The Forgotten Modular Instrument From 1950s America

[@forestine_]

If people are wondering what these things were for: "The Laboratory Oscilloscope" (1961) on the Vintage Tektronix channel kzbin.info/www/bejne/n3LWkKiFpaxlZ6M

[@ConwayBob]

Being a product of 1950s America myself (I was born in 1947), there's a special nostalgia factor here for me. When I was a kid ALL electronics were gaseous-state (not solid-state) meaning that they used vacuum tubes (which usually filled with inert gases) for oscillation and amplification. This was right around the time when transistors (solid-state devices) were being invented, but I did not yet have anything that used those, except for an early type of diode (the heart of a "crystal" radio set). For Christmas 1959 my folks bought me a little mail-order scientific experimentation kit that included a small aluminum chassis with sockets for two or three vacuum tubes along with some tubes, terminal strips, resistors, capacitors, coils, hook-up wire, solder, and other fun stuff. I assembled a simple oscillator, an amplifier, and even a simple little AM radio on that chassis. I liked the audio sounds that the oscillator generated but did not know what to do with them. I need to dig into Mom's attic and see if it's still up there somewhere.

[@GrymsArchive]

Why the hell would anyone dislike one of your videos? They are: 1: Educational 2: Creative 3: Made by someone with an obvious passion for their craft. As always, Great video!

[@driftliketokyo34ftw35]

And they contain fun synth sounds that you can sample.

[@driftliketokyo34ftw35]

Haters just want to take down what they hate.

[@gorak9000]

Hah, and I used to get yelled at in labs for hooking speakers to the function generator and attempting to play music... little did I know I was independently re-inventing electronic music, just like 4 decades too late. You're videos are simply amazing!

[@TheRealCaptainFreedom]

“You’re” means “you are.” YOUR. The word is YOUR.

[@tannerin]

gotta love the futura font on all these old pieces of equipment

[@imhatchmantoo]

The grandfathers workshop smell.. amazing, my grandfather had a workshop in the basement and there was a wall of tubes there that my grandmother eventually threw out before i had the sense to stop her. But that workshop had a smell of old electronics that i cannot explain and i miss it. Great video man

[@rickbustamante]

The thickness of the oscillator is so amazing, great score brother, that sound is totally awesome.

[@Syncopator]

Wow-- this is pretty astonishing. I worked as a repair tech at a Tektronix field office for about 5 years in the 1970s, often fixing vacuum tube equipment, and saw a ton of stuff they made including the first scopes they ever produced, but NEVER saw any Type 160 equipment or knew they existed. We had a full set of manuals available, though some were on microfiche, and I don't know if the Type 160 series was represented there-- I suspect so but no one knew about them, not ever having encountered any where the manual would be needed. With regards to modular sound equipment and Tektronix though, I did encounter the TM500 series non-tube modules such as the FG503 function generators that I experimented with for audio applications including FM synthesis, but the tube gear was completely unknown to me. The Type 160 series must be exceedingly rare, as we were a big field office that repaired gear for local military bases and engineering companies and never saw these things. What I liked to do with the FG503s was to take three of them and feed each one's output into the FM input of another, and tap one of the outs to listen to. Since it made a loop-- the last one in the chain's output was fed into the FM input of the first one, it produced some interesting results-- adjusting the frequencies of them all could produce a lot of neat sounds, including things that sounded like they were sequenced when one of the frequencies was low enough to seem to "step" things a bit. The FG503s, having an FM input, could certainly be sequenced, though at the time I had nothing to do that with. The same sort of things could also be done with the more modern CFG250, but the FG503 had a more "modular synthesizer" feel since you could plug several of them together into a power-supply mainframe along with other gear such as counters & DMMs...

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Fantastic video and I applaud you wanting to keep them in their original state and not modify them. Those octal cables remind me of the original Hammond organ cables, I guess they were used in the '50s for different types of equipment.

[@Hainbach]

That means a lot to me. Your channel has been an important source of knowledge since ages, and I feel what we do now is on a similar timeline.

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

@@Hainbach Thanks so much and likewise! It was absolutely great getting to meet you in March! :-) Hopefully see each other again soon!

[@Hainbach]

I was originally going to write 1950ies. Good thing I spell-checked, apparently its a German thing.

[@TheLuckymod13]

Must be. An apostrophe is used with an "s" to make al set of letters or numbers become plural.

[@unslept_em]

@@TheLuckymod13 apostrophe + "s" implies ownership, so 1950s is correct in this case, if you were trying to maybe propose a correction? or maybe I misunderstood

[@evilanorak]

@@unslept_emHaha! Someone's been reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves!

[@Natemasterflex]

Hahaha that’s awesome!

[@xemnasvii]

that's adorable

[@ChrisBennettGameDesign]

“Putting Doepfer out of business...one piece of test equipment at a time.”

[@Autotross]

These are some of the nicest synthesizer sounds I've ever heard, was not expecting that from test equipment.

[@francoislemieux9219]

I don't know which is more relaxing; you explaining stuff or the sound produced by the equipment. Anyway, can I sleep at your studio for one weekend please?

[@thelaboratoryofspacerecord5239]

I really liked the musical piece, it was like fast Laurie Spiegel. Also, the shots of the inside of the equipment was great; those are some large resistors. You can see if changing out the tubes is worth it.

[@Hainbach]

Yeah, these will need TLC at some point, all of them are quirky, but not in a way that stands in the way of music. The NIM/BIN was way more temperamental.

[@wickeddubz]

Well, next test equipment to expect: Space Jet engine test stands, UFO detectors, submarine sonar checkers, random parts from KGB/NSA satellites, Nutella factory equipment. Amazing things happening on your channel. Thank you for delivering goodness!

[@SRDhain]

At 1:24 , that saw tooth was truly 🎂 The overall sound reminds me of the MOS6581 (early revision), which is also known as the SID chip. It's such a pure, creamy, yet powerful and warm sound. This is such a great share. Thanks for uploading.

[@Hainbach]

Oh my favourite vintage of SID. Would love a SID based synth in my life

[@quelgianchecercavi]

Staring at all this knowledge makes me feel like a humble Igor, Herr Doktor

[@ozguroyus]

It's pronounced Eye Gor

[@boston4715]

My dusty old guitar pedals have never brought me such excitement as they do now I'm running tapes and samples through them. Thanks for the content Hainbach!

[@mrKozmoz]

For all we know Hainbach is an alien space man trying to contact home with most excellent droning beats

[@Aldoistaken]

I was literally smiling during the whole thing, it's so nice to witness your enthusiasm for all these crazy machines. :)

[@BeanyBabe420]

That was a fantastic Jam - I love how natural the interplay between the two waveform generators is when you're playing the waveform duration knobs... It really sounds like it was made to make music with!

[@luminone]

Pure, warm tones, and those intervals... wow. Not easy to emulate those tonal qualities using modern gear. Big respect for re-purposing these fantastic sounding modules.

[@hummahumma3585]

So beatiful tones! I would really enjoy full album of this. Love the final jam!

[@RCAvhstape]

Beautiful equipment, I learned all my tech skills using Tektronix o-scopes. And that track at the end is amazing. You've got quite the knack for getting great music out of your gear.

[@BartManNL]

The smile when it resolves at 13:40... Totally love it!!

[@c31979839]

That filter at 3:30 sounds amazing. It adds so much depth and character to the sound. There's also an incredible amount of warmth there as well.

[@Hainbach]

Yeah that is a true beautifier.

[@MicheleZuccarelliGennasi]

I would love to see a concert with this equipment!

[@MaikeruSumisu]

best lunch break i had in a long time ;) i love the pure aesthetics of this old equipment and it seems since you have to focus on the tone generation itself you don't get lost in 'features' - means i love your lately approach to music :)

[@ConwayBob]

Thank you, Heinbach, for another interesting journey into the world of "found" synthesizers. At around 7:43 you say "This would probably be an easy mod to do" in terms of providing inputs for externally controlling parameters with CV and the like. Seconds before I heard you say that, I had been thinking "Look Mum No Computer needs some of these so he can mod them! to be controllable with volt-per-octave and the like" So I hope he can find some of these instruments to mod so that you can keep yours intact as the lovely museum pieces that they are.

[@KidHellacious]

One of your best vids. That track you made at the end was so damn cool.

[@paulriggs42]

I really enjoyed this video and I love the soundscape it is able to create..... I would love to see more videos like this . Thank you !

