Saturday, October 6, 2012

Metasonix Wretch Machine S-1000 TUBE Synthesizer


Metasonix S-1000, the Wretch Machine:

For the longest time I have been focused solely on recording equipment with my tube projects. I used to really be into weird synthesizers back in my circuitbending days. My interest in synthesizers has been piqued lately so now I have come full circle back to them. This time of course I want to make them all out of tubes! This Metasonix Wretch Machine is made out of an awful lot of tubes, that is for sure! I opened the case up just to see what is going on under the hood and I saw not only tubes, but a few solid state bits in there as well. Based on Eric Barbour's DIY projects on Ken Stone's analog DIY synth site I can guess what is going on in there.

Where my designs will differ from these current Metasonix ones is that I will be using true all-tube designs. NO solid state anything in my planned designs! From the tube rectifier, to tube VCA, tube LFO, tube VCO, tube PWM, etc they will stay purely thermionic! I will start with some older TS series Metasonix circuits and tweak them to fit into my Akai/Roberts donor chassis. Anyway, here is the S-100 I currently have to mess around with. Unfortunately I have to sell it, but it will be replaced with my very own modular tube synth based on similar circuits.

By the way, these circuits run on Hz/v CV so I am looking for a Yamaha CS5, CS10, or CS15 to use as a controller. Let me know if you have one of these beasts at a reasonable price. Even if it is broken I can probably fix it.

This is a jam that a friend of mine did using the Wretch for the very first time: