Home » Music » Instruments » Keyboard

Vintage Synths - Roland Korg Moog Sequential Circuits Synthesizers

Ranked #597 in Music, #17,504 overall

Vintage Analog Synthesizers

Classic vintage synths from the 1970s and 1980s are known for their warm and other-worldly sounds created with analog circuitry, rows of buttons and sliders, nests of patch cords, blinking lights and wooden side pannels completing their retro sci fi appearance.

Many modern digital synths attempt to emulate vintage synthesizer sounds with microchip powered digital signal processors, complicated mathematical models and cheap plastic cases but just like the relationship of vinyl to cd, nothing compares to the magic of a real analog synth. Rather then crunching numbers into finite units, analog synths create their sound by shaping  electronic waveforms with sold state components like transistors, capacitors and resistors in a continuous signal path.

This lens examines the coolest analog synths, what to look for in buying a vintage analog and the best used synths to watch out for from the most popular analog synthesizer manufacturers such as Roland, Moog and Korg.

Major Manufacturers

The Big 4 of Original Synth Makers

In the early years synthesizers were large expensive beasts created by scientists and hobbyists but as technology and market demand increased companies began to mass produce analog synths that were more accessible for musicians. The first manufacturers to gain widespread distribution were Roland, Korg, Moog and Sequential Circuits. A number of other makers were also producing interesting synths on a smaller scale, there are a number of Russian makes for example.

Roland - Godzilla of Vintage Gear

roland system 700

A Japanese firm formed in 1972 specializing in electronic instruments, components and software, Roland continues to be a major innovator and seller of synths and tech musical instruments today.

Below is a list of the cool analog synths to look for from Roland on the vintage market. Excerpted from Wikipedia. Don't just buy any keyboard because it says Roland and looks old, Roland has produced a huge range of gear including digital pianos and organs that are not going to satisfy an analog tweakers needs and desires!

* 1973 - Roland SH-1000: Claimed by Roland to be Japan's first commercial keyboard synthesizer.
* 1973 - Roland RE-201: The renowned 'Space Echo' machine, one of the most popular tape delay-based echo machines ever produced.
* 1973 - Roland SH-3A: Monophonic synthesizer.
* 1975 - Roland System-100: Roland's first attempt at a modular synthesizer.
* 1976 - Roland System-700: Roland's first professional-quality modular synthesizer, the monster picture above!
* 1978 - Roland CR-78: One of the world's first user programmable drum machine.
* 1978 - Roland Jupiter-4: Roland's first self-contained polyphonic synthesizer.
* 1980 - Roland CR-8000
* 1981 - Roland Jupiter-8: This synthesizer put Roland in the forefront of professional synthesizers. A hugely successful 8-voice programmable analog synthesizer.
* 1981 - Roland TR-808: Among the first and most popular programmable drum machines; its distinctive analog sounds, such as its bass tone kick drum have been behind many a bumpin' hip hop track.
* 1982 - Roland Juno-6: Roland's first synthesizer with digitally-controlled oscillators. (Later released was the Juno-60, a similar model but with the addition of patch memory for storing sounds).
* 1982 - Roland TB-303: Defined the "acid" sound for house music.
* 1983 - Roland JX-3P: First Roland synthesizer to support MIDI.
* 1983 - Roland Jupiter-6: Second Roland synthesizer to support MIDI.
* 1983 - Roland SH-101: Monophonic synthesizer designed to be worn hung around the neck with a strap, with an optional modulation attachment that protruded like the neck of a guitar.
* 1984 - Roland TR-909: An extremely popular drum machine during the early 1990s, the sounds of which (particularly the kick drum and Open Hi-Hat) are still essential components of modern electronic dance music. The first Roland drum machine to use analog sound synthesis combined with digital sample playback.
* 1984 - Roland TR-707 and Roland TR-727: The former was used extensively in the early days of house music and in non-Western pop music around the world to the present day. The latter was used extensively in polyrhythmic non-Western pop music to the present day.
* 1984 - Roland Juno-106: A widely used synthesizer with digitally-controlled oscillators. Same synth engine as the Roland Juno-60 but with the addition of MIDI and the ability to transmit button and slider information through SysEx. Still, no MIDI control of volume in real time.
* 1986 - Roland JX-10: One of Roland's last true analog synths.

