Orgue Electronique

Work that ... Very distinct sound and rather unreliable but that makes it so great. Stay away from programming cliché rhythms on this one, it's a weird machine so better use it for weird drumtracks.

Forget about the 909. The Roland TR707 and 727 are the ultimate Chicago House drum machines. 64 patterns, 998 bars, step edit whilst you play the sequence, a nice big display that shows you the entire pattern in one single view (note: it is a shame it has no backlight), trigger output, din-sync in/out, midi (-sync) in and out, shuffle and flam... All in all, more than enough to satisfy your drum-sequencing needs. The 707’s 15 drum sounds are too cool to ignore. Nice and punchy bassdrums and snaredrums and a set of gritty hi-hats, funky rides and ear crushing crash cymbals… The samples in this budget machine rock beyond believe. Add the 727 to your 707 and you’ll be jacking it latino style like Mario ‘Smoking’ Diaz or playing it as smooth as Mr. Fingers with 15 more percussion sounds. Better get a big mixer if you are one of those control freaks; almost every sound has it’s own individual output… But then again… why bother? The volume sliders for each sound give you enough control, so you might as well use the stereo output. But hey, at least you have a choice!

Forget about the 909. The Roland TR707 and 727 are the ultimate Chicago House drum machines. 64 patterns, 998 bars, step edit whilst you play the sequence, a nice big display that shows you the entire pattern in one single view (note: it is a shame it has no backlight), trigger output, din-sync in/out, midi (-sync) in and out, shuffle and flam... All in all, more than enough to satisfy your drum-sequencing needs. The 707’s 15 drum sounds are too cool to ignore. Nice and punchy bassdrums and snaredrums and a set of gritty hi-hats, funky rides and ear crushing crash cymbals… The samples in this budget machine rock beyond believe. Add the 727 to your 707 and you’ll be jacking it latino style like Mario ‘Smoking’ Diaz or playing it as smooth as Mr. Fingers with 15 more percussion sounds. Better get a big mixer if you are one of those control freaks; almost every sound has it’s own individual output… But then again… why bother? The volume sliders for each sound give you enough control, so you might as well use the stereo output. But hey, atleast you have a choice!

The little machine that you will instantly recognize in a lot of them Dance Mania records. A Roger Linn design that will take you to ghetto paradise.

Wie die DR660 aber anders.

No quote or explanation available yet.

No quote or explanation available yet.

No quote or explanation available yet.

At start it's a bit hard to grasp all it's functions, but once you get into this machine it will prove to be a very good live sequencer. It has pretty bad but fun internal sounds and a quite good sampler, which are nice bonuses. The biggest benefit of this machine is without a single doubt it's very versatile and hands on sequencer. Of course it has it's quirks, but non of them are bad enough to not even consider this as a replacement for your laptop running Ableton.

The D&R Dayner, the latest acquisition of the Sternstudio's, is a modular mixer build and designed in Holland in the late 80's till early 90's. The D&R Dayner came in five 'chassis frames' sizes, holding either 21, 31 42, 59 or 84 modules (and you could choose between either a desktop frame or a 'studio' frame). There were 4 different types of modules to choose from: line channel, split channel, a patchbay and a tape return module with 4 tape returns, and ofcourse you had the extensive master module with 8 aux sends (which takes the room of 3 modules and can be placed anywhere in the frame). The most beautiful feature of this (and some other-) D&R's is the 'floating subgroup' system, which allows you to have the 8 subgroups where you want them instead of on a fixed place on the board, and it also allows you to have as many summed outputs as you need, limited only by the number of input modules in your frame. There where two types of channel modules. A line module with line input, mic input, channel insert, group insert and tape send, effectively 5 aux sends (where aux 3,4, 5 are switchable to aux 6,7,8), phase, phantom, six segment LED bar, a semi paramteric EQ, ALP fader and the floating subgroup system. The other type of module was the split module, which could be split into 2, allowing you to have equalization on both inputs, on the same channel, at the same time. During it's lifespan, D&R revised the Dayner atleast once. Old modules have the old square looking DR logo (without the & ), newer modules have a new logo (with the & imposed on the D and the R).

The mixer is extremely quiet. In comparence to my old D&R 900, the Dayner isn't noisy at all and has lots of headroom. It's not as woolly sounding, more transparent, but still with a certain character. Perhaps it won't do much good in a modern pro-studio, but considering todays prices, I think the Dayner is definitely favourable above the typical home stiudio mxers such as Behringers and Mackies.

If you want to buy one, there's some things you should know. If you encounter one with humming or a crackling sound, either the ribbon cables that connect the different modules are screwed up, or there's something wrong with the PSU (the 59 and 84 chassis systems require two PSU's). As far as I can tell there is no audible difference between the old line modules wit the old logo and the revised ones, nor is there a difference between the build of these line modules, except in the ribbon cables. Still it is advisable to find the newer modules with the new logo rather then the old ones. Even if there's no technical difference at all (which I'm not sure of), there is still the difference in age. Speaking of age: if you buy one, always consider the fact that is an old console; there's always something that should be replaced or cleaned and redoing the solder joints is something you'll do often and a lot of parts like pots are obsolete. If you don't want to spend some time with a soldering iron once in a while, better search for something new.

