Analog instruments · 1970 — 1999

The warmth
of voltage.

A slow tour of the synthesizers, drum machines and tape echoes that made electricity sound human, with their drifting oscillators, singing filters and hiss.

Play the WC-84
WARM CIRCUITSWC-60OFF
VCF
FREQ
RES
CHORUS
I
II
VOLUME
MASTER
RHYTHM UNITWC-80
SPACE ECHOTAPE · SPRING
VU−20+3

01 — Manifesto

Before presets, there was a panel. You would turn a knob
and hear the circuit answer, a little late, a little wrong, and entirely alive. Oscillators drifted with the temperature of the room . Filters sang when you pushed them. Tape remembered every note, and then slowly forgot it.

This site is a love letter to the instruments built between 1970 and 1999. They weren't perfect. They had character, and they rewarded anyone who put their hands on them. Every piece of gear here floats, and most of it makes a sound. Go ahead and touch it.

02 — Timeline

Three decades
of voltage.

1970
’70s

Voltage leaves the lab

Modular systems shrink into instruments. Oscillators drift and filters sing, and nothing stays in tune for long.

1970 · Moog Music

Minimoog Model D

The synthesizer that fit on a stage.

Read the story

1971 · ARP Instruments

ARP 2600

A modular you could learn on.

Read the story

1974 · Roland

Space Echo RE-201

A loop of tape that remembers, then forgets.

Read the story

1978 · Sequential Circuits

Prophet-5

Polyphony with a memory.

Read the story
’80s

Memory, rhythm, polyphony

Microprocessors let synths remember their sounds. Drum machines start keeping time, and chorus spreads everything wide.

RHYTHM UNITWC-80

1980 · Roland

TR-808

It sounded nothing like drums. That was the point.

Read the story

1981 · Roland

TB-303

A failed bass player that invented a genre.

Read the story

1982 · Roland

Juno-60

Stable tuning, unstable heart.

Read the story

1983 · Yamaha

DX7

The digital counterpoint.

Read the story
’90s

The revival

The instruments that were written off come back second-hand, cheap and loved, and new ones are built to sound like them.

1993 · Novation

Bass Station

Analog, back and affordable.

Read the story

1995 · Clavia

Nord Lead

The imitation that proved the point.

Read the story

03 — Play

Put your hands on it.

A six-voice polysynth with one oscillator, one filter and the chorus. Drag the faders, press the keys, or use your computer keyboard.

  • A–K play
  • W E T Y U sharps
  • Z / X octave
  • Double-click a control to reset it
WARM CIRCUITSWC-84 · POLYPHONIC SYNTHESIZEROFF
LFO
RATE
DEPTH
DCO
PULSE
SAW
SUB
VCF
FREQ
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ENV
ENV
A
D
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CHORUS
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VOLUME
MASTER
OCT
VU−20+3

04 — Anatomy of warmth

Why it sounds
the way it feels.

i.

Oscillator drift

Analog oscillators wander with heat and age. Voices are never perfectly in tune with each other, and that small disagreement is where the width comes from.

ii.

The filter

A resonant low-pass filter shapes the sound. Turn the resonance up and a peak rises at the cutoff and the filter starts to sing. These knobs are connected to the synth above.

iii.

Chorus

The signal is copied and delayed by a few milliseconds that are constantly changing, then spread left and right. One oscillator ends up sounding like a string section.

iv.

Tape & saturation

Push a signal into tape or a transformer and its peaks round off gently instead of clipping. The harmonics that adds are what people usually mean by warmth.