Remember to stay away from the digital junk Roland released in the 90s with similar names to their classic gear, an MC-303 is no TB-303!

Buy Vintage Roland

Synths and Drum Machines on eBay Now

Loading

Roland TR-909 T-Shirts

tr909 shirt brownrland tr909 shirts
Roland TR-909 Vintage Drum Machine Shirts
Cool 1980's retro drum machine t-shirts and gifts for DJ's, Producers and Beat Freaks. The Roland TR-909 has provided the thumping foundation to house, electro, techno and many other forms of dance music since it's release in 1984.

Roland Vintage Blogs

Recent Blog Posts

Experts Face off on Strength of Support For Vertebral Augmentation
At one month, patients randomized to the kyphoplasty group (n=65) experienced rapid back relief, with an 8.3-point improvement in back function as measured by the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire versus a mean change of 0.1 points in the control ...
Universal Audio Unveils Apollo High-Resolution Audio Interface with Realtime ...
The culmination of 10 years of analog and digital development, Apollo delivers the sound, feel, and flow of analog recording with all the conveniences of modern digital equipment, including next-generation Thunderbolt technology.
Universal Audio Unveils Apollo Audio Interface With Realtime UAD Processing
Today at Winter NAMM, Universal Audio (UA) announced a brand-new hardware interface product called Apollo which the company considers to be the culmination of 10 years of analog and digital audio development. With Apollo, producers and performers can ...
Will Adam Lambert join Queen?
After the album, "Analog Man," was showcased Walsh got up onstage for a mini live set. He was backed by his six-piece solo band. On two songs, Walsh, 64, was joined by "Analog Man's" producer, former Move, Electric Light Orchestra and Travelling ...
Powered by Google

Korg Classic Analogs

korg ms-20

A highly regarded innovator, Korg has been manufacturing electronic instruments since being founded in Japan in 1962. Korg released its first synth in 1973 - the Mini-Korg, a cute box with some great features and killer Korg filters any MS-20 user will be familiar with.

These notable Korg products from their golden age of analog synths are excerpted from Wikipedia.

* 1973 - Korg Mini-Korg 700
* 1975 - Korg Maxi-Korg 800DV
* 1977 - Korg PS-3100,3200,3300
* 1978 - Korg MS-10/MS-20 - the MS 20 is pictured above, a fun semi-modular with killer filters.
* 1978 - Korg VC-10 Vocoder
* 1979 - Korg m500 Micro Preset
* 1980 - Korg Mono/Poly - my personal facovite, lots of knobs and a unique character.
* 1981 - Korg Polysix
* 1983 - Korg Poly-61: The successor of the Polysix with digitally-controlled analog oscillators; Korg's first "knobless" synthesizer and not as cool because of it.
* 1983 - Korg Poly-800: First fully programmable synthesizer that sold for less than $1000, notable for using digitally-controlled analog oscillators and sharing a single filter for all 8 voices. The PG-800 programmer brings knobs and sliders to this synths lacking interface.

Buy Vintage Korgs

Korg for Sale on eBay

Loading

Korg Synths in Blogs

Recent Updates

WNAMM12: New Colours For Korg SV-1 Stage Vintage Piano
Korg's SV-1 Stage Vintage Piano has been updated with two new colour variations. Each colour option is available for both 88-key and 73-key models. Here's Korg's description of the SV-1... Offering an elegant and understated appearance that is ideal ...
Talkdemonic Wield Self-Destructive Synths and Other Accidental Instruments
Pretty neat. Is it vintage and messed up or is it supposed to be doing that? Yeah. It was built by Korg in 1978 and it's been made famous by other musicians like Daft Punk. Richard James supposedly passed all his beats through it over the years.
iPad FingerLabs DM1 2.0 update live now
18 classic vintage drum kits , 20 Acoustic kits, and a total of 26 in-house produced electronic kits, all the sounds you'll need to make the most intense gallery of sound you've ever conjured up. This 2.0 update will bring you several new features ...
WNAMM12: VOX Unveils New Delay Pedal
Set up for intuitive ease of use, the DelayLab parameters are controlled by five vintage-style knobs. Four footswitches provide access to the presets, and any function can be assigned to an optional expression pedal (such as the Korg EXP-2).
Powered by Google

