THE ONLY DIY POLY SYNTH KIT OF THE 80's - POWERTRAN TRANSCENDENT POLYSYNTH

[@SamHallas1949]

A fantastic fix, Sam. I'm glad I was able to pass it onto someone who cared enough to make it live again.

[@cunnyfunt30]

Its great to see it working again and plus it's going to be on show in the museum. It was very kind of you to donate the synth too.

[@willynebula6193]

Two sam's make it right.

[@Apg002]

It went to a good home. Thanks for your generosity.

[@Laughadaffadil]

sam = W

[@foodstampz]

Thanks Sam

[@rbrooks2007]

I met Dr. Peter Zinovieff at Putney Bridge Road and he didn't mind people making copies of their synths, as he joked "so long as you don't make more of them than me." They sent me copies of the circuit diagrams for the EMS products back in the early 70s.

[@KyleApparently]

Absolute love that you save bits of history like this! After the amount of times I've heard of synths being found at colleges/unis I'm about to go burst into my local school, grab one, and run away screaming "IT BELONGS IN A MUSEUM!"

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

Yeah we gotta raid all the cupboards!!!!

[@Nishijin75]

If only someone would create a museum for old synths... That would be quite a dandy idea !

[@TorutheRedFox]

@@Nishijin75 and make them playable (even if supervised to not have careless kids break them)

[@Nishijin75]

@@TorutheRedFox of course. We don't need an obsolete museum...

[@maxir4k]

Them dusty arp 2600 and cs50 at my uni are at risk of being stolen by me

[@bigclivedotcom]

I bet a lot of those kits were enthusiastically bought, but ended up in the garage.

[@lovemy89240]

Love seeing you here!

[@timmturner]

That was my thinking as well, look at the simple mistake that made this synth useless.

[@timesquare5473]

Tell me about it ! I've still got a loft full although my first one the Maplin 4600 ended up down at the town dump along with a Korg M1 when the hard drive blew and I couldn't be bothered to fix it. Early eighties.

[@martin_mue]

Every time you play one of these instruments it amazes me how it transports me to another time, like a long forgotten scent that when you encounter it again fires off all kinds of neurons in your brain. Amazing.

[@Sharlenwar]

Yes, and I wish I knew this stuff existed when I was a kid. Man. This stuff is incredible.

[@Shilorius]

3:41 "...I plugged it in and found out, it made a really really good smoke machine." .. that one had me burst out in laughter!

[@mjrippe]

Any piece of electronics can be a smoke machine if you (don't) know how to use it!

[@zh84]

This sound is so 1982 I can hardly believe it. I can imagine it dubbed, slightly too loud, over a low-budget BBC SF series that I watched after coming home from school.

[@blimolhm2790]

1981 DIY polysynth is exactly what the 2020's needed

[@synthsandstuff]

I love the tuning section, a synth with lots of character!

[@thb-music]

Put it in unison and fake chord memory. Long before the alpha juno.

[@Lutzifer31337]

the lengths you go to, to get old hardware restored / revived, is absolutely admirable!

[@nigelbutters5769]

Oh dear, I'm really late to this party, just came across the video. It certainly brought back some memories for me as back in the day I built a 2 osc mono synth from one of the Polysynth voice boards. It got hacked around a bit and I had to design another board with LFOs, portmento, keyboard controller and power supply, slapped it a metal case which I fabricated in work, with a three octave keyboard. It sounded great and I used it for 10 years of amateur home recording before it disappeard into the depths of the shed. I recently dug it out (very grubby and rusty) and dismantled it for the bin but kept the voice board - who knows, I might re-visit it at some point. But good work, it's nice to see a rare piece of history back to life.

[@idj20]

Man, I bow down to your genius. It's so lovely seeing things not just being rescued but put to good use again. That is someone's project that did not end in vain, even if it took the best part of four decades to get there.

