Old School Sounds on the Steelphon S900 And Mellotron M400

A repair shop in the Cincinnati area, Foleytronics, shared this Berlin School style synth jam, featuring the rare Steelphon S900 synthesizer and a Mellotron M400 tape playback keyboard.

What they say about the gear:

 

“This is a demo of Tom’s Steelphon that got whooped by UPS – broken circuit boards, broken MDF case, no output. We took the case to be reproduced by Kent Meloy of Tunguska Guitars and in the meantime went to town on the electronics. There isn’t a schematic available anywhere, but after getting the rails back and the keyboard CV working, there was still no output. I isolated it to the filter board and realized the VCF is a Moog copy, component-for-component, so I used a Minimoog schematic to help troubleshoot the problem.

The Mellotron is mine and has undergone quite a bit of work. New pinch rollers, new motor control board, rebuilt the PSU, and fabbed a new key as one was missing.”

 

 

 

The Farfisa Super Synthaccordion is A Rare, ‘Crazy Beast’

An in-depth look at Farfisa Super Synthaccordion, Farfisa’s most advanced Combo Organ/Accordion ever built.

In this video Keegan “Krazy Keegan” Meuris – the Combo Organ Tech at Chicago Electric Piano – demonstrates Farfisa’s most advanced Combo Organ/Accordion ever built, the Farfisa Super Synthaccordion.

Meuris offers a comprehensive overview of the Super Synthaccordion, including features, history and audio demos.

Watch the video and share your thoughts on it in the comments!

 

Jean-Michel Jarre announces Free Live Concert with Brian May at Starmus Festival, ‘Bridge from the Future’

 

 

Jean-Michel Jarre has announced an exceptional one-off live concert, Bridge from the Future, which will be held the opening event of this year’s STARMUS Festival.

Jarre will perform live at Incheba Bratislava, Slovakia on May 12 – against the stunning backdrop of the SNP (UFO) Bridge. He will be joined on stage by special guest Sir Brian May.

The concert is being organized in cooperation with the City of Bratislava and will be free to attend. It will also be televised on Slovakian National RTVS, globally via the EBU network and live-streamed on Jean-Michel Jarre’s YouTube channel.

Bridge from the Future, specially conceived for the occasion by Jarre, will inaugurate the seventh edition of STARMUS Festival, a global gathering uniting science, art, and music.

This year, the theme of the event is ‘STARMUS Earth: the future of our home planet’. The vent will feature Nobel laureates, distinguished scientists and researchers, astronauts, artists and others at an event designed to address “profound and urgent existential questions”.

Starmus was founded by astrophysicist Garik Israelian, PhD, and Queen guitarist and PhD in astrophysics Sir Brian May, under the auspices of the late Stephen Hawking.

The goal of the event is to inspire the next generation of explorers and regenerate the spirit of discovery, engaging humanity with the biggest issues of our time.

With Bridge from the Future, Jarre will be joined by Sir Brian May, who is not only a founding member of Queen, and a world-renowned guitarist, songwriter and producer, but also a Doctor of Astrophysics. He joins Jarre on stage not only as a legendary musician, but also as a founding partner of STARMUS.

“As we continue to learn from the past, we should today listen to the future, being receptive and attentive to the incoming signals,” says Jarre. “Breakthroughs, discoveries, and solutions, in all fields exist already there ahead, in the future, waiting for us to find them. It is our vocation as artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, and citizens, to engage and activate progress, in creating a bridge from the future: this is the spirit of STARMUS.”

“We’re thrilled that STARMUS VII will kick off with such a unique and spectacular show,” says May. “And in this concert, Jean-Michel Jarre will set the tone for the spirit of this conference, specifically aimed towards addressing our planet’s current problems.”

The Bridge from the Future Live Concert takes place at Incheba, Bratislava on May 12. It is free to attend and will be streamed via the Internet.

STARMUS Earth Festival runs from 13-17 May in venues throughout the city, tickets are available now.