were submixed
so they could play more individual string tracks. The string parts were played through a custom-built
string filer (which Bob Moog had built for Pat Gleeson back in the mid '70s).

Nyle added a key to his EVI that could lower any note by a quarter tone. If you listen closely there's a slow
ascending arpeggio heard in the above cue (between 1:39-1:56) where he uses that key.

[iProg]

Nice to know there's at least a couple of synthacon filter clones out there. If I ever get around to building up another modular, I'll probably add one of the clones. The thing that I liked the most about the filter is when you crank the resonance up and modulate the filter with VCO 3, you get this amplified formant quality in just a couple of spots when manually sweeping the filter while its being modulated. I think that's how it went....

I love the sound of the old Steiner Parker synths. I recommend you guys to check out the Apocalypse Now
soundtrack for some great use of the the double-synthacon, synthasystem modular and EVI. Brilliant stuff!

Thanks Micke... gotta check that out.

This is my favorite cue from Apocalypse Now, I simply love it:



On this cue Nyle Steiner played a Steiner EVI & Synthasystem modular and Shirley Walker
played a Steiner double synthacon w/custom built vibrato bar and breath interface.

For the string parts, Nyle and Shirley both played many single string tracks which were submixed
so they could play more individual string tracks. The string parts were played through a custom-built
string filer (which Bob Moog had built for Pat Gleeson back in the mid '70s).

Nyle added a key to his EVI that could lower any note by a quarter tone. If you listen closely there's a slow
ascending arpeggio heard in the above cue (between 1:39-1:56) where he uses that key.

I remember you told me before but I must have forgotten what synths were used on the cue "Orange Light"
My favorite movie theme ever, and that cue is the climax.

[Micke]

That track was recorded by Bernie Krause using the big Moog at Zoetrope studios*. Nyle Steiner
later overdubbed some parts with his EVI.

* According to Nyle there was definitely a string machine at Bernie's sessions and he was pretty sure
he used it in combination with the Moog to make the string sounds, at least on the "Delta" cue. He couldn't remember
for sure the make but it may have been an Omni or Solina.