Can you make it free for former citizens of the GDR? after all these sounds were "Volkseigentum" already. By the way, sure militarization is a heavy burden on economies, but in your "explanation" of the GDR economy you forget to mention all kinds of free social services and a structurally effective health system.
Hahaha, Volkseigentum! And why should anything be "kostenlos?" Jeder hat seine Ausgaben, und wer jetzt seine Rechnungen zu bezahlen hat, dem nützt der frühere "Sozialstaat" nix. "Subvention" ist euphemistisch für "Korruption"
Are you based out of Berlin? It would be nice to see some old record players from the 20s that would have been used for illegal swing kid parties to play "black music" the first raves in Berlin, though I understand this was more popular in Hamburg. Always spinning!
Every single East German product I have come across in the former USSR (RFT cassette player, Ruhla digital wristwatch, 16-bit Robotron computer) has been of exceptional quality and unique and special design. It's not surprising at all to me that this Vermona drum machine has its fan base, and it's wonderful to know that the company's legacy lives on via HDB electronic. Thank you Hainbach for your work!
Yep. There may not have been a ton of variety (mechanical watches and cameras too), they were almost always very well built and robust. And also often very easily recyclable as well! Which makes sense for a planned economy really - no concern about quarterly turnover, but a lot of concern about total brass spent on watches.
@@kaitlyn__L I still wear an 'Ostblok' wristwatch as my daily watch. Marketed to the west as 'Saxon'. It's never been serviced and still keeps time. I also have 3-thread overlock sewing machine (like a block of iron)made in East Germany and it is perfect. Clearly the same brilliant people who built machines before the partition still existed in the East.
@@baronmeduse exactly! I’m really glad your mechanical watch still works well :) I’ve got a couple small mechanical clocks from HK from the 70s and 80s but they regularly run into issues needing the gears realigned. It’s a world apart in reliability.
I found the same with some of the Lomo mics I have: exceptionally well built! I guess it's not hard to defy expectations given the popular ideology that everyone in "really existing socialism" except for the leaders was starving and wearing burlap sacks.
It's like having early 80's Depeche Mode in a box isn't it! Considering how popular they were in DDR before the wall came down that may well be the sonic signature they tried to capture! The story of their East German popularity is well captured in Dennis Burmeister and Sascha Lange's 'Monument' book.
In my memory, Vermona was well-known in USSR among pop singers (called "estrada" singers). First my encounter with Vermona was in 1994, it was Vermona Piano-Strings. Still remember its soft and warm sound . My friend used to modified it to produce some new sounds. Such a lovely memory. Thank you for the video!
I wanted synthesiser badly when I was 10, my parents here in Poland ordered one in 1988, we got it in 1989 and it worked for 3 hours. Never came from the repair as they didn't have the parts and later manufacturer got liquidated. It was Unitra Eltra, I don't remember actual model.
I remember that in the 80s before the fall of the wall the Vermona amps and mixers were also sold in the West by Conrad Electronic (mail order retailer)
So it was called the Digital Rhythm Machine despite being all analog? That's wild. In modern times we try to call stuff analog despite using digital oscillators!
Videos like this are truly a gem. Hainbach takes time and care to make sure we understand the historical and cultural significance of early electronic music and the tools those musicians used. The way you document this equipment is unlike anything I've seen on RU-vid. Every episode is like a mini documentary. Thanks for your hard work and patience!
Great episode! I feel it could be even better in German, as it is the native language in this case. RU-vid handles the translation and captions well enough and many people understand enough German to follow along anyway I believe.
Your videos really helped my 4 year old learn about rare analog drum machines, it's way better than that cocomelon stuff. she always asks for "the glasses man" (: thank you so much
It would be awesome if this company would make Reason Rack Extension and/or VSTs of these iron curley age creations! Red Rock Sound is a russian developer that I guess it would quite love to get involved with the original creators...!
