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 latest synth jam from synthesist Karol Pokojowczyk (Caught in Joy) is a live performance inspired by the classic sounds of Tangerine Dream.
While the arrangement gives a nod to Tangerine Dream’s Steve Reich-inspired soundtrack for the film Risky Business, listeners may also hear echoes of the ’70s Philip Glass piece, North Star.
Karol Pokojowczyk shared about the technical details:
“Played and performed live with my favorite synthesizers, where I delved deeper into the organic sounds of the Moog One, reunited with my trusty friend, the Jupiter, and experimented with some newfound techniques.
Hope you dig this glimpse into my musical escapades!”
Kansas City-based jazz trumpeter Alber (Alberto Racanati) shared this video, capturing a 12/6/2023 live performance at Charlotte Street Foundation Studios.
Racanati has been combining trumpet with synths since 2017. His video captures him performing five tracks, arranged for trumpet and a combination of Roland & Elektron gear. He didn’t share technical details, but it looks like his rig features an Elektron Digitakt, Roland SH-4D & SP-404. He’s accompanied by video art & production by Freq.Speak.
