In brief:
This
auction includes:
1) The hard drive.
PLUS
2) The polycarbonate overlay
(very high quality plastic sticker with industrial peel and stick
adhesive on the back, look at the side angle photo to see how thick
this high quality material is, this is the same materials and factory
work as the famous Synhouse synthesizer and drum machine overlays for
the E-mu SP-12, SP12 Turbo, SP-1200, Emulator II, Moog Source, etc.)
which renames 16 of the existing buttons for the new MIDI and velocity
functions that was introduced with Release L for the Original Keyboard,
which allowed ORK systems to have MIDI for the first time (so long as
it had a LOT of retrofitted upgrade hardware in there).
In order to use this as the main or
sole bootable hard drive, this is for someone with a Synclavier II that
has been retrofitted with lots of newer hardware for SCSI, MIDI, etc.
(like the dozens of those custom compact synth systems built/shipped by
Synhouse/Synclav com since 2001) but still has the older ORK keyboard
(not the V/PK keyboard).
It won't work with a factory stock
Synclavier II that only has the floppy drive or floppy plus the oldest
IMI MFM hard drive interface, it must have the 1985-on SCSI interface
(not IMI).
But actually, if you want to use it
just for sounds, if you have a Synclavier II with all that stuff plus
the V/PK keyboard, or a Synclavier poly system (with or without V/PK
keyboard), you can boot from another drive and set this one as a second
auxiliary hard drive for sounds only, you just won't be able to boot
from this one because it's the wrong software for your keyboard/poly
voices. Synclavier software from the 80s and early 90s was very
system/hardware specific, there were at least several versions of each
Release. Most importantly, these are synthesizer sounds, not samples,
so you must have the Synclavier II synthesizer voices to hear these
sounds.
This is not for other samplers (Akai,
Kurzweil, Roland, etc.).
Perfect condition, tested and working
perfectly.
In detail:
This is a bootable modern (relatively
modern, for 50-pin SCSI drives, that is) 3.5" Synclavier SCSI
Winchester drive that is loaded with approximately 2,000 Synclavier II
("FM") synthesizer sounds and software. It is a 1990s style 1gb SCSI
drive, a bare 3.5" 50-pin SCSI drive with no SCSI case or ATS
enclosure, so you will mount it in your own SCSI enclosure (unless you
have the trademark Synclav com 1U Superfloppy rack which has two places
to mount a 3.5" hard drive, beside one Superfloppy drive or
behind/below two Superfloppy drives).
It will ship set in the most standard
Synclavier SCSI configuration, which is terminated and set to be the
main bootable system drive. This means that, regardless of what
connectors you have on the inside of the panel, outside, or
34-36-50-pin adapters it may be going through, this is just to be
connected directly to the Synclavier D24 or D24/50 SCSI card and will
not need any jumper changes or terminator put on it.
The
software:
This Winchester hard drive has a very
rare software Release on it (see the screenshots showing the drive
contents), New England Digital Synclavier Release M for the original
(Synclavier II) keyboard. This very rare software version ORK-MFM is
from April 1987. This was just a renamed version of Release L with just
a few changes. The big changes for the ORK MIDI system were introduced
with Release L in May of 1986. This not only allowed the
never-MIDI Synclavier II to be retrofitted with MIDI hardware (and
SMPTE hardware, better sequencer timing support, etc.), but it also
allowed the never-velocity ORK keyboard to receive MIDI velocity input
with a lot of control and performance controller functions, it
supported real-time clock commands and program changes. To clarify, the
Synclavier could transmit program changes, but did not respond to
program changes due to the expansive nature of the system. The
Synclavier only recorded them to the Memory Recorder and retransmitted
them to provide studio control or live show control for other, simpler
MIDI devices that could make use of the mere 128 selections in the MIDI
specification.
The Music Notation Display was borrowed from the Music Printing option
(still available separately) and added to the standard software,
showing up to eight tracks of the Memory Recorder on eight different
staves and notes could be added, deleted, or changed on this page with
changes taking place instantaneously in the Memory Recorder. One of
these note editing capabilities was allowing the user to add precise
rhythmic justification (autocorrection) after the fact to individual
notes of keyboard performances previously recorded in the Memory
Recorder, using the onscreen Music Notation Display. The Timbre
Displays were much improved with five separate displays, three that
display timbres graphically and two that list information about the
keyboard timbre in numeric form. The Graphic Display showed the
harmonic structure and the volume and harmonic envelopes of all four
partial timbres of the keyboard timbre. External synchronization was
enhanced to allow the recording of a live click track from tape to the
Memory Recorder and simpler live drum replacement through external
clock triggering.