Thanks for this great insight. We can learn a lot from DDR and also Cuba in regards to do a lot with limited resources. We need to gradually stop relying on things being made elsewhere, like China and Taiwan, and get back to doing things with pride in quality and design ourselves.
10:54 The Rhythm Ace FR-1 (1965) let you combine the patterns by pressing multiple buttons. I think all the Rhythm Ace models did, including the Multivox FR-3.
Sehr interessant. War mir bis dato vollkommen unbekannt die Verona DRM. Überhaupt, die ganze Elektronikszene in der DDR war einem kaum bekannt, hatte damals tatächlich n DDR Electronic Sampler auf LP gehabt. :D
Loved this video....the history, the company, the products, and the family(ies). I have a Vermona Perfourmer MK2 and absolutely love it. Planning to get a DRM1 MKIV as well. Thanks for sharing!
I have a VEB Klingenthal Trickverzerrer. It’s a gnarly fuzz, but i love it. It’s sometimes labelled as Dr. Böhm, not sure if it ever was produced under the Vermona brand aswell. That’s my only GDR piece of Music Equipment (so far)
Those are interesting, I gave away a few for "Secret Santa" at my favorite guitar forum but I still have about 5 of those (bought rather cheap around 2000 on eBay and eastern European auction sites)😁
Thanks for this video. The DRM1 MKII was my first real drum machine, and I've had it for a long time. I finally traded it to a friend last weekend as I've had the MKIII for several years. I love seeing more of the history of Vermona. The OG one looks gorgeous, though I love the ability of the later generations to shape sounds so extensively. I'm hoping to add a PERfourMER to my studio soon. Long live Vermona!
Знакомые немецкие клавишные инструменты Vermona от Piano- string , электроорганов Formation и синтезаторов, до ритм- машин и интерактивного клавишного инструмента Vermona SK 86 . В СССР на них играли многие музыканты- любители.
I've just discovered your music on Spotify an it altered my view on music. This is the first time I've listened to this genre of electronic music. It has a psychedelic vibe to it. Amazing! What kind of genre is this exactly?
The companies name was VEB Klingenthaler Harmonikawerke, not VEB Klingenthal. Klingenthal is the name of the city, and just one part of the companies name. Like in Bayerische Motorenwerke.
Hats off to the old electronics engineers. Especially those limited by means under socialist rule. I'm 58 and I loved my first little Casio VL1 set at 05050505. I'm curious how many made it into the Communist bloc. [edit] Ah I see the Russians had their own version, the Russian Elektronika IM-46 , when I searched for a Casio VL1 emulator. I see the originals can be had for a song!
Great format. 🎶👍 Nobody wanted GDR Stuff after the wall came down. Rightfully. But it changed around 2010 in my opinion. All of the sudden People payed higher prices for all kind of different old GDR stuff.
Made in 1987. Were any units actually delivered before the fall of the Iron Curtain? Maybe there's an archived waiting list around somewhere in Musikwinkel. Some customers should be due for their new units about now, by DDR standards.
I'd rather you could call the eastern military union the "Warschauer Vertrag (Warsaw Treaty)." It was not a "Pakt (pact)" but a response to the creation of NATO.
Lets build a new world with the good of that (if any) and the good of the other side {if any) but no parties to control anyone! All the workers of a company decide what they produce when etc! And all the workers equal! One worker One Vote Is so simple! No capitalism AT ALL nor the historic try of east europe and USSR an updated extremely different approach on socialism could work just fine ! Thank you Hainbach for another nice Video Greetings from Greexe
This history of Vermona is really fascinating! I only knew Vermona as high-end Eurorack modules (I love the Melodicer) but even though I live in Germany (albeit only 12 years) I've never heard of them outside of Eurorack. Thanks for the enlightenment, Hainbach/Stefan!
Highly interesting video, thank you! I would love to know what drum machine was used on "TV-Show" by Die Puhdys, maybe a Vermona? Also, does anyone know why the East German musicians called an electronic rhythm unit a "Herbert" (Herbert-in-the-little-box")?
