Museum of Soviet synthesizers

February 20, 2003 1:21 AM

Museum of Soviet synthesizers.
posted by soundofsuburbia (16 comments total)

Nifty. Stereolab could have used some of those, what with all the retro-futurist Marxism and all.

Also worth it for all you oscillator lovers, Hyperreal's Music Machines page.
posted by arto at 1:30 AM on February 20, 2003

o man, i'm foaming at the mouth. i just want to have every single one.
posted by mhjb at 1:55 AM on February 20, 2003

Speaking of Soviet synthesizers, does anyone know where to find a complete recording of the original Soviet synthesizer?

I heard a portion of it on a History Channel show once, and it is hauntingly beautiful, in an electronic, 238,900 miles away kind of way.
posted by Schnauzer at 2:29 AM on February 20, 2003

Well, call me Emily Litella... I thought it said Soviet Sympathizers. For a second it seemed the DHS was going nostalgic on us.

NeverMind.
posted by wendell at 2:45 AM on February 20, 2003

Wow. Just the design on the page is worth looking at, even before talking envelopes and waveforms and what have you. "Ruskeys". What a great name, too.

Excellent post.
posted by namespan at 2:49 AM on February 20, 2003

KEITH EMERSON WAS A COMMIE????
posted by quonsar at 4:16 AM on February 20, 2003

sweeeet.
posted by condour75 at 4:54 AM on February 20, 2003

And as long as we're on the topic of electronic Russian instruments, here's the MeFi thread on the Theremin.
posted by angry modem at 5:09 AM on February 20, 2003

This next tune is in the Trotsky of C...
posted by ZenMasterThis at 5:10 AM on February 20, 2003

This is wicked awesome!
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:55 AM on February 20, 2003

In Soviet Russia, the LFOs modulate YOU!
posted by Foosnark at 7:46 AM on February 20, 2003

A friend of mine has a Polyvoks. It is pretty cool and makes some wicked sounds. But, good luck trying to find some one to service it when it crashes. The only schematics he has of this cold war Moog are in Russian and the guy who works on his Fender Rhodes can't even figure out how to get the top off. So he had to break down and buy one of these. Which luckily doesn't crash out at their gigs. To hear the Polyvoks in action go here.
posted by trbrts at 11:30 AM on February 20, 2003

Love at first sight. Thanks for the great link.
posted by LinusMines at 1:17 PM on February 20, 2003

I've played a Polivoks, which was pretty nice for generic strangeness and a Maestro, which kinda sucked. But the cyrillic writing on the controls makes it all better in my book. Unfortunately all the text on my korg ms-10 is in English. (link from the synthesizer picture archive)
posted by ikalliom at 4:04 PM on February 20, 2003

In Soviet Russia, the LFOs modulate YOU!
It had to happen.
This is a great link. I love this stuff. I want to own an ARP.
posted by Fabulon7 at 5:42 PM on February 20, 2003

The Topaz-1 is what Lawrence Welk would have played if he'd been a Communist. And it sounds as good as it looks -- like a merry-go-round where the batteries are wearing out.

p.s. My brother-in-law -- who plays synth on this excellent record, among many others -- knows much more about this stuff than I do. He just emailed me: "Don't these people know that it makes no sense at all to ZIP an mp3 file? Mp3s are already compressed. That's probably why they lost the cold war."
posted by LeLiLo at 6:43 AM on February 21, 2003