Baldwin Fun Machine with bass octave mod via circuit bending hybrid analog synth organ
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2023
- The Baldwin Fun machine from 1974, a hybrid organ and polyphonic analog synth
Filmed and Edited by Louisa Revolta
Recorded and Mixed by Steve Christie at Vintage Keys Studio
All music composed and improvised by Steve Christie (apart from ‘Atmosphere’ by Russ Abbott and ‘The Grand old Fat King Duke of York’)
Video audio is from a DI derived from the Baldwin’s headphone out and a room mic to pick up any muttering.
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I award it 10/10 for aesthetic design. It looks like the vision of the future in the 60s.
I'm an older dude who spent a lot of time in the malls back in the late 70's and early 80's. I recall every mall having these big keyboard stores with instruments like this, and there was always some salesdude in a 3 piece suit demo-ing one or another. I wish I had spent more time in those stores, but they weren't fond of kids. Cool to see, nice video.
Thank you! - yes the malls and the organ showrooms were fantastic! :)
I know !
I thought those places would always be there, I would stop bye as a young teenager and play on all the weird organs.
most were second hand from the 70s
I totally didn't realizes it was a moment in time that would nether happen again.
just magic .
I don't care what anyone says, while the modern synthesizers can duplicate virtually anything. (My son's Arturia comes to mind). Nothing, and I mean nothing compares to the experimental nature of these organs and proto synths. They have a quality that really shines being barely electronic. Their analog output and at the time affordability for aspiring pianists and sound tinkerers were a real genuine breath of fresh air as the combination of user simplicity (compared to the organs and pianos of the time) and quality craftsmanship were a good selling point.
And while they seem primitive now, the Baldwin Fun Machine and others that came later like the FM enabled Yamaha keyboards ushered a whole new genre of music (The 80s) and today many of these machines are lovingly kept to be admired by a new generation. Thank you for giving this odd machine a new home, and keeping it alive for others to enjoy and watch!!
That machine looks…enjoyable. They should have called it the Enjoyable Machine!!!
Nah they were having way too much fun during production 😅
So much fun! I got one for $50 a year or two back. It works, light and all.
Them drums sound mighty tasty!
Surprising ASR button! What looks like the well known abbreviation for "Attack, Sustain, Release" at first, here is for "Automatic Solo Registration" (position 6:40). Could be a nice question for a vintage electronic instruments quiz. Thanks for sharing another awesome video including this look inside for modding the Fun Machine. All the best :-)!
I like it, has a kind of soulful sound
Really neat that they printed the traces on the component side of the PCBs. Makes debugging a lot easier!
I do enjoy your technical descriptions and experiments!
Bravo Steve ,you just did another Great video of this Baldwin Synthesizer
explaning it's musical posibilities showing your great knowledge and experience on this matter !!
Love it, the ultimate tuned circuit. These videos are brilliant. Thanks for your hard work.
That was fantastic Alligator clips quite A Ghost playing the keyboard Certain tv shows had sounds like this Nano Farads Very nice
I love this thing
Man I'm glad I've stumbled over this channel. Some great content! Something about the sound of organs has always fascinated me. Could watch and listen to these for hours!
Thank you very much! :)
What a lovely leisurely fade in! :D :)
Hey Steve great video and also sweater
Hey, thanks!
Amazing startup, I didn't know you own a teleporter device as well....
Great Funmachine and well explained, it seems your technical knowledge, is growing with every cleanup and repair you perform.
Tip of the day: You have to be careful with that fiberglass stick, it works great on keycontacts and others.....
But you'll better wear some mouth protection because the fibers are flying all over the place, and it gets itchy on the skin as well....
It has been fun to see you playing the Funmachine, another fine video , I did enjoy !
I have one of these machines, but it no longer lights up, I wish it did. It looks great in this video all illuminated and full of life.
Lovely stuff.
"Don't try it at home... fortunately, I'm not at home, so I'm okay."
I never understood why AUTO MUTE was called AUTO MUTE. But I loved the effect...
Love the backlit label panel. :D
The rattling transformer is probably a ballast for the fluorescent light, might he full of PCB oil! Fun
Coming from one who would stick car keys into electrical outlets when just a wee lad, those shocks are velly good for the system! Love this Fun machine, but I do wonder if the next year's model would be the "More Fun" machine, or perhaps the "Slightly More Titillating, But Not The Same" machine? Really nice job with the octave circuit!
Thanks very much! I can certainly think of a few "I've had my fun" organs
Your little one liners are splitting me gut😂
"Keyboardy things" 🤣 I love this guy
It’s got more polyphony than my 2020 Roland fantom lol
I noticed my farfisa vip-233 divider cards had an unfilled lower section, i could populate for another lower octave. Prob need to add another buss for keys tho. Back to your fun machine....didnt think It could be fun but it was.
It's definitely fun
This channel gives joy in every home! 👍🏻
A great mod could be adding a modwheel with a "variable thing" "plugged" in the mysterious components you were talking about with a -/+12 semitones action on the global pitch. (as you guess I don't know anything about electronics....)
Thank you :)
Did I hear a snatch of Chorlton and the Wheelies at one point? If so could you play the whole thing some time. It's a banger.