They did a really good job on the special ORK
software. It included a button panel overlay to replace the lower half
of the third button panel and rename those functions. This is
interesting; the old HARMONIC ENVELOPE ATTACK button became the MIDI
button, meaning that the ORK from the Synclavier II system (which never
had MIDI) became the first NED keyboard to actually have a MIDI button
that said "MIDI" on it. The V/PK used one of the blank, initially
unassigned buttons as a MIDI button when MIDI was introduced in 1985,
but didn't have MIDI printed on it until several years later. The new
ORK overlay had buttons for VELOCITY, PRESSURE, MOD WHEEL, BREATH
CONTROLLER, VELOCITY SENSITIVITY and RESPONSE, all things that the
ORK/Synclavier II didn't have, but were cleverly implemented in MIDI.
The buttons allowed the Synclavier II to act as a MIDI slave with full
velocity and pressure sensitivity, adjustable velocity dynamic range,
and to receive mod wheel, pitch wheel, breath controller, and other
MIDI controllers. Most interesting, it allowed a forced MIDI velocity;
by pressing the VELOCITY RESPONSE button, the actual velocity being
transmitted by the non-velocity ORK keys could be set in real time to
output a specific number by dialing up the number with the data wheel
and seeing the number on the LED readout.
The
sounds:
This hard drive is loaded with
excellent quality sounds. These aren't so much the imitative flute,
glockenspiel, tuba, etc. that came in the NED factory disks, these are
more synthy sounds in the tastes of the 90s (a lot of killer sounds,
one of them can be heard in a video on the Synclav com YouTube
channel). The sounds here are all synthesizer sounds.
The photos show screenshots so you
can see some of the contents. One shows the top level Winchester
catalog, which, most importantly, has the .SYSTEM subcatalog, and three
catalogs of synth libraries, FMLIB1, FMLIB2, and FMLIB3. The next three
screenshots show you the three FMLIB1-2-3 library subcatalogs opened
up. Each one of those has additional subcatalogs inside it, FMLIB1 has
20, FMLIB2 has 19, and FMLIB3 has 25, for a total of 64.
Inside each one of those is a bank of
64 custom synth sounds (8 banks of 8 sounds). With the NED XPL file
system, synth sounds existed only in a file named .NEWDATA. Sounds
crazy, but that is how it was, not .NEWDATA1, .NEWDATA2, just .NEWDATA.
Since two files can't be in the same place on any computer with the
same name, each one has to be tucked away in its own subcatalog (like a
folder on a PC). To access those sounds, you just navigate from the top
level directory (W0:) to the library you want, like FMLIB2 then enter
FMVOCAL, and those 64 appear on your A Timbre Directory page, or on the
8 x 8 keyboard button banks if you want to select from there.
However, although there are 64 banks
of 64 sounds each and that would multiply out to over 4,000 sounds,
there aren't really that many because many times the higher number
sounds entries are blank, sometimes because they are Resynthesis sounds
that take more memory, or at least that's how it was with the
Synclavier II, and the sounds here are all synthesizer sounds.
This drive is in excellent condition,
configured to work as a main bootable system drive, and is terminated.
I checked it out myself and took the screenshot photos.
Defects:
None whatsoever, this works
perfectly.
Shipping:
This has been handled properly from beginning to end, and will be
handled properly and properly packed in proper anti-static packaging,
unlike the vast majority of sellers on eBay. As you can see in the
photos, it is touching only proper anti-static packaging and nothing
else. Not carpet, not plastic table tops, not sandwich bags.
The flat shipping rates to various locations worldwide are shown on
this listing.
There is NO remaining way to send
items like this overseas for less, sorry. I accidentally undercharged
on several items recently.
If you are buying other eBay items I
have for sale, let me know and I will give you a heavily discounted
combined shipping rate.
Please see my other listings for
other rare NED software, sounds, and manuals that I may have for sale
at the moment.
Synhouse accepts PayPal.
Additionally, Synhouse has accepted payments directly by Visa,
Mastercard, and American Express for 19 years now.