There were musicians using Japanese stuff, but they were privileged. Vermona was the only stuff the normal musician could get and pay or second hand from the West. Our PA was a power mixer with large speakers and no stands. About microphones I didn't see it in the music store.
Like a Linn. I want one. Has it got USB-c lol.. I would love to work for this company. I would love to see more videos like this especially the old East Germany .
Хотелось бы увидеть подобный сюжет о легендарных клавишных Vermona. В 80-х играл на них. Много прошло через мои руки… И даже сегодня являюсь обладателем Vermona Formation 2. Спасибо инженерам Vermona! Это инструмент для души!
Yeah...Great Video. I was a Teenager in the 80s. I loved all the new sounds and music that came up in the 80s because of new Synthesizers. I always had the dream to get one. But no chance at that time. Got my first one end of 90s. Guitar was way cheaper...😜 Today i only work with PC. But i still have my first Synth under my bed. 👍
I find it kind of amusing how the SK-86 aped a lot of the design trends begun by the DX7 and latter Junos (but also followed of course by almost everyone eventually).
the word "because" is also fair to use for socialist industries, because capitalist industries are also socialistic. modern industry in general has positives and negatives, and one of the negatives the world over is entrenched bureaucratic and office politics that prevents businesses from operating more efficiently, by any metric. The ones in capitalist countries are just under the private dictatorship of whoever is wealthy enough to own them, instead of ostensibly being public property carrying out some greater democratic mandate, as in socialism. Since the problem of top down bureaucracy is common in modernity in general, it's probably a by product of the industrial technologies shared by modern economies in general, rather than ideological differences that happen to also map to age old geopolitical rivalries.
this was amazing I was just looking to get more info of vermona since I moved to warszawa and saw all the vermona organs and amps in the marketplace! Hope you can do a video about UNITRA brand someday as well!
Very interesting! I once had two Vermona E-Pianos, which were unfortunately very simple. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to test the Vermona synthesizers from GDR times. Thank you for the video! 🙏
i have one of these in my cellar. Need to reactivate ot some time. There is even a special cable which give single outputs for all the instruments. Very cool video, thank you for that.
I kind of expected to see a few of these landing in the trees while you were talking, playing a short beat and then flying away, perhaps heading south for the winter.
@@Hainbach A lot of the choices in GDR manufacturing were made by what was available at the moment and can look downright bizarre from a current-day perspective.
This is a kick ass documentary. The story is told so well, and the music is outstanding!!! Where can I get a good sample of that snare on the first drum machine?
Ostblock 808 ist ein lustiger Name. Aber vermutlich wäre der Name eher nach dem üblichen sperrigen Schema gebildet worden. (Weshalb man abkürzen musste. «Mikroelektronisch taktprozessiertes und programmierbares Mehrfach-Rauschformungs- und Wiedergabegerät zur rhythmischen Begleitung sozialistischer Musikdarbietungskapellen»
Hammer. Sandy. Piano und Piano String als auch die normale Rhythmik und den großen Amp hab ich auch. Und das Basset. Wohne nebenan im Schacht. So vor 10-15 Jahren war der Rassel noch richtig billig
Nie wieder Sozialismus! Es lebe die Freiheit Es lebe die Liebe und ein HOCH! auf die musischen Künste! Zerzaust von den Zeiten hat der Musikwinkel immerhin überlebt. Ich versteh übrigens nicht, weshalb ausgerechnet unter Künstlern heute so viele von totalitären, meist linken Ideen begeistert sind....
Total klasse. Ich habe nicht erwartet, dass in der DDR soviel Fachwissen und Technik in reell produzierten Geräten verwirklicht wurde. Deinen Beiträgen kann man gut folgen - bis auf die Sprache: Bitte sprich, wenn du einen deutschen Interviewpartner hast, in deutsch mir ihm. Zum einen vermeidest du die gestelzte Übersetzung, zum anderen kann der Gesprächspratner sich auf sein Fachwissen konzentrieren und muss sich nicht Gedanken über die Übersetzung machen.
