Vintage Synth Explorer

Actually I agree with Felip and Vudu12 - this is a steal if you can pick one up for cheap. Stuff you have control over: //
* Oct down, 2 oct down
* Resonance (slider)
* Cutoff frequency (slider)
* LFO rate and depth (sliders)
* LFO sine/square
* Route LFO to VCO pitch (on square at 100% depth it jumps octaves)
* Route LFO to VCA
* Portamento (slider)
* Portamento on/off
* Add sustain to the VCA (switch)
* The 'presets' give you actually quite usable combinations of VCA env, VCF env, VCF bp/lp, and VCF res/cutoff settings - instead of messing with the ADSR to get those settings you use all the time, you just flip a switch. //
If you spend a bit of time learning how to get the best out of this little guy, you have basically got yourself a ruling little single-VCO Moog! If you have some guitar effects to run it thru, you'll find some extremely evil noises ;-) //

I used one of these for several years in the 70's. It worked very well for me - I couldn't afford an Arp or Mini, and this little guy did the job. It was based on organ technology, for sure, but it had a surprising amount of flexibility, and I used it to good effect. I'd love to have one now! I think you're being too critical. For the money, it did a lot.

I got one a year ago and have used it tons, I find it great for bass despite other comments I have seen on it. I've used it for bass on about 15 tracks already. Its my $100 1974 moog sound bass machine, haven't used it for much else. Looks all beat up but cheaper than a mini!

I owned one of these back in the 70's, and only threw it away a few years ago. It had a great sound for a preset, but was notoriously unreliable, even though I only ever used it in a home studio. It used the same key contacts as my Thomas organ and I bought it from a Thomas dealership - I am pretty sure they manufactured them under licence from Moog. The key contact was made by a light wire for each key hitting a metal rail and therby completing the circuit. The slighest bit of dirt between the two and no sound! For those who have this problem, try pulling it apart and using a soft pencil eraser to clean the contacts. Strangely, I rarely had the same problem with the organ, even though it used the same method.