[@blackmoofou6385]

I found one of these at a carboot in the late 90s. The case was so badly made covered in pink and grey vinyl from memory. I saw Tim Orr written on it and grabbed it. It was completely dead and way beyond me even then. I ended up selling it for a profit and two old guys from down south came down and picked it up. I genuinely hope they managed to get it fixed up and sorted the wooden case!

[@hpoz222]

absolutely massive sounding beast. there's a reason every synth used curtis chips in the 80s, they sound great

[@GraemeSPa]

I bought the Transcendent 2000 - the biggest PCB I ever put together. I still have it and it still works. It was one of the first kits to be released and it took weeks to arrive. I had just be made redundant and had my payoff - I bought my first car ( a fifth hand Skoda for 300 quid) , put the deposit down on our first house (450 quid) and spent 200 quid on the T2000. I really wanted one of these polysynths but no way could I get the money together at that time - I had a mortgage to pay. Thanks for digging this machine up and spending the time to get it working - you have some really cool gear in your possession. Keep it going!!

[@chrisjenkins6687]

Great stuff. I've never heard a demo of a Transcendent Polysynth, let alone such a full examination. I always assumed it would sound a bit weedy, like the Transcendent 2000, but didn't realise it had two oscillators per voice, plus all those funky modulation options. Well done for getting it going and sharing it with us. Not something that Behringer will ever clone, I expect...

[@openijl2]

I built a Transcendent 2000 in 1980 - it needed several mods to get it working properly - and I kept it for 5 years. I saw the Transcendent Polysynth demo'd at a London exhibition in 1981 - how I wanted one! .. but as you say: the cost! I'm so glad you found one and have it working again. You're a top guy Sam - both of you!

[@nooneswedish5142]

That brings back memories. I knew a man in secondary school who built one of those but not from the kit , from the published schematics. Then the man designed a computer board to replace the logic board and it had autotune. You are doing a great thing by preserving a part of our cultural heritage. i wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

[@cpcnw]

Best video yet. Keep up the good work. My mate Keith had a 2000 which was built by his physics teacher. He lent it me for a weekend along with a 4 channel cassette Tascam. I got the 2000 to make some bleeping noises but they where very thin. I kept adding another track and bouncing down. In the end I ran out of weekend and the whole thing was a mess. I had no idea what I was doing but kind of enjoyed it lol!

[@princequestly2218]

This thing sounds amazing. It’s even more impressive that it’s hand built by instructions from a magazine in 1981. You brought this thing to life, like Frankenstein.⚡️🤖

[@Koguri3108]

This thing sounds absolutely glorious!

[@jukingeo]

I second that. While it may not be exactly like an Oberheim, it is pretty amazing. However some sounds like at 13:48, I have heard an Oberheim do. I am thinking Lonely People by Styx here at about 3 minutes into the song. I KNOW that was an Oberheim. So it is pretty close. Also with the separate VCO modules, that kind of harks back to the modular Oberheims and they too had expanders which had the two voices in it. Definitely lots of similarities.

[@johnkay1336]

Nice one Geezzer. If you have ETI's from around 1978 you will find one of my designs, it's a Stylophone synth using a computer sound chip that had oscillators, filters, noise etc.

[@Rustie.]

god this sounds flippin' AMAZING - great job restoring this sam!

[@petegreenwood2793]

Wow, great video! I had never realised that the Transcendent Poly was even a "real" analog poly (always assumed it was divide down), let alone it having a voice assigner built entirely out of logic, like the famous Rossum design in the Oberheim FVS. In fact, it would be very interesting to see how similar the Tim Orr and Rossum designs are. Writing voice assigner code in software can be tricky enough - doing it with a bunch of 80's TTL is something that's impressive as hell! Somebody really should track Tim Orr down and do an interview with him someday.

[@101dolittle]

I built the monophonic version of this one. The pitch used to drift all over the place with temperature but it had great sound!

[@mikegorman8558]

You have encouraged me to get my Powertran Polysynth working again. I actually had it working and showed it at Synthfest a few years ago, but the last time I tried it, it wasn’t behaving. I replaced a few smoke generators the first time around, but I think it’s time to replace them all now, plus a bit of re wiring is needed, as the original builders wiring choices are not to a standard I like (stripped wires from grey ribbon cable - very flimsy).

