Mes vieux synthés

My first madness ! The QSS44 Studio System by Synthesizer.com

This my most recent purchase and it fulfills an old dream of mine for a reasonable cost (well, this is all relative...) As a matter of fact, when I was a student back in the seventees, I was dreaming of those huge modular synths owned by my favourite artists in those days (Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze...). Recently, Klaus Schulze's Moog modular was auctioned on ebay (ebay.de). The starting price was 1 € but the bids quickly rose to eventually exceed 21,100 € (> 28,000 US$) ! Much too expensive for me though... Therefore, when I saw that I could buy myself modern complete analogue modular for a decent price (4789 €, including bank transfer fees, custom taxes, VAT and shipping), I did not hesitate much longer! It is still a nice little dough, but since I have no car and do not smoke I save a lot of money :-) !

Report : unpacking !

The system came in two different parcels for a total weight of 55kg. The small one contained the keyboard while the big one concealed the cabinet, patch cords and a few accessories. All this was thoroughly wrapped in tons of bubble plastic sheets. No way a scratch could occur during the journey from Dallas (Texas) to Grenoble (France), my homecity.

The parcels	Off the box	Stripping her off !
There she is !	Did you say Moog ?	Spagetti...

And now to some sound samples ?

Bass sounds
Chameleon : the bass line of Herbie Hancock's Chameleon, uses the Moog ladder VCF at various resonance settings, what's great with this Q150 filter is the bass compensation at high resonance, it rocks !
Birdland : the bass line of Weather Report's famous Birdland, uses the Moog ladder VCF at various resonance settings
Don't you want me : the first bars of a famous hit of the eighties by Human league, tasty cheasy brass sounds and a lot of punch
Experimental patches
D.J. Reed do play the dijeridoo ! : a patch with weird vocal tones.

Top cabinet : my Synthesizer.com modular is growing !

Yes, since I found that my QSS44 was kind of small...

, I have decided that I needed more modules. Therefore I added two top cabinets. I DIYed the upper cabinet with oak boards that I cut, assembled, dyed , varnished and polished for hours... I am quite satisfied since it looks like the Synthesizers.com 22 space cabinet. The upper cabinet is filled YUSYNTH modules, a Q128 Fixed Filter Bank, and modules from Club of the Knobs.

The manufacturer's web site :

My second and delicious madness : M5 by Macbeth Studio Systems

I have been following the successive developments by the "Analogue Scott" aka Ken Macbeth for some years now. Their features and aesthetics (I am sensitive to this as well !) did catch my attention. By summer 2003, Ken Macbeth announced a new project of a modular analogue synthesizer called M5. The first drawing was that of a 19" rack mount modular with a Moog look. This project gradually evolved until spring 2004 when Ken changed completely his point of view and decided that the M5 be a big sized modular with an obvious ARP2600 look. The choice of slider potentiometers and black and orange colours comforted this resemblance. When at fall 2004 Ken announced the start of a 10 M5 pre-series for a price of UK£1995.00, I decided to take the plunge and ordered one for myself. Then, it has been a long wait (nearly seven months) but I do not regret it. During these months, Ken kept me informed of the progresses on a regular basis.
By the beginning of June, I have received this splendid system and I was really impressed by its huge size. The other surprise was the serial number : YU0004 ! That's right, the serial number is customized to the client's initials !

My first customisation : adding oak cheeck ends

Two oak boards (95cmx40cmx2cm)

click to magnify

The cheek ends cut to size

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The completed cheek ends

The M5 fitted with its new oak cheek ends

click to magnify

And now to some sound samples ?

	Bass sounds
	Chameleon : the bass line of Herbie Hancock's Chameleon, uses the Moog ladder VCF at various resonance settings
	Birdland : the bass line of Weather Report's famous Birdland, uses the Moog ladder VCF at various resonance settings and the M5 internal spring reverb.
	Don't you want me : the first bars of a famous hit of the eighties by Human League, a lot of punch

The manufacturer's web site :

My little studio starts getting interesting, doesn't it ?
(click on the images to magnify them)

I couldn't resist taking a picture of my old US1 modular (the little box on top of the QSS44) that I built circa 1979.	When will it stop growing ? That's what would ask my wife if I was married ! But since I'm not, it will probably never end !



Yes, I have one !	This is a 1973 model, with the old oscillator board, and man, it does sound !
The Yamaha family...	A nice couple, the Minimoog and the Siel Opera 6
Manikin Memotron	Well up to now that's the only digital keyboard allowed in my studio

My new gear