My beloved 1983 DK Synergy II+ No.01205 at Hideaway Studio reawakens for the first time in quite a while after finally getting around to making some essential repairs.  Every time I get in front of one of these early digital monsters I'm left jaw dropped by how they managed to generate such complex digital synthesis in 16-bit audio with such a remarkable degree of fluidity and expression from a design concept that was on the drawing board in the mid/late 1970s... it's just beyond me. 

The Synergy II+ was essentially a later more affordable Crumar/DK General Development System in terms of function and specification  - both of which share identical 32 Digital High Speed Oscillator boards based on The Alles Machine designed by Hal Alles at Bell Labs who went on to advise the development team at Digital Keyboards.

This isn't the result of some crazy overdubbed multi-track session - it was a live improv recorded into a reverb straight from the now 40 year old beast's output whilst tweaking some of the front panel controls!

Composition & Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2023.

1983 DK Synergy II+: Flux Rheology...

A multi-track recording made whilst testing out  a supremely rare 1985 Mulogix Slave 32 previously revived at Hideaway Studio. The Slave 32 was the rare rackmount version of the Synergy II+ by Digital Keyboards and was the last incarnation of the 1979 Crumar G.D.S. which utilised the identical High Speed Digital OSC pcb assembly. All of the variants featured pure digital synthesis in 16-bit digital audio which was pretty impressive for mid 1970s technology!

Original Composition & Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio 2025.

1985 Mulogix Slave 32: The Perfect Storm...

D.A.Wilson is an Electronic Engineer, Sound Designer & Vintage Synth Specialist with a particular interest in combining vintage tube, classic analog and modern digital technologies working as a synth engineer looking after a very considerable amount of vintage studio equipment for Will Gregory (Goldfrapp / Moog Ensemble) and a number of other internationally celebrated electronic musicians and producers.  Having undertaken several major restorations and produced custom electronic designs for a number of major artists including Jean-Michel Jarre, Dani is also known for fully restoring two out of the world's four remaining 1979 Crumar GDS and partially restoring 1938 Novachord 346 (the only known operational Novachord in the UK) to playable order along with developing and producing the new Elfin family of 8-bit polysynths and the popular MIDI Front Panel Animator (FPA), Filter Defeat Module (FDM) and XD-280 Drive Emulator upgrades for the AKAI S612 sampler.

Demos of the S612 Upgrades in Action: 

https://soundcloud.com/hideaway-studio/sets/hideaway-studios-s612-front


Hideaway Studio Kontakt Sound libraries may be purchased directly from: 
https://www.lootaudio.com/category/kontakt-instruments/hideaway-studios
 

..and a nice introduction by Cory Pelizzari to the Hideaway Studio Kontakt Libraries:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-C7a3ChC9U&feature=emb_title


For more on releases from Hideaway Studio for Kontakt please visit the blog at:  www.hideawaystudio.net

New tracks tagged #Digital Keyboards