MT's exclusive guide to every analogue synth made. Included are keyboards, expanders/sound modules and the better known electronic pianos and organs. Not included are drum machines, standalone sequencers and effects units, vocoders and those guitar/wind synths which aren't regularly used as expanders in their own right.

Readers are invited to submit details of little-known instruments which may be of use in compiling the series and also to point out any mistakes and/or omissions if these occur. All contributions will be fully credited. Compiled by Peter Forrest.

C

Crumar continued

• ROADRACER

Velocity-sensitive, 61-note electronic piano. 1978 - c. 1982 Original price: £375
Target price: £40

• Three piano presets plus bass.
• Pitch control, vibrato speed and depth on front panel, underneath keys.
• Hawaiian guitar effects with pitch slider.
• Chorus effects.

• ROADRUNNER I, II & III

61-note electronic pianos. 1977 - c.1983
Original price: c.£299
Target price: £30
Users include: Billy Preston, Mickey Virtue (UB40), Edgar Winter.

• Original Roadrunner identical to Roadracer with the exception of touch sensitivity.
• Roadrunner II featured re-designed panel, still three piano (normal, honky tonk, clavicord) and one bass sound plus variable speed chorus.
• Roadrunner III featured different piano sounds - mellow, bright, and harps plus variable speed phaser.

• ROADY

61-note electronic piano. 1979 - 1982
Original price: £349
Target price: £30 - £60

• Three piano sounds (including fairish Rhodes and harpsichord impersonations), vibes, bass, mixable and splittable (bass over bottom two octaves).
• Three separate outs.
• lightweight for easy portability. (Hence the name?)

• SPIRIT

37-note, 2-VCO monosynth with arpeggiator. Designed by one Robert Moog. 1983 - c.1986
Original price: £450
Target price: £100 - £150

• One of the last monosynths ever to go into production.
• Interesting but complicated and disorganised front panel, including ring mod, loads of LFO modulation possibilities, sample and hold, the arpeggiator, inversion of the ADSR envelope.
• Filters possibly strongest point - switchable 12dB/24dB, high-pass, low-pass, and bandpass plus overdrive control to help it sound like a Moog.
• Idiosyncratic terminology - shaper Y, red noise, etc.
• Three modulation wheels.
• Only one octave switch for both oscillators; but intervals may be set
• Oscillator sync available as well.

• STRATUS

49-note string/brass/organ synthesiser. 1982 -1984
Original price: £499
Target price: £60 - £90

• Slimmed down brother of the Trilogy.
• Strings, poly/brass and organ mixable.
• Single and multiple triggering switchable.
• Two independent oscillators. Invertable envelopes. Joystick modulation control.
• More 'synth' control than on previous multi-instrument keyboards.

• STRINGMAN

61-note string synthesiser, c.1974 - c.1979
Original price: £406
Target price: £50
Users include: Keith Emerson

• Violin, cello, contrabass imitations - contrabass on bottom 17 notes.
• Vibrato amount and delay, chorus, 3-band EQ - mellow, medium, bright
• Variable sustain and separate bass volume level.

• SYNTHEPHONE

37-note monosynth with breath control. 1982 - c.1984
Original price: £179
Target price: £125

• Controls on front edge, under keys.
• Breath controller has good expressive potential.

• T3

Two manual, 2 x 49-note organ with pedal board, c.1981
Original price: £1630
Target price: £140

• Shorter keyboards than Organizer T2, but, surprisingly, more expensive.

• TOCCATA

49-note electronic organ, c.1981
Original price: £329
Target price: £50

• Eight presets to imitate the "eight most common" drawbar configurations.
• 4' and 2' percussion (variable volume) and key-click (single or multiple trigger).
• Two-speed Leslie imitations, including speed-up/slow-down.

