clusterchord's Reviews

magical outworldly hybrid tone. the mythical, ultra rare Wave 2.

Wave 2 is ultra rare, early 80s predecessor of famous Wave 2.2 and 2.3 that came into spotlight with synth pop acts like Ultravox, Depeche and later Propaganda, Aha and many others. its one of the white rhinos of the synth world, with less than 200 made.

while 2.2 and 2.3 sport an SSM2044 filter and somewhat sweeter synth poppy "synthesizer-y" sound, Wave 2 has more clang and raw lofi hybrid tone and sports CEM3320 filter, which imo works much better shaping metallic digital oscillators than 2044 (i have the Wave 2.3 as well).

another crucial difference is, its pitch change algorithm is different from later PPGs. they sport phase accumulator technique, whereas Wave 2 has divide-by-n and as such has virtually no aliasing. all the dirt up there is harmonically related to the fundamental pitch. therefore instead of glassy aliased top end of 2.2/2.3 it has pure top, with waves sounding as it you replayed them on magnetic tape with higher speed, so to speak.

its magical sound graced the monumenthal, seminal electronic album from Tangerine Dream, Exit (1981), with skewed female vox leads, bells, strange jazz guitar leads, vibes etc. you can also hear it on canadian progrockers second album, Saga: Worlds Apart (1981) and Depeche Mode's Broken Frame (1982).

i have searched for this machine for more than 25 years and it will probably be burried with me ;)

vintage lofi dynacord reverb - krautrock and 70s psyhedelia in-a-box

vintage lofi dynacord reverb - krautrock and 70s psyhedelia in-a-box

lofi, unrealistic, dirty. but works so well with mellotrons, pads, effects if you are going for mid 70s tangerine dream sound. obvious bath of distant reverb, coming from distant worlds, but in old seventies manner, not the modern, dark scifi worlds portrayed by eventide pitch shifted reverbs, for example.

basically it sounds like crap many times, but then when does work, nothing else does. when it sits with the source, it tells a story like no other reverb can.

one of the best graded hammer studiologic put out. software and editing is utter crap tho.

best graded hammer studiologic put out prior to top of the range Numas. software and editing is utter crap tho. sustain pedal input spits out all sort of midi messages instead of just 0 and 127 for on/off. reading about it it seems its buggy.

do not attempt to drive it via USB power. its flakey as hell. just regular power and via din midi. modulation wheel similarly spits out garbage data. i just use one of the sliders set to midi cc 1.

i bought it bcs of two reasons:

1. it was being discontinued and dead cheap
2. its one of the if not the best graded hammer actions i ever played. compared nords, kurzweils, korgs and some lesser studiologics. all pale in comparison. only the most expensive Numa was comparable. have not compared with Kawai VPC, but this was like four times cheaper. no brainer.

seems they manage to screw up just about everything on this board, except the keybed action.

Studer 6ch Balancing unit / line driver (+34dB) and 6ch Debalancing unit

Studer 6ch Balancing unit / line driver (+34dB) and 6ch Debalancing unit.

to lift your synth, drum machine, -10dBV consumer prosumer signals to balanced pro level +4dBU. via 5534 Opamp and input and output Studer transformers. wonderful sound. not overly colour, not anemic and weak.

other six channels go other way: bring any +4dBU balanced signal from your DAW, or your digital and high end processing equipment to your regular unbalanced and vintage effects like mxr racks, space echos etc.

the gain control is set via screw for all 12ch. hidden behind the front panel.

wonderful vintage Eminent triple BBD line ensemble circuit with flexible controls.

a Spanish company got hold of stash of original BBDs from early 70s Eminent machines like Solina and 310U (think Jarre Oxygene), copied the original circuit, yet brought out the controls for both lfos and all three BBD delay lines upfront, added CV control and EQ controls for all three, to achieve darker tones like Crumar or Yamahas. true stereo as bbd lines are positioned left, right and center.

so its at the same time the most syrupy vintage string machine ensemble, whether you want silky Solina sweeps or chewy Crumar tones, the Landau trichorus, classic single lfo boss chorus, post punk bi-chorusing a la early/mid 80s Ibanez. you name it.

only caveat: its meant to work with guitar levels not synths, so either some attenuation or a reamp box in front is helpful. i've just used attenuation with no problems or loss of tone. synth is not a passive pickup source like telecaster, so lowering the level does not load down the elkorus input one bit.

imo it belongs to the echelon of greatest analog effects ever made.

most organic polyphonic analog i ever played. magical tone.

most organic polyphonic analog i have ever played. syrupy SSM2040 filter. warm, micro-stochastic sound that is never static. one could make a whole album just with that one board.

downside is: unless you have a competent technician, its a maintenance nightmare. mine has spent more time on the bench than being played, due to second rate technicians. luckily, after it went to Steffan Huebner in Hamburg, it works perfect. also had Kenton Midi installed. its been stable for past three years, knock on wood.

famous albums where it was prominently used: Tangerine Dream: Tangram (1980) & Exit (1981), Peter Gabriel III (1980), Phil Collins: Face Value (1981), Genesis: Duke (1979-1980, Japan: Gentlemen Take Polaroids (Riuchi Sakamoto's unit).

perhaps my favorite polyanalog of them all. majestic tone. phenomenal user interface.

perhaps my favorite polyanalog of them all. majestic tone. phenomenal user interface. while flexible it has insane sweet spot. its impossible to make it sound bad.

My favorite of the early 80s CEM-based polyphonics. majestic tone with angry attitude.

Best of the early 80s, Curtis chip -based polyphonics i.e. utlizing the famous 33x0 serie chips.

love using it for sizzley buzzy cem pads/strings, voxy high resonance dark pads. it limited but sounds bigger than life. 12dB filter is its characteristic trademark tone. 24dB setting is not bad but i don't use it as often.