This is the same synth used by Duran Duran's keyboard player. A cheesy wood-paneled synth featuring the nine coolest letters on any of the synths I own. P-E-R-F-O-R-M-E-R in typical magnetic ink character recognition font, to make it look all high tech. My friend picked this one up at a pawn shop in the Poconos for $150. When we took it apart, we found confetti on the inside, which indicates that it was once owned by a wedding singer. We also found that it is actually like a retarded stage piano, only with Brass and String sounds instead of piano. This is because you can hold down every single key on the thing at once, and wont run out of oscilators. I have no idea how that works.
The synth is split up into two main parts: Brass and Strings. The brass section is pretty boring: no ADSR, and only one envelope generator. This means the envelopes for each separate note you press will begin or end at whatever phase of the envelope the first note is at. In other words, you press one key and then another, and the second note you pressed is using EXACTLY the same envelope as the first. The filter, which appears to be a weak low-pass filter, is barely resonant, and lacks any sort of character.
The Strings, on the other hand, have demonstrated their abilities on numerous occasions by giving my audience chills. This is mainly due to the string's equalizer section. Three sliders: Low, Mid, High. When run through a stiff chorus and a bright reverb, these controls produce a very distinct and very sly glow. Sounds like a combination of typical Pink Floyd "Welcome to the Machine" and "Planet Rock" strings, only they can change shape and feel in this magical way that I haven't seen elsewhere.
Careful with the sliders: they are about as rugged as saltines.
Released: 1979 (?) | 
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