[@icnagy]

If you happen to open and service it, would you be so kind and make a couple of pictures of the double sided boards top+bottoms and share them? I'm trying to re-draw this beast in kicad, but it's hard to follow from the old low res magazine scans, plus there seems to be a couple of differences between the schematics and the published layout.

[@mikegorman8558]

@@icnagy I will see what I can do. I actually plan to remove the 2 main boards and replace the jumper wires between the boards with AMP-100 connectors, or something similar, which will improve the reliability over the current build and aid with serviceability in the future. It will likely be at least a few months before I get round to it. By the way, we’re you trying to do your rework from a scan or the original magazine images. Scanning these pages introduces a whole new level of error depending on the resolution, contrast and scanner quality.

[@jurjenbos228]

Thank you for going into detail on the workings of the voice board

[@gargantyr]

I have one of these that I ordered as a kit from Andover, England in 1982 and built it in Sweden when I was 17 years old. I still have it and it still works!

[@SynthoidSounds]

Back in the early to mid 80s, I used to design and build various synth modules, from scratch. A few of these early analog function modules still exist, I look back on those times now and ponder the vast amounts of time that had been devoted to all that, sort of a lost artform in a way. Today it's completely different of course, but I still experiment with virtual modular synth engines (Voltage Modular is my favorite), and actual real hardware . . . and still mystify the neighbors in the predawn hours. As always, appreciate your videos . . .

[@nrdesign1991]

A beautiful machine, and a stunning performance at the end.

[@martinrussell6174]

I made the Powertran delay. It worked first time! As I recall, it served me very well in the studio...just stumbled upon this channel - looking forward to exploring further. Well done restoring this beauty and thanks for sharing the journey.

[@curtishoffmann6956]

Love the bugs in the kit... Sam, if you don't have it already, the best thing you can own for tracking down solder bridges in DIY kits is a big magnifier lens built into a lamp on a spring arm. Or, use your smartphone camera as a microscope. You did a great job fixing this thing, too! Good on ya.

[@johnskerlec9663]

I'm totally amazed you find these rare old instruments. And blown away you can fix them. Great work Sir. Nicely done.

[@MrDuncl]

I wonder how many 21st century instruments will be fixable when they stop working ?

[@loudspider316]

Fascinating to finally hear this thing after all these years.

[@benartee9493]

What A fabulous Video! Very glad to have had this suggested, really exciting to listen to your explanations. Thanks to Sam for giving this to you as well!

[@elishahodgson1635]

TRhis was super intersesting, I'm a first year engineering student and our first electgronics project was a VCO and ADSR then combining both signals to get a "parculiar" sounding keyboard!

[@sgsax]

Such a classic sound. I was instantly transported back to the 80s listening to this thing. So cool that is was "relatively easy" to get back into working order. Other than the hours/days/weeks spent troubleshooting, of course. Thanks for sharing!

[@TheSynthnut]

That's a great save Sam and top work getting it back into shape! It sounds monstrous as it's basically four monos rather than something specially voiced for polyphony. Funny how it actually had a much higher scrap value until recently I guess, now pretty much all the CEM chips are once again available. I've never heard one played before, so thanks for opening my ears!

[@mrman17]

Not sure if it's because it sends me back to my youth in the 80s, but I love the sound this makes

[@MarkTillotson]

Great tour you give of the gubbins of this machine - glad you got if functioning again and putting it in the museum :)

[@seancurtin5131]

Wow, way to go. So nice to see a great 80's synth like this restored. I actually enjoyed it's sound, it's got a lot of charm. Sweet Dreams would sound good through this for sure. Hope you can get the extra boards one day and demo them in it. Very cool for a build it yourself kit. Tangerine Dream here you come hey?

[@TropicIslandMusic]

Man credit to you for getting it done and completing the restoration. Superb video!