Yes haha! Littelll lehdie !!!
Does look fun.
Why not put an integrated frequency divider like a CD4024 between the master oscillator and the top octave divider? It transposes the notes down a perfect octave and in addition gives even lower octaves.
Fantastic! Thank you! Something I wouldn’t have considered as I only really know about old style circuitry
The little accompaniment section gives me MK1 Mellotron vibes
Dangerous can be fun! Cheers!
Ahh, when you can only afford to put in one voltage controlled filter - you make the most out of it! I like the many uses of the retriggering. I wonder how many songs actually capitalize on “that” sound - as far as I know, the resonant filtery sound on “das model” sounds like they were using a single retriggered filter…
Fun!
More fun than 10 dogs and a cattleprod
The keybed seems to be like from the Roland SH series. They do double triggering quite often. Anyway, this instrument is more an organ, not a synthesizer... since you cant change/edit the presets.
Ha! Love your Atmosphere parody.
A fun looking machine indeed! BTW the voltage in that oscillator is probably very low. Normal small-signal transistors can only work up to 35V, or so, before breaking. Typically 12V or something like that, is used in transistor circuits. And if the capacitor voltage rating would be exceeded, it would spark over and short circuit, not get warm.
Thanks for the info! :)
Touching random wires in the back - well is good to be young.
Thanks for this! We recently acquired two of these at our local makerspace, and I would like to implement an octave switch using your hack. How much total capacitance did you end up adding?
I'm putting that mid on my fun machine!
Good luck!
2:13 Unmistakable sawtooth wave.
I used to own one of these, bought it from Quggins in Liverpool in 1998. Sold it to JT Soar studios in Nottingham a few years ago. Nice to know there’s more of them out there. Probably shouldn’t have sold it. #regrets PS I’d hide the switch underneath, I forget if there’s a line out too, but I always thought a line out would be helpful. Mine also had a missing inlay in that spot above the rhythm controls. Funny.
Cheers Ali - yes good idea. I think the switch would fit on the key contact cover. Yes there’s a line out under the console. The audio on this was part DI and studio mic
@@VintageKeysStudio if memory serves it cuts the main audio when you plug anything in, as it’s a headphones out but maybe I’m wrong? Anyway, lovely to hear one again. I’m worried it is my old one and the laminate at it’s feet, I was gonna send JT Soar, I’ve lost along the way. I’m gonna keep looking in case it is. If I find it and it is I’ll send it your way.
@@apow3rs yes it is a headphone out - I got this one from a house clearance in Tring, but you never know. Thanks very much :)
It can sound like a 303 being pitched downwards like that cool machine
You almost has Ghostbusters going there.
My fun machine took a sh#t and died! Ive been bored ever since. But my Baldwin Orgasonic was absolutely unkillable. I may be mistaken but i believe you have one in the background there.
Sadly not :(
“Dusty Switch” should be one of your aliases.....
I had one of these once, I found it left for the trash, later I would find out why; it would work for a time and then stop working correctly. I would throw it out again because even if I had repaired it to factory spec, it still would have been a tiny little chord organ.
2:12 Low blow
Can someone direct me to this sort of approach to oscillators? Like, i thought L,C oscillators just have one frequency. So what is it called when you have just one oscillator and then i guess some sort of voltage divider thing afterwards? I really just need vernacular terms so I know what to read,
Maybe LC Oscillators into a top octave generator?
Wonderful Video 👍
Am curious since it's been several months if you've noticed any adverse reactions from the board? I would really like to perform this mod on mine as it opens up so many new doors. Cheers
No noticeable change. I find having a switch on the octave and returning it to normal pitch when you turn it on and off, just incase it does anything to the old ICs, is better than having it on all the time.
my fun machine makes a hum noise, why? does it use some kind of large light bulb in the front?
It's neon I think. Probably needs a replacement, or the starter. Unless the hum's from the speakers, then you've probably got bad caps and more potential issues down the line.
Minor Bar [tm] a.k.a Minor Touch [tm] (on later models)... an un-PC stroke of genius from Baldwin's marketing dept.... 🤣
Hahahaha
I see Yamaha PS in the background. Which one is it? I owned PS 20 and PS 30 and the latter is great with the solo section.
It's a Yamaha PS 20 in for repairs. We hope to do a video on it soon.
@@VintageKeysStudio great, this is nice oldschool piece of gear. th-cam.com/video/DoLhUho54HI/w-d-xo.html&
Good for gigging, does it take an instrument cable? lol would be hilarious
Yep!
it's pretty heavy by itself, let alone with a flight case
Hey! Does it have an input to connect it to an amp?
It has a phones socket just under the accompaniment keys, so you could use that
The note G doesn’t work, what can i do? Thx
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Utterly berserk monster cheese-fest! 🤪🧀🤪 How do you keep a straight face? I was spluttering my tea about sitting here...
The start of your video scared me. I thought you were a gasp/gouhl, but still don't know for certain you aren't able to morph from transparent to a solid.
Yes, I can usually materialise and then completely dematerialise at will, but that day I was just playing with the settings
So is the Baldwin Fun Machine actually fun?
I used to love playing ours until the minor touch bar stopped working