Moog - Synthesizer Visionary

bob moog synths

While his early musical business venture involved a rather unique controller - the theremin, Dr. Robert Moog next created the first subtractive synthesizer to utilize a keyboard as a controller in 1964. Moog's garage operation soon became a growing company creating some of the most sought after synthesizers of the era. The popularity synths carrying the Moog name has endured and grown to today where the name is synonymous with vintage gold. Swept up with it's enduring popularity, the company has resurrected some of it's classic machines and expanded upon them while retaining their original analog magic.

Following his successful Theremin ventures, Moog began to create modular synthesizers. In 1971 Moog Music began production of the Minimoog Model D which was among the first widely available, portable and relatively affordable synthesizers. Unlike the modular synthesizer, the Minimoog was specifically designed as a self-contained musical instrument for keyboard players that stayed in tune, was portable and didn't require a tangle of patch cords to create a sound. The revolutionary minimoog was the first to really solidify the synthesizer's popular image as a "keyboard" instrument being used by famous musicians such as Sun Ra, Kraftwerk, Jan Hammer and Rick Wakeman. Selling approximately 13,000 units between 1971 and 1982, the Minimoog became the most popular monophonic synthesizer of the seventies.

It's safe to say that pretty much anything with the Moog name on it is going to sound fat, unlike other companies that sold out to digital, Moog has always remained true. Here is a list of cool Moog Products to watch for.

* Moog modular synthesizer (1963-1980)
* Minimoog (1970-1982)
* Moog Satellite (1974-1979)
* Moog Sonic 6 (1974-1979)
* Micromoog (1975-1979)
* Polymoog (1975-1980)
* Minitmoog (1975-1976)
* Moog Taurus (bass pedals)(1976-1983)
* Multimoog (1978-1981)
* Moog Prodigy (1979-1984)
* Moog Liberation (1980)
* Moog Opus-3 (1980)
* Moog Concertmate MG-1 (1981)
* Moog Rogue (1981)
* Moog Source (1981)
* Memorymoog (1982-1985)
* Moogerfooger (1998-present)
* Minimoog Voyager (2002-present)
* Little Phatty (2006-present)

I have included newer gear in this list as it is still using original analog technology as opposed to the digital emulation popular with other manufacturers today. Accept no substitute!

Vintage Moogs on eBay

Loading

Moog Synths in Blogs

Memorial site declared for victims of landslide
By Florence Baesa, Nestor P. Burgos Jr. Officials of Guihulngan City yesterday passed a resolution declaring the landslide area in Sitio (sub-village) Moog in Barangay (village) Planas as a memorial site for residents buried there.
Hospitals, Healthcare Providers to Benefit from New Premier Agreements for ...
... have been awarded to Abbott Nutrition of Columbus, Ohio; CORPAK MedSystems Inc. of Buffalo Grove, Ill.; Covidien of Mansfield, Mass.; Kimberly-Clark Global Sales LLC of Roswell, Ga.; and Moog Inc. Medical Devices Group of Salt Lake City, Utah.
Moog (MOG.A) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.05 EPS
Moog (MOG.A) announced its earnings results on Friday. The company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.05. The company's quarterly revenue was up 8.3% on a year-over-year basis.
Like/dislike: Max Moog, Polar Bear Plunger
So before Saturday's Plunge in Annapolis, we caught up with Hampden resident Max Moog, plunging for the second time. The 30-year-old financial controller and full-time student at the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School, will brave the ...
Powered by Google

Sequential Circuits - California Dreamin'

sequential circuits ad
Sequential circuits was founded in the early 70s in California, a small but influential company whos first products were synthesizer sequencers and programmers rather then actual sound generating devices. All that changed in 1978 when Sequential released the ultra bad ass Prophet-5. This was the first affordable, fully programmable polyphonic analog synthesizer, and became very popular in the early 1980s. In combining full microprocessor control with low-cost synthesizer module chips made by Solid State Music and later Curtis Electromusic, Sequential was able to make a relatively low-cost keyboard with five voices of polyphony. This revolutionary principle of combining five similar analog voices with easy editing and programming in one case became then the standard for a polyphonic instrument, making it possible to play real chords on a synth as e.g. on a piano. With the addition of patch storage, the synthesist was able to cycle through many different (up to one-hundred) sounds in a sitting, without having to re-calibrate the instrument for every switch. These were very unexpected developments in the synthesizer industry, especially from a previously unknown company that operated out of a California garage.