[@ropewalkingelephant]

I keep coming back to this video. The section at 6:05 when you introduce the timeline and reverb sounds just beautiful. The depth and tone of the oscillators is magic.

[@Hainbach]

Just recorded with them again - they do sound orchestral almost

[@ombuho]

Amazing live thank you so much! The complexity of this sounds, the hole structure is paradox of dimensions, tunels with infinite hight and infinite thick wide, crossing through eachothers in a perpetual cyclical returning pipeline of ends and beginnings

[@RayZappa]

The way that bass note came in at 6:36 is what analog is all about - envelope generated by turning a knob

[@SendyTheEndless]

I'm always telling my Waveform Generator not to smoke. They never learn!

[@fritsvanzanten3573]

Gives you sinusitis too

[@matthewcody1757]

Nice polygon window refrence too.

[@josephf7306]

Great live-action camera work! It gives a good three-dimensional perspective of your studio setup, and makes it more exciting overall to see the angle float around.

[@doudew]

That drone jam at 6:02 is pure bliss, make me think of lyra 8 sounds somehow. Love all those sounds !

[@AnimalFactoryAmplification]

I loved being inside your spaceship. Hope to visit your planet again soon!

[@edgeeffect]

I'm loving this series. I've always been a fan of test equipment for electronic music AND test equipment as test equipment... So I'm getting double the fun here. ....... and just look at those old-school resistors.... they're yummy. When you were playing at the end I was swaying backwards and forwards in my (slightly broken) office chair which was adding quite a cool extra rhythm line... I wonder if you've been remixed by a chair before? ;) Excellent video, as ever.

[@baleinerenard7629]

This logo is very cool indeed, so are the module ! point to point soldering and vaccum tube look so great. And of course you make magical music with then!

[@williammanganaro9070]

Love this video ! Your sound demo is very done and explained. A nice example of how many artists made electronic music when no musically dedicated equipment was available. Thanks for posting this video.

[@YomYestreen]

I've heard a shitload of modular stuff in my day. But this thing sounds *insane*.

[@IzharAshdot]

Fascinating and exhilarating. Thank you Hainbach.

[@royroger1984]

those oscillators sound beautiful even through youtube compression. what stunning pieces of equipment

[@triplebacon1]

that last track was so cool Hainbach!

[@gorillabraudcast474]

Dang that thing looks radioactive. I would were a led jock strap. The tone is amazing!

[@Rustik1722]

1950s in America.....great times by the sounds of this.....wow!

[@Lalaland.001]

this is hands down the best sounding syth module(s) I have ever heard in my life. Holy shit, The tone on these is amazing. And that is an understatement.

[@edgeeffect]

Hmmmm..... "Schwebungssummer" one of my favourites! The sawtooth from the waveform generators kinda reminds me of my old Farfisa Bravo organ. That point-to-point soldering with those old carbon resistors is a thing of real beauty... when electronics was sculpture!

[@bobrogue]

Love your work, my friend. Nice to finally see these in action!

[@spurioustransients]

Excellent as ever. I really liked the piece you played with this equipment in the last part of the video. Brilliant.

[@WastelandSurvival2]

That low end!

[@jurj4108]

Amazing! Such lovely tones out od those archaic devices. Especially the Track in the end really blew my mind. Thank you for your nice videos, music and inspiration.

[@theorist5497]

That jam at the end...sheesh, felt like my chest was going to cave in with those kick thumps. Fantastic!!

[@FSK1138]

8:00 the fire and the screaming.... 12:25 . That wet mouthy choppy squelch sound in the background. . AMAZING!!!

[@Jefflantern483]

Cool sounds from your test equipment as always! Ahhh the smell of old tube based equipment brings good memories of my dad’s test equipment as he was an amateur radio operator! He had lot of test equipment that could produce lovely sounds for music!🙂🙂👍👍🎵🎵🎧🎧

[@matthewcody1757]

Absolutely beautiful machines and yeah i agree they sound fantastic, thx for sharing as i now will keep a look out for such things in my travels. Stay gold.

[@sordel5866]

Could you talk more about how you prioritise items for purchase? Is it price driving your decisions or do you have a wishlist?