• TRILOGY

49-note poly/string/organ synth. 1981 - c. 1983
Original price: £799
Target price: £90 - £120

• Unusual layout of controls - ADSR is down at left side of keyboard.
• Organ controls: four horizontal footage sliders, top left of panel.
• String controls: 8', 16' mixable, attack and release, tone.
• Decent sounds, including seven presets.
• Limited choice of waveforms - both oscillators the same - sawtooth, square, or mix.
• Joystick control: up/down for modulation, left-right for pitch-bend.
• Good, comprehensive LFO routing and control.
• ADSR invertable.

D

DGS

• SPIDER

37-note, 3-VCO monophonic synthesiser made in Holland, c.1982

• Sharply-angled rear panel like Minimoog.
• Good interface patchbay on top edge of panel.
• All white.

Davis

• CLAVITAR

Remote guitar-shaped 37-note keyboard for controlling monophonic synthesisers.
Users include: George Duke, Herbie Hancock, Patrick Moraz

Davoli

• DAVOLISINT

Users include: Sweet

• DAVOLISINT B

c.1975
Original price: £232.

• Improved version of Davolisint, with "far more features, only slightly increased price".

• SINTACORD

c.1975
Original price: £280

• SINTORCHESTRA

Dewtron

• GIPSY

37-note, 2-VCO monophonic synth. c.1973
Original price: £468
Target price: £40 - £180

• Vernier knobs for pitch, as in VCS3.
• Mahogany case with telescopic legs.
• Each oscillator has mixable sine, triangle and square waves.
• Separate LFO, with variable depth and speed; portamento; spring reverb; ring modulator.
• Only single AD envelope, routed to filter, VCA or VCO; very basic filter.
• Claimed to be touch-sensitive, but note the small print: "...by careful setting of attack and decay times so that light-touch playing results in sensitive sounds, and heavy playing gives bold, rich sounds".

• MISTER BASSMAN

13-note pedal board, c.1969
Original price: £27.30

• Two tones: string/organ.

• VC

Audio module kits
Users include: Cabaret Voltaire

Digisound

• MOD 80

Modular kit system.
Original price (eg, Voice Card): £112
Target price: £50 - £80
Users include: The Orb, Wavestar

• Kit built - thus very variable quality control on finished products, but easily repairable.
• Complex modular system with tremendous control possibilities.
• 9" x 3" modules include: VCO and VCLFO (13 in/out sockets each); Dual Envelope Generator - two ADSRs with gate, trigger and manual override; Dual Resonant Filter for elaborate and powerful band-pass filtering; Low and High VCFs; Dual VCA with 14 in/outs, and a lag processor/attenuator module (something often left out of more famous and expensive modular systems).
• 9" x 9" modules include: complete 2-VCO Voice Card using Curtis chips.
• Uses mini-jack patch leads, with no need for screened cable.
• Easily interfaced with 1-volt/octave equipment, MIDI/CV convertors, etc.

Dubreq

• STYLOPHONE

Miniature, stylus-controlled monophonic 20-note instrument c.1968.
Original price: Unknown
Target price: £10 - £25
Users include: Rolf Harris, The Herd, Rick Wakeman (David Bowie: 'Space Oddity').

• Rolf Harris used his on his television programme, subsequently endorsed it, and produced a demo record that was sold with it
• It even made it to the Frankfurt Spring Fair 1969, where the makers were promising that treble and bass versions would be forthcoming.
• Organ tone, with or without vibrato.
• Built-in two-inch (5cm) speaker, and mini-jack output to external amp.
• Distinctive, particularly in the glitches between notes as the stylus goes from one segment of the keyboard to the next
• Glissandi a speciality.

• STYLOPHONE 350S

Deluxe model with two styli. c.1974
Original price: £49
Target price: £20 - £40
Users include: Rod Argent

• Three presets, vibrato and decay
• Second stylus (used on left side panel of instrument) acts as modulator/re-iterator.
• Presets switchable to 2', 4', 8' or 16'.
• Much bigger (7" elliptical) built-in speaker.