New England Digital's Synclavier: Original Factory Demo from 1978

[@Shred_The_Weapon]

Not only does it sound excellent, but I’m digging those disk drives.

[@rootstudio247]

Thanks. Would have been nice to capture the mechanical noises of the disk drives, too, but I recorded the line out signal only.

[@saibot20194]

sounds like a sega genesis

[@MarquisDeSang]

with the GEM sound audio driver

[@_innerscape_]

That's because it's an FM synth, like the Yamaha DX7. Many game consoles had FM synth chips in them to play the music. The Synclavier II was sample based. Search for "G Spot Tornado" by Frank Zappa.

[@TheCunnu12]

OPL

[@sitedrm]

@@_innerscape_ the Synclavier II also featured FM synthesis, the sample functionality was an optional extra.

[@_innerscape_]

@@sitedrm thanks for the correction

[@chrisstrobel3439]

Wow! That’s really going back to the day! And just to think we have these on our telephones now, if someone had told me back then that someday I’d have a Synclavier on my telephone I’d thunk they were nuts lol.

[@justincanton]

Is it weird that I think this looks amazing. Im not blown away with FM synthesis personally tho. I think my Yamaha CX5M music computer from back in the day killed it for me.

[@agerven]

Nostalgically i sometimes miss the CX5M, as i wrote software for it. Soundwise it was limited, with only 4 operators, but despite of that i got some really nice analog vintage as well as bell and whistle sounds out of it. What killed it for me was that i fixed some of Yamaha's bugs, a.o. the one that hindered the actual use of the sequencer. When Yamaha got notice of that, instead of embracing me and offering me a job, they sent their lawyers to me. And of course they never fixed the bugs themselves. Regarding this video i must say it is nice to see this version of Synclavier 1, but the sound quality of the video is absolute bad. These days i'm very lucky and happy to be able to work with a software version Synclavier II, by Arturia named Synclavier V. It is absolutely awesome. And yes, FM takes some time getting into, but it still is a "strong synthesis paradigm" today. Meaning that with just a few parameters you can create an absolute variety of sound as demonstrated by Synclavier II / V, Yamaha DX-7, SY-99 (Yamaha did decide to use the graphics of my CX5M software there, but their thank you letter never found my address) and Montage. Also the resynthesis possibility from samples for the Synclavier II / V is awesome.

[@INDUSTRIAL_WOLF]

I actually have a Synclavier 1, which I got from a guy at Anthrocon, who bought it from En Esch (from KMFDM) in 1998!

[@rootstudio247]

Good for you! Hope you are still putting it to good use 👍

[@erikt211]

That’s a very large Yamaha DX7😆

[@rootstudio247]

Yes, two huge operators 😄

[@harmonicres]

Looks like a Volvo minus the wheels circa 1980!

[@rootstudio247]

😅😅

[@mattdelany6799]

I wanted one of these. Now, I don’t.

[@rootstudio247]

Glad I saved you some money 😅

[@mattdelany6799]

@ the Jupiter 8 was sold, too. Watch the Gforce software cs80 video. This is why the cs80 is the best synth of all time, but who will repair it?

[@tubemoog]

Nice. Also, G Spot Tornado. By Frank Zappa Check that out

[@rootstudio247]

Zappa had a Synclavier II - great stuff, though.

[@freedom_aint_free]

Sounds exactly like a Sega Mega Drive to me ...

[@rootstudio247]

You're not the only one 😄

[@nikkiejurnigan7441]

@@rootstudio247 we NEED a free VST for us ues in are DAW

[@rootstudio247]

That would be great! The closest thing I have is the sample library. Check it out at root-sounds.com 👌

[@rootstudio247]

If you create one, be sure to let me know 😉

[@DavinaTheWeena]

So this is what the Yamaha Clavinova CVP Cosmic voice is emulating (very well as it happens).

[@rootstudio247]

Not exactly sure about the CVP, but Yamaha certainly popularized FM (after patenting it).

[@DavinaTheWeena]

@@rootstudio247 I have he CVP demo tape from 1987 & the Cosmic voice on the CVP7 is almost identical

[@rootstudio247]

Just looked it up -the CVP7 is from 1985, when the DX7 pretty much peaked. So yes, likely FM voices wirh the ‘7’ as a reference to the DX. Perhaps the little brother of the GS1.

[@shanehen]

Early Synclavier. They got better. Listen to Civilization Phase III by Frank Zappa to hear what they could do as NED went under.

[@rootstudio247]

Zappa was amazing with that rig. But even these first generation FM sounds were incredible back then.

[@sitedrm]

Reminiscent of Passport.mid and Canyon.mid

[@rootstudio247]

Classic MIDI files?

[@scottlarson1548]

After about two minutes, the sound of this thing started getting on my nerves. You think they could have gotten it to play an actual song.

[@rootstudio247]

A bit monotonous, perhaps, but a great sound, I think. Really dig that bass sound.

[@bradchervel5202]

Sounds terrible.

[@rootstudio247]

Naw, don’t be so hard on this thing. There probably are better demos, but I actually really dig the bass sound.

[@iamyourfuture808]

Damn, that's an ugly looking instrument

[@cleverhardy5230]

It was all about function over form, and it was a prototype made for universities and privileged artists. Nothing you'd expect to see live on stage. The Synclavier 2 (made for studios) is a lot more streamlined.

[@rootstudio247]

I actually like it, especially the front panel 😄 but yes the open cages with ribbon cables hanging out is not the definition of slick.