Sequential Circuits

For Sale on eBay Now

Ebay is one of the better places for finding Sequential Circuits gear for sale online. Watch this space for live updates of the latest Sequential Circuits on Ebay.
Loading

Arp Instruments

arp 2600 photo
ARP Instruments, Inc. was an early electronic music company founded by Alan Robert Pearlman, best known for its line of synthesizers that emerged in the early 1970s. ARP closed its doors in 1981 for financial reasons.

Throughout the 1970s, ARP was the main competitor to Moog Music in the field of musically useful synthesizers. There were two main camps - the Minimoog players and the ARP Odyssey / ARP 2600 players - with most proponents dedicated to their choice, although some players chose to pick and chose between the two for specific effect, as well as many who dabbled with products produced by other manufacturers (in a similar manner to the ongoing PC versus Mac debate). The ARP 2500 was featured in the famous movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The ARP technician sent to install the unit, Phil Dodds, was cast as the musician who plays the alien tones on the synthesizer.

The demise of ARP Instruments, Inc. was brought about by the ill-fated decision to invest a significant amount of money in the development of ARP Avatar - a synthesizer module closely resembling ARP Odyssey, but equipped with a guitar pickup and a pitch to voltage converter. Although an excellent instrument by all accounts, the Avatar failed to sell well and ARP Inc was never able to recoup the R&D costs, which resulted in its bankruptcy.

Buy ARP Synths Online

Rare Analog Beauties

The latest listings of Arp analog gear for sale on Ebay.
Loading

Analog Synthesizer Books

Recommended Reads

Interesting books all about vintage analog synthesizers revealing their history, sounds, musicians who used them, impact on music and cool synth photos .
Loading

Killer on the Dancefloor



Roland TR-909 with pink splatter shirts for men and women.
Stickers, hats, mousepads ect also available.

Random Gear Pron

Loading

Visitor Guestbook

Leave your feedback here!



What's your favorite old school synth?

submit
Show All

Analog Synths Blog Buzz

Teenage Engineering Oplab makes music mangling easy
A kit, with the Oplab, three sensors and the ?lab tray? shown at the top is ?400 ($520).In the pipeline is a DIY synth development kit, allowing you to use the Oplab as the core of a retro-style modular analog synth.
Todd Terje Crafts Entire New EP on One Synthesizer
Norwegian disco DJ and producer Todd Terje, whose single 'Ragysh' was among our top electronic songs of 2011, has just released 'It's the Arps,' a four-song EP composed entirely of sounds produced by the ARP2600 analog synth. We talked with Terje about ...
Interview with Composer and Sound Artist Jeffrey Koepper
I am totally inspired to create thick and lush analog synth textures that draw the listener into a new world. The emotional nature of this style is what really attracted me to it early on. There is nothing like diving in to an incredible atmosphere ...
Album Review: Chairlift – Something
Lead single ?Amanaemonesia? is the leanest, meanest song here, with a juggernaut hook and bass bending and popping over analog synth. It evokes a fitness-video backing track and the song's video, featuring an interpretive dance performed by Polachek, ...
Powered by Google

Synthesizer Collectors Central

Visit Synth.cc - The Vintage Synth Resource



Synth.cc is your source for high quality New and Vintage Synth Gear from the top makers. Consult our free buyers guides or browse the live eBay listings to compare prices and equipment features.

by

Timewarp

Creative entrepreneur, graphic designer, web developer, musician and DJ. Check out my graphic t-shirts, Custom Shoes and stylish dog lover gifts from my... more »

Feeling creative? Create a Lens!

Featured Lenses 

Loading

Popular Lenses 

Loading Fetching RSS feed... please stand by

Movers and Shakers 

Loading Fetching RSS feed... please stand by

Related Tags