Sequential's MultiTrak had everything - for its time - and to this day, it still sounds great! During the era of the Roland Juno synths, Sequential overhauled their programmable little SixTrak analog sequencer synthesizer and came up with the MultiTrak. It's a six voice analog synth with sophisticated filters, envelopes, modulation capabilities and built-in sequencing.

As was the developing trend around this time in the mid-eighties, programming was being streamlined into using the buttons on the matrix keypad to assign parameters to a rotary knob. (The only dedicated knobs are for sequencer volume and speed, chorus depth and rate, master tune and volume.) There are 99 memory patches for your analog sound creations. It also features a nice arpeggiator with hold and transpose functions. But lying at its heart is a sophisticated (for 1985) onboard sequencer. It could store up to four polyphonic sequences with a metronome, 1600 note memory, an overdubbing mode and quantizing (autocorrect) functions, individual track volume and speed controls. Sequences could be chained together and patches could be changed on the fly. Sequences are recorded in real-time (no step-time modes here).

Additional features include MIDI in/out, six separate audio ouptuts (one for each voice) and a stereo output, built-in stereo chorus effect and a 5-octave keyboard with velocity sensitivity and split/layer modes (layer up to six different patch sounds onto one note). With an original list price of about $1,500, these days they can be found closer to $300 - a great bargain for classic Sequential sounds with onboard sequencing and patch memory.

8 VISITOR COMMENTS

thesciman

November 11, 2010 @ 9:26 am

To be more specific :
-there is an adsr for the pitch control of the vcos. as a fact this are all seperate adsrs they all come a bit later if you dont press the keys simutaenously.

-the filter can be modulated by the oscilator and noise-source

-the amount of lfo can be controlled by velocity from a value from 1-15

---
important note for people who may not know and own this synth :
you can tune the synth by pressing down Programrec + Parameter 6

This synth is amazing. If you can choose between a juno 106 and this one i personally would prefer this one above the juno 106 (not looking at the ease of programming a 106) for its sound. We had enough rolandsynths in the last decades of electronic music, let's cultivate the Sci's ! :-)

Tebbes

October 11, 2010 @ 1:43 pm

I recently bought a Multi-Trak in great shape, and I must say I'm impressed! It produces a fat, rich, organic sound, and when you stack those you can get quite freaky!!

I ordered the original factory presets and alternative sounds on cassette at winecountry along with a manual and midi guide, so I'm good to go!

BobthePlanet

September 15, 2009 @ 9:23 pm

I have owned a Multitrak since 1985 and it has always been one of my favorites - alongside my SCI Pro One. One of the features that is rarely mentioned is the ability to do additive synthesis in addition to the more common subtractive. This is easily accomplished with its "Stack" feature, which is not simply a detuned "Unison" mode as is usually found on these older synths. Any or all of the six voices in the stack can be the same or different patches. Conceivably, you could create 6 wave patches representing the harmonics of a particular timbre and add them together. However, this leaves you in monophonic land as you truly only have 6 voices to play with. [cont.]

BobthePlanet

September 15, 2009 @ 9:22 pm

But you can create complex waveforms with 2 or 3 voices where each has its own envelope for the VCO, VCF, and VCA along with all the other parameters available. This will allow chord or duotone fingering. Stacking percussive bells can give excellent approximations of vibraphones or glockenspiels. Stacking different horn sounds gives a powerful brass ensemble. If only there were more voices available this would have had an unbeatable analog sound. The only other shortcoming I feel it has is the "softness" of the sound. Sometimes it seems like the MultiTrak is too mellow - but that's analog for you.

BobthePlanet

September 15, 2009 @ 9:21 pm

I have owned a Multitrak since 1985 and it has always been one of my favorites - alongside my SCI Pro One. One of the features that is rarely mentioned is the ability to do additive synthesis in addition to the more common subtractive. This is easily accomplished with its "Stack" feature, which is not simply a detuned "Unison" mode as is usually found on these older synths. Any or all of the six voices in the stack can be the same or different patches. Conceivably, you could create 6 wave patches representing the harmonics of a particular timbre and add them together. However, this leaves you in monophonic land as you truly only have 6 voices to play with. [cont.]

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