[@ianshippen279]

Well done on rescuing this - always wanted one of these since reading about it in ETI. Their big projects were so interesting to read about the designs of even those most of us had paper-rounds and could not remotelyt afford them

[@attichatchsound-bobkowal5328]

Really appreciate your commitment and passion to work so hard to get these odd old bits of gear running!

[@kentxx12]

Wow what a great fix,and the sound is so good,this is epic Sam :)

[@raybot29]

I Fricken love this channel.. Always end up with a big smile on my face. Great episode, well done to Sam for saving the Powertran. Sounds so good...;-)

[@Nicolas_Carras]

I do keep this (4:28), for my sample collection. Thank you very much ! And by the way, very good job !

[@jasonchristian8362]

you rock. please don't ever stop. I love this stuff. you are a hero in my eyes.

[@crtgamer2355]

And it still sounds better than most analogue synfs coming out these days, WOOOOOO!!

[@patrickbodine1300]

Your patience is incredible!

[@mrkrotosuk]

Huge respects for going in and NOT giving up! I am a computer systems engineer by trade and without that determination I would'nt be able to pay my bills :P

[@TamasKalman]

so you are capable to fix things… not just destroying. impressive! :) 11:00 really love the sound. reminds me to a c64 sid chip a lot. i actually really like the sound of this synth! again, fantastic job.

[@celestinocamicia]

About ten years ago, I went to chuck some stuff away at the local dump in Bracknell and saw a Transcendent Polysynth amongst the rubble, together with a string synth from the same brand. Unfortunately, I couldn't rescue it in any way, I even asked if I could take it but they wouldn't let me because only those who threw away their items could claim them back. To this day, I still think about how sad it is that someone must have spent good money and hours of their blood sweat and tears assembling one of these rare beasts back in the day, only to get rid of it in the most unceremonious possible way years later instead of giving it to someone who could fix it and bring it back to its glory 😥

[@LFOVCF]

in this world of 'eco', how pathetic is that rule of not being able to stop something going to landfill. its bs.

[@ChromosomeSyndicate]

The same story with a Simmons sds v with complete drumkit .

[@johnb2044]

should of just grabbed them..... been years since i was back there but the dump changed in its layout many times was up the top with the drop off wall

[@MagikGimp]

It's a rare breed indeed, the pianist who is also a mad electronics scientist. It's that skillset that's really going obsolete now too.

[@Barflew1]

Thank You for showing this.Subbed and Liked..Had an old ARP synth mono.and a 8 voice Ensonic SQ-80 that you loaded sounds with a 3.5 in.disc..Congradulations.Glad you found it and it didn't get tossed out..Fantastic Job bringing it back to life.Really enjoyed watching you spin those pots and hearing those Thick sounds..Retired now..Really took me back to some Good Times..👍👍

[@Desmaad]

There's an oddly charming, hazy sound to it I like. Sounds like something Com Truise would use.

[@McTroyd]

Amazing how they were able to work out (potentially) 8-way polyphony with just discreet logic! 😳 Top-shelf value engineering right there. Might be fun to see how those CEM3340s compare to the modern re-issue. 👍️

[@DollysplitBand]

Honestly, this was the main thing for me. I'm sad Sam didn't explore it, as that seems like a gold mine of repurposable circuits. I am blown away, the size of that board was unreal.

[@kaitlyn__L]

My guess is it’s just a simple cascade, like the carry bit in an adder. Maybe the expander box even has the other 4, in which case it would be exactly like sticking a 4-bit adder circuit into another one to get an 8-bit adder circuit. That said I was expecting the “empty” oscillator to cycle around in the chords, just like the single note did, but it kept the two outside voices going and only moved between the inner two. That’s slightly more complex than a cascade rollover circuit, but definitely explainable by just a couple extra AND gates.

[@McTroyd]

@@kaitlyn__L So, if I understand that correctly, you're thinking they're bit-shifting the latch on the sample-and-hold opamps, effectively buffering the voltage for the CEM3340 on each note? It's not clear to me how they'd be able to keep track of note-on note-off.

