Today: just some offbeat keys+synths that caught my eye; i’ve never come across any of these in the shops+stages+studios of my corporeal reality so I think perhaps uncommon items? Srry, it’s early. About to head to the LAST FLEA MKT OF THE YR. Bittersweet times. Aie, I recall salad-days when April was young and barkers descended on New Milford plain to hawk goods of dubious origin. Like the sun, the tide, and the pork-belly market, that time will rise again I suppose. Below: the Akai AX-80 synth c. 1985, the Crumar Rhody ‘electronic piano’ of 1980, the fascinating Casio 8000 modular…casio…system of ’84, the 1980 ARP Solus (also above), and the 360 Systems ‘Digital Keyboard’ of 1984.
One reply on “Obscure Synths+Keys of the early 80s, part XIV”
I owned an Akai AX-80! I might have been one of the first people in the Bay Area to have one, since my shop was the area Akai dealer and I got mine from the first shipment. Quite a nice synth, very bright and thick sounding. Sounded a lot like an Oberhiem or an ARP, comparing favorably to the Rhodes Chroma (yes I actually heard and played a Chroma, an early unit that actually said “ARP” on it, before they sold the design to Fender.) This isn’t surprising, as it was built on Curtis VCF and VCA chipsets, as ARP was. The oscillators were an interesting digital/analog hybrid. It didn’t have the weighted keyboard like the Chroma, but it was nice. Very solidly built. I even created a 3rd party sound set stored on data cassette (which I offered to customers who bought the keyboard), which I sadly don’t have anymore.
Sound Doctorin’ has some tech descriptions and service tips.
http://sounddoctorin.com/synthtec/akai/ax80.htm#akaiprodesc
This is a great synth you can pick up for a decent price used, since it doesn’t have the cache’ and street cred of a Juno or Prophet.