• In essence, this is simply a different looking Teac X10m. Except for the looks there's only one major difference: this Tascam can only record at 7,5 ips and 15 ips, which makes it more suitable for the studio than the X10m. You can find this recorder labeled as the Tascam 32-2 as well, cause apparently Teac didn't change it's studio brandname into Tascam for all markets. There was also the Teac Tascam Series 32-2B, which isn't much different from the 32-2 except for it's layout, and it has record mode buttons for the left channel and right channel rather then just one record mode button for both channels. A 7" reel version was also build, called the 22-2. Don't confuse any of these with the Tascam 32 and 32B, those are different recorders alltogether (first thing that you can notice from a mile away is that the Tascam 32 has only one pinchroller). And to make matters even more confusing: the Tascam 32 was sold as the Teac Tascam Series 33-2...

• Again, a semi pro recorder based on a consumer model. But unlike the Teac where the difference in speed is really makes a sonic difference, the PR99 is not much different to the 2 Track High Speed B77 (B77HS). If Teac Tascam made things confusing, Revox made things incomprehensible. Of the B77 more than 60 versions where available for a wide range of purposes. The PR99mkIII was focused on the semi pro market and was mostly used for broadcasting and editing, as the tape is much easier to reach than on the regular B77. It has balanced connectors and (except for the MKI model) the PR99 has a more sophisticated transport controls with for instance loop function, location memory / zero return and tape dump. Apperently in the early 1990s the PR99 has been available as the Studer PR99. That's not completely surprising, as the mkIII version followed the mkII only to fit the looks of the new Studer line (A810, A820, etc) together with the then newly introduced Revox C270 series.

HR-16 can be seen on the left.

Telefunken M15a is installed in this video, at the left. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EpE3DaObI4

Tascam M-3700 is standing in the back of the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EpE3DaObI4

MPC1000 can be seen in his video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiC0DQplHrU

Kawai K1 is spotted in the rack as the camera pans.

The SG01v is spotted in the rack. Below the S2000 at 5 seconds.

The D-station is spotted in the rack, at 5 seconds in this video.

Sequential Circuits Drumtracks is in the 2nd second of this video form his FB page.

No quote or explanation available.

Cirklon is used in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_AV8x7YAwU

No quote or explanation available.

Airbase99 in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiC0DQplHrU

• An interesting 2 VCO synthesizer, very versatile but especially great for 8 bit sounding patches. Akai originally intended it to compete with the Juno 106, but I feel it’s far better then just a Juno clone, and it sounds rather different. Fun addition is that it has a filter input, originally designed to use with older akai samplers, making use of a 16(?) pin DIN cable. It comes with a far better interface than the AX-73, but it does make me rather curious of the AX-80. So erm... if you are selling one, you do know where to find me! Edit: my dear friend Legowelt knew where to find me and is sold me his!

I don't think I will reach the point where I'll say I like it better than the AX60. They're different. The AX80 sounds richer but the AX60 is a better overall synth. Especially in the lower tone regions the AX80 has a lot more character, but when you move up it doesn't stay as strong, whilst the AX60 keeps a lot of it's strength in all regions, but can't compete on the lower range. The interface is different from the slider-interface of the AX60, but it is actually almost as easy to use. Instead of a slider for each function, the AX80 has a pushbutton for each function: push the button and control the parameter with the data wheel. It really does feel like a analog interface, unlike for instance the Roland JX-8P.

The CZ101 is probably the best known and most appreciated synth in the CZ series by connoisseurs. She’s the little sister of the CZ1000 (which is exactly the same, only bigger) and was designed to compete with the Yamaha DX series, but even within the CZ series she has her own unique charm. Her exotic synthesis was named ‘Phase Distortion’ by those geniuses of anything miniature at Casio, and is not much unlike FM synthesis: where FM alters the Frequency Modulation, Phase Distortion alters the phase (shape) of the waveform. It uses six 8-stage envelopes, three for each of the two oscs: one for the DCO (pitch envelope), a DCW envelope which is comparable with a filter envelope and is responsible for the sound, and an 8 stage DCA envelope, where A stands for Amplifier. Further more she offers a maximum of 8 voice polyphony (or 4 if you use both oscs), it has limited modulation (only Vibrato can be programmed) and there’s no mod wheel. She does have a very nice portamento and she even has noise and / or ring modulation, which is best used to create her infamous metallic sounds. The sound is good and has a distinctive edge, you might recognize it in some of the early detroit techno and chicago house records, as wel as in mid 80’s synthpop. Playing around with the two oscs and their several envelopes will get you quite amazing sounds, sounds that are hard to recreate on your average subtractive synthesizer, digital or analogue. Ofcourse she does sound digital and perhaps even slightly thin or metallic compared to the analogue synths you might wanna try to emulate, but that’s exactly the lovely charm of the CZ101. So, if you get hooked to the CZ101, you will be very happy to know she is 4 parts multi-timbral! Sound-wise, the comparison with FM synthesizers is easily made, and although the Yamaha DX and Casio CZ series were competitors in the mid 80s affordable-digital-synth race (Casio lost) they really do complement each other.