[@callmebigpapa]

Sounds amazing. So glad you do what you do and post these videos!!! Someone will be watching this 100 years from now!

[@jaywood5831]

I agree with you so much on the point that we are spoiled in terms of our expectations of what synth should be. people did so much with so little and yet you see so many people hate on a perfectly good synth because it's not close to the gear they are used to.

[@ghostexits]

Fantastic, I've never seen such a simply laid-out poly, and using single-sided PCBs no less. You'd almost have to assume it was designed specifically to make it easy for people to build and maintain ; )

[@ReubenSound]

It sounds amazing! The individual oscillator tuning per voice is very cool. I have an E&MM (Electronic and Music Maker Magazine) Spectrum full of CEM chips.

[@billchavez8473]

I've been watching you for quite a while, and I must say you're musicianship is really coming along. Good work.

[@Curious_Skeptic]

This would be an amazing find! Great old synth! Reminds me of my youth playing a JUNO 106.

[@VideoNOLA]

12:25 I wouldn't say the Portamento knob is wired "backwards" so much as it's more of a "Portamento Speed" control. Far left = slow, far right = fast.

[@richardmarshall6751]

No uP running the show. Reminds me of working on Oberheim 4-Voice Programmers, no uP, just TTL running in a loop, if memory serves. So much fun to fix!. Hey, you're Transcendent sounds great. Great job sort'n it!

[@unclemick-synths]

Yep, gotta love tantalum smoke bombs! Once saw a defibrillator that a frightened nurse had filled with extinguisher powder 🙄 I built my Clef B30 Microsynth from the kit. It was published in Everyday Electronics. A refurb is in progress.

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

haha yep!!! they go pop:D

[@rogerge6899]

I love the sound of it before the repair!

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

Name a DIY magazine Project..... any type! musical/none musical! just any :D

[@TheInsultInvestor]

Hovercraft from a vacuum cleaner motor.

[@adambaranek]

Polyphony Magazine here in the states had some cool kits you could buy.

[@unclemick-synths]

I mentioned it in my other comment but adding to this list: Everyday Electronics Microsynth (aka Clef B30).

[@danielhowlett8140]

Of course...the ETI Project 80

[@dcorbin5779]

I remember heath kit. But not alot of magzines. I think alot of that stuff went away in the 90s sadly

[@guitfidle]

Wow, what a cool, unusual bit of kit there!! I think that could be fun tuning it weird on purpose- you could tune the second and third voices to a set interval like a 3rd or 5th and get single key chords.... Hmm....

[@Goseph_Joebbels]

@4:29 so pleasing to the ears

[@AdamTheAd-vanc3d]

Dude you are pulling out some serious badboy vintage DIY gems. So interesting to see these breathing life and sound. Top geezer 🔥🔥🔥🔥💪🏾

[@analogig]

Very nice! I had one of these around 15 years back. Great to see another up and running. Quite a powerful synth for its day. Sort of a poor mans Oberheim OBXa

[@arthurcrime]

This was bloody fantastic, you are becoming quite the electronics expert. A real pleasure to watch.

[@BITRATE_MODE]

Please keep saving these gems... You rock

[@onahlik1]

Helo, welcome to blade runner era. NICE :-D. The little inperfections in tune are what these devices are so nice to hear.

[@RobSchofield]

Great demo of a surprisingly good sounding instrument.

[@andewprod]

Imo thats the magic about analog / analog modular. Because of the phisical restrictions you need to find workarounds for stuff you take for granted in modern synths and that way you get totally new sounds.. and also, the Powetran Polysynth just sounds so beautiful, I got so inspired when you played your chords.. Keep up your great work! When im in the UK one day of my life I no matter what i will visit your museum :D Greets from Spain

[@Synthfidel]

Good job getting this old synth running! Might have to run this thing through an Autotune though, unless you can find a way to keep the 4 voices in tune. Nice find, Sam!

