In our series ‘Pile of vintage synth brochures‘ we now present the Synton Series 3000 modular synthesizer
This synth was created in 1980 by Dutch firm Synton, lead by Felix Visser. As far as we know not many systems are around – which is quite a shame as the specs and flexibility of this synth was brilliant, and it didn’t cost a lot of money. You could say that this was one of the first ‘budget friendly’ approaches to get modular synthesis with smaller modules available. Being no DIY system the modules could be purchased separately.
Of course these ideas were taken over later by designers such as Dieter Doepfer, who introduced the Eurorack compatible modular synthesizer.
Some of the modules are based on the then popular CEM (Curtis Electronic Music specialties) chips, such as the CEM3320 VCF and CEM3340 VCO.
This is one of the original leaflets specifiying the Series 3000. We included the brochure as downloadable pdf at the bottom of this post.
Below is a list of products and modules available at that time.
- 3003 KBI
Keyboard interface - 3004 4ATT
Quad Attenuator - 3005 EGR
Discrete ADSR with manual trigger button and LED. - 3006
Multiple, 4 cv out with potmeters - 3010 VC-EGR
Curtis-based ADSR with four CV-inputs. Uses CEM3310 - 3015 MXA
3-1 mixer with unity-gain input. - 3016 MXI
Half-size mixer with one unity-gain input and one variable invertible input. For adding vibrato to keyboard CV and other simple tasks. - 3017 VCF
State-variable 12 dB filter. One output is Band pass, the other has a control for low-notch-high pass. Uses CA3280 - 3021 VCO
Uses a Curtis chip. Triangle, saw and variable pulse outputs, hard sync and PWM inputs. Uses CEM3340 - 3022 DIV
Half-size binary pulse-divider with 2 / 4 / 8 outputs. Useful for making sub-octaves. Logic 0/10 volt output, so you may need to shift and attenuate. - 3023 LFO
Half-size LFO with reset-input. Variable waveform pulse and triangle/sawtooth outputs. - 3024
Line output amp - 3025
Mic/line input amp - 3037 PPG
trigger sequencer/ voltage controlled puls generator - 3044 DMX
4 channel de-multiplexer - 3209 VCA
Dual VCA with positive gain-offset controls. This can be used for feeding a sound to the output without an envelope while testing or tuning. Uses CA3280 - 3211 PRM/NRG
Ring modulator, white/pink noise with level control, VLF noise with level control. Uses CA3080 - 3216 DIV
Dual divider - 3218 INV / SLR
Dual inverter with offset controls (also used as variable voltage source) and slew limiter with rise and fall controls. This can be used as simple AR envelope. - 3223 2LFO
Dual LFO with VC speed. Square and triangle outputs. Uses Ca3080 - 3224 High-low pass 24 dB VCF
Uses two Curtis chips, one for high pass, the other low pass. Both are 4-pole 24 dB/octave VCF’s. There is a CV input to control low pass resonance. Uses CEM3320 - 3233 S&H / LFO
Sample and hold with clock and LFO. - 3235 ENV / CPR
Envelope follower and comparator with reference level control. - 3242 MMX
Dual two input analog switch - KBM 35 Keyboard
44-key monophonic keyboard with touch pad rather than wheels. Scale control. - PS401
External power supply, Use 78GU and 79GU regulators