[@inthefade]

My guess is that, when buying this kind of gear, it is all about educated guesses and gut feeling. Who other than Hainbach knows how this kind of equipment works?! You have to learn what you have, and what you need. It is absolutely incredible what he has managed to do with scientific equipment from a past era. Truly spectacular. Some of my favorite music of all time.

[@ConwayBob]

Not to speak for Stefan or anybody else, but for me, it is often serendipity. I will be poking around in thrift shops and surplus stores looking for certain kinds of things with musical potential, and I'll come across something else, something unexpected, something I had not been seeking; and sometimes it is something truly surprising and inspiring -- especially when the price is right.

[@aeropilot4419]

memespace agree ... he’s a true explorer and gear-head 👍🏼✨

[@gerritvos5886]

When you added the phat sounding Krohn-Hite Vacuum Tube Filter, I was really blown away. I've never heard something like that.

[@Hainbach]

Its amazing. Known in the Dub community, so they cost about 300-400EUR now.

[@User173]

absolutely awesome sounding. I dig that sound so much that I'm literally thinking that I have to get into test equipment now. fuck.

[@DeathLife2000]

You should make a sample pack with ur exprimental equipment, would be unique!

[@Hainbach]

I have a lot of packs on my Patreon already. 😃

[@DeathLife2000]

@@Hainbach Ohh! Will have to subscribe then;) haha

[@Natemasterflex]

So rad Hainbach! Keep up the great videos, they are always very inspirational for me. 🤘😸🤘

[@BluegillGreg]

I got here by searching for a Melochord video after that came up in a search about ring modulation. Glad to hear this.

[@vgermuse]

Wow!! Just WOW!! Thanks for the journey!

[@saschaz1]

watch your channel every now and then and i have to say that the track at the end is the best piece of music i´ve heard from you!

[@Hainbach]

Thank you Sascha! The Random Source TKB enables a level of musicality to the test equipment I could not archieve before.

[@seenproveseven]

Thanks for sharing this. Beautiful machines.

[@simonkormendy849]

I recently worked on a diy build project I had been wanting to do for a long time, it's an OTL (Output Transformerless) TUBE headphone amplifier that uses three Svetlana 6N1P Tubes to drive a pair of headphones like my new Audio Technica ATH-M50X headphones, sounds wonderful, like a high-end piece of audio gear.

[@sl33pw4lk]

jam at the end reminds me of Cluster/early Kraftwerk

[@RCAvhstape]

I just watched the film Radio On yesterday and Kraftwerk figures prominently in the soundtrack. Great stuff.

[@goldenstarmusic1689]

This channel has given the desire to dig out my old 50s-80s test equipment and try stuff out 😂 this is simply amazing

[@chascoppard]

Beautiful, and engineered to perfection.

[@zugel]

Very inspiring, and some nice modules and sounds. Just love the videos you make. Keep it up, thanks from Norway.

[@kotanecrosis96]

Just kicks in with Schwebungssummer which inspires me to try and find a way to try and use landfill totems to create something as similar and heavy.

[@chriskostelec]

Those tubes sound so nice! I recently found an old analog computer from 1971 and I'm waiting for a friend to have time to help get it working. It's the Compumedic Sciences Inc. 6F13 Analog Computer, which was used in Orlando, FL as a naval trainer device. Hardly any info on it but there's some on the old-computer's website and other Google results. I plan to do some sort of video on it when it's working! Thanks for clueing me into these things musical possibilities!

[@Hainbach]

Oh so cool! I need to see that video!

[@chriskostelec]

@@Hainbach I'll shoot you a message when it's up and running!

[@anselwilliams2003]

You @hainbach should design a synth with some big synth company like novation or arturia... that would be FREAKING AWSOME!

[@benjaminrmac9171]

Incredible sounding kit!

[@MelhodRiperton]

I think I see this befor on smemmusic Museum on i was on vacation in Switzerland for three weeks last month a alots of synthesizers & drum machines 😍

[@jaywood5831]

My profile picture is from a band called fifty foot hose from 1967 and they used stuff similar to this in the album "cauldron". It's my favorite psychedelic/experimental album ever and so ahead of it's time. Same with the bands; silver apples and united States of America but fifty foot hose is much less talked about and I think was first out of the 3.

[@DrewskisBrews]

Cold war military-industrial electronics have a have a mystique all their own. The tones you derived from these fit it perfectly! So Amazing!

[@DrewskisBrews]

Still waiting for the Geiger counter gating :)

[@sski]

You were rockin' Vault 504 here in Portage, WI, USA! Love the sound of those. And they couldn't look more the part. Cheers!

[@bitegoatie]

You are a lucky guy to get your hooves on this set of modules. Wow. You are going to repair these, right? Or maybe you did, since now you’re playing music. Oh, Surplus of Nebraska stuff always smells of oldness, with good reason.

[@lbauerer]

"And these are the best sawtooth, I've ever heard.." plays Vengabus.

[@RobFlaxMusic]

I’m CACKLING right now.

[@genx1144]

I am sincerely impressed.

[@Skraboing649]

Great video mate! Wow, you weren't kidding about those sawtooths (sawteeth? 😀). Beautiful tones!

[@EleniEliades_]

Such pulsating immense soundscapes you are creating with these antiquated quite dangerous machines. . .It must feel amazing while you are right in front of, actually surrounded by all of your music-making equipment as you are in the process of creating wonderous, sonorous poetry ~ It seems that everything in that room would just reverberate, shake, including you as you're right there in the very midst of the lovely rumbling sounds ! No one is experimenting with Antique Machinery and creating actual listenable music as you are doing. Hopefully a double album or tape of this incredible music will be made. 💥🎹🐒💡🔥🌟

[@Hainbach]

Thank you Eleni! I have a 12" EP of more rhythmic timbre coming out in October, and a more experimental album by the end of the year.

[@rainerkornmusic]

Man,you sure Know how to use this stuff right. First time i heard someone explaining how to use a modular System. Until today i had no clue how to make music with this stuff. I always thought that's for Aliens. Awesome!!!!!!!!!!

[@untrust2033]

Someone should make a VCA out of this. Would make a cool selling point.

[@shauncollins5029]

Wow what a great saw wave and tone. .

[@rainerkornmusic]

I love that warm and deep sub bass

[@odinmp5]

Man ,looks amazing and sounds beautiful.

[@TheLuckymod13]

I'm very excited to see what you have to share with us today!

[@V3xxe]

Oh man, as soon as kicked in it was AMAZING. I want one so much.

[@yy6u]

Neat video, cool stuff coming in! Will definitely be tuning in. Sorry to hear about the oscilloscopes :( At least we can watch a certain form of oscilloscope art while watching the last performance with a xy oscilloscope or at least with a software one

[@shmackydoo]

Very nice sounds.

[@genepozniak]

"FIRE! FIRE!" "Uuhh. Oh. Really?" See? That's what happens when you're always pranking your friends, yelling "fire" just for a laugh. lol

[@god_fearing_]

simply beautiful

[@peterhomfeldt7287]

Hallo Hainbach! Ich kann mich daran erinnern,dass ich in den Achtzigern ein Krankenhaus oszillokop der Firma Toennies/Hellige(nur Roehren) derart modifizierte,das ich die Wellenformen meines Korg Monopoly betrachten konnte. Austausch eines Kondensators der Horizentalablenkung.Wunderbar... Aufgewachsen mit Sendungen des WDR oder anderer dritter Programme,die mit neuen ungehörter Klaenge zutun hatten, fasziniert von Kurzwellenartefakten,wie das nicht korrekte Abstimmen von Singlesidebandstationen und dem damit verbundenen Frequenzverschiebungen,kann ich deine Begeisterung für den Klang und die Technik nur zu gut verstehen. Weiter so und danke ...

[@Hainbach]

Schön, das freut mich sehr zu hören! Danke dir!

[@2.7petabytes]

How damned cool it that!!! You always come up with the most interesting stuff!

[@SuperPedalhead]

Educational and entertaining as usual, top hat tipped.

[@dessiplaer]

Great sounds, and another fine video. btw, did you ever check to see how all of the test equipment affected your electric bill? I always look forward to your primieres.

[@Hainbach]

Its quarterly and I dread it. But I only turn on what I need for each patch, same as with my whole studio. Very conscious of that.

[@dessiplaer]

Thanks for the reply and the videos!

[@axel.foley.1984]

Just checked Amazon and they don't have any of these, bummer 🤣🤣🤣. Pretty much can't go wrong with analog & tubes. Subscribed!