[@digitaldobbie]

Car Boot season is almost upon us, everyone look out for these types of kit for Sam!

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

oooh i can hardly wait!!!!!!!! car boots are gunna be good this year i can feel it

[@Wagoo]

Lovely to hear this beast resurrected and singing once more 🎵🎶

[@dwilliams1000]

I can only imagine how much of pain this must have been. So sick man, thanks for sharing this part of synth history with us!

[@88Spint]

I LOVE THIS SERIES!!! This is the coolest music content EVER!

[@TheRamtops]

Ooh yes, one of those string synth transcendant DPX projects please. Looks hard work but I bet you could teach it to wash the dishes ☺️

[@polarxta2833]

Sounds awesome! - I built a transcendent 2000 and would loved one of these !

[@mikemorrisonmusic]

You did an absolute bang up job! It would be so cool to get it computer controlled for tuning stability.

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

Someone did suggest. But aaah. Gotta love it for what it is :)

[@db9827]

Great find, well done! I bought ETI magazine regularly at the time, but that was out of my price range.

[@russelldobbins8893]

Go check out Mr Carlson’s lab.

[@traumgeist]

I’ve definitely encountered a resistor that unsoldered itself from a circuit board due to getting really hot. On an amplifier. One of my first repair jobs, and I haven’t done a ton of repair jobs. I figure the amp was left plugged in and running for too long. It was the only wire wound ceramic resistor on the circuit board, so out of all the resistors, the one that takes the most current.

[@seangholland3055]

I made a MK 2 minisonic, i still have it up in the loft, great synth.

[@TonyGoacher]

I desperately wanted one of these in the day! Great to finally hear it.

[@Manawyrm]

wow, 10:52 got really awesome very quick!

[@senilyDeluxe]

lol 4:09 "So the first thing I had to do was get rid of all the cob webs, I ended up replacing them with 35V tantalum capacitors" what voltage were the old cob webs specced at?

[@robertbruce7686]

Love your enthusiasm. Carry on doing your stuff!

[@RichardJNeo]

Sounds amazing!! That OTA filter is actually pretty special, not like a Curtis filter.

[@iadunn]

Fab. I built one of these and loved it (I actually gigged it ) and was the reason I fluffed my A levels. I'm not sure what happened to mine. I think I left it on one of my moves. Shame as you say it was history. It was an intense build especially the digital n board as it was not through plated and all the pins to,link tol and bottom tracks put in and soldered by hand. Took me ages to debug that board. The rest of the synth was pretty easy to put together. Also forgot to add I added polymod of the filter as well with lm13600 vcas for the control and an extra pot on the front panel....this was on a bit of very board.

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

Cool to know!!! I’m on the hunt for an expander now haha I wonder how many of them got built not many I can imagine

[@iadunn]

@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER probably not as really for 8 voices it would need a 61 not keyboard... Which is possible with the keyboard circuitry as is.....but why would you 😊 I'm relaying out the digisound voicecardPCB at the moment. I may or may not build it though

[@jeremey2072]

I love this stuff, I'm glad you make these videos! Keep at it!

[@TechneMoira]

Thank you twice Sam: Once for showing me something that brought me right back to my late teen years and my growing love for synthesizers (of that age) and once for showing your video in the good old comfortable KZbin format :) I wonder what it would take to upgrade the transcendent to a MiDi driven polyphonic synth...

[@ilan22gordon]

5:17 - is this an example of a Tin Whisker?

[@makers_lab]

Great job. I remember this from my teens and had an official demo tape with some tracks that showed off what it can do very well. Wondering now if I've still got the tape in a box somewhere.

[@stradbucks]

I just found my demo tape and digitized the signature tune. I'll post it up on KZbin.

[@SpectrumDIY]

That sounds so cool, especially when it's just straight up oscillating... Could toss some LFOs on the filter and boom, instant generative polysynth :D

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

Yeah it’s fudging cool ent it :D

[@mrKozmoz]

Love the sound of this oddball, like a dystopian futuristic organ