SWTPC PSYCH TONE - Rare 70's DIY Programmable Synthesizer. 

Do you have memories of the Psych Tone? Song and sounds available here www.patreon.com/posts/50176451 VIDEO ABOUT DISPLAYING THE PSYCH TONE IN THE MUSEUM ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8DaiUXuXSAc.html builders livestream on a run down of the sequencer made public here : www.patreon.com/posts/run-through-of-50152499

I hope the individuals who built this watch your channel.

I built one in the early 70's, it had latching push buttons instead of rocker switches. I guess my mom sold it in some garage sale for a buck or two... Also a Paia 4700 shortly after, I passed it along to a friends boys, it was designed and manufactured right here in Oklahoma City and still here. Enjoy your posts.

*sniffs components* "definitely 1970s, 80s electronics" I love it so much😂👌 just like 80s text books

the SWTPC logo on its own is a piece of art

love how they just used a bit of pegboard from their shop classroom as the back of the case :)

Heck Yeah! That is awesome that their names are in there. Way to continue a legacy!

I built this when I was 13. I saved my money for six months and this Popular Electronics issue sat next to my bed the whole time. It's been amazing reliving an important portion of my childhood. Thank You. I'm really hoping to build your version.

Wow. It is unreal how easy a few leds make understanding the sequencer. Well done, LMNC!

I'm just waiting for Aphex Twin to pop up casually in a video so he and Sam can modify random electronic gadgets together...

New to your channel; new to electronic music and modular synths; but not new to digital circuits, computer hardware & music. Sooo, I hear you start explaining the circuit and my my mind does this sudden WHOOSHING of AHAH!! And I realize exactly what this is doing AND I realize that "hey you could turn this into a another synth module!" Which is exactly what you did!! By Jove, I think I'm getting it!! 😊💜

That SWTPC logo would make a great retro t-shirt.

That original is a piece of history. The notes are awesome!

Don Lancaster! He wrote decades of amazing electronics articles. Always well written and well explained projects.

your channel is such a treat to watch. electronics and music; science and art. and the payoff is a hoppin song.

Brother your dedication to bringing Synth DIY and old funky electronics to the masses is bar none. Thank you, I imagine you are always working. You got me into modular.

That PSYCH-TONE font in the article is *amazing*!

You know how much I love and respect LMNC? I let all the ads play all the way through before the video. Every one.

Big win! And itˋs in the right hands, now.

I hope you add a message about the upgrades and repairs you have done to keep the history going.

hell yeah I write my Initials on everything I work on. I need to start writing my entire name.

Love this! The look-knobs, buttons, switches and enclosure-reminds me of an old Rhythm Master I abused/used in an industrial damage band I was in in the early 80s. Man, you are the best!

The notes inside are an absolutely amazing time capsule. I love this kind of stuff.

Yes! Nice Sunday Everyone!! 👋😊

What a great upload! Really enjoy these old kit machines. I was born in Dec. of 72. Began making music with electronics when I was around 12. See the theatre by my name? That's Eastown Theatre here in the D, before it was demolished. In the Late 60's and early 70's it was one of THEE places to play, do drugs, and be seen. MC5, The Stooges, Alice Cooper, Terry Reid, B.B. King, Savoy Brown, The Steve Miller Band, Sly & The Family Stone, King Crimson, Jefferson Airplane, and Chicago, played there first in 69, then Chuck Berry, Joe Cocker, Faces, Pink Floyd, Mott the Hoople, Jethro Tull, Fleetwood Mac, Black Sabbath, Elton, Van Morrison, WAR, The Kinks, T. Rex, Grateful Dead, and The Doors in 70, and 71. It closed it's doors to shows in 73. I'm sure you can imagine why...... It again re-opened to concerts for a short time in 1975 as "Showcase Theater". The second act to play there in 1975, was none other than Kraftwerk. It's very cool you have names and dates of those interested in music tech of the period, all hand written inside. What a treasure, even if those people didn't stick with music tech later in life..... I have a small piece of the fancy sandstone cladding that used to be the front of the Eastown. It can't make melodies however! 😉

Like a kid at Christmas. Loving it.

Brilliant, hope those guys get in touch.

I was high-school class of 74 in Oregon. I subscribed to Popular Electronics. Remember studying that circuit until I decided it wouldn't sound musical enough to suit me. And I was broke. :-$

I remember reading the article for the Psych Tone. What surprises me is how deep the cabinet is. I thought from the article that it would be no more than about 100mm deep!

I have one of these! My dad built it in 71 and gifted it to my son and I. It's in rough shape but it makes kind of a broken tone. I have it on my list to try to get it working again some day

When you sniffed it to determine its historic era... I totally felt like I was watching Doctor Who. That's totally a line that would be written for the Doctor.

Now you have to build 47 of those things chained together for some really weird s&h shenanigans.

Yeah, I'm definitely going to want this as a module or desktop unit. I love stuff like this. Looks like a ton of fun! 👍

I didn't know that SWPTC produced a version of this device. I remember the original February 1971 article for it that was published in Popular Electronics magazine. I used to have a copy of it from back in the day when I used to subscribe to the magazine. Nice to see a video about it. Nice bit of nostalgia.

I had one of those in the day. Loved SWTP kits...

I have no idea what's going on, but it sounds cool.

I am convinced this person could make music using an old blender and some pocket change.

Never been this early. That said, this was super interesting and i hope some of the peo0le that made that module get in contact with you

a lone dog on the prairie was pretty fire

Lol. I like how at 2:41 when it turns on it almost makes the lets go! tune.

Don Lancaster, what a legend! flip-flop ftw

That's such a cool piece of history. Love the signatures inside.

"Our psych-tone goes up to N"

Magical box, of cosmic weirdness and wonder. It's really cool.

I remember listening to Dance the night away by SWTPC, admittedly I wasn't born for another 20 years...

The best Cardbox you can get :-) "Contains 4 Toys"

He's so happy to see that the device he ordered is actually filled with electronics!

Totally brilliant. YT is killing it with the recommendations tonight. Very impressed this project.

Not having the skills, tools, parts and time to do this my own - I enjoy watching your videos about it.

I always sniff my synths and drum machines to confirm the year of their vintage.

Beautiful.

Great work - young people get a lot of stick these days - wonderful to see such dedication, talent and a thirst for knowledge.

Though admirable in theory, I think letting people have access to rare stuff like this will end in tears.

That was one of my favorite episodes yet. The song at the end slams.

1970s bleeps and klonx, gotta love it!

The glue in the cabinet can (potentially) be softened and the cabinet taken apart with a hot air gun. Take a look at Thomas Johnson Restoration videos and he does it all the time, especially with hide glue but he also does it with normal glue although with different levels of success. Keep up the great content!

Damn that's a real piece of history

hahahahahahahahaha mad props for all the flip-flop pictures xD

I really liked this one.

What an absolute piece of history and such a joy to see this system in use! Thanks mate!

I friggin love your channel. The kit. The music. And all the other crazy shit you do! ... I gotta come to this museum! And I can’t wait to see you play live again!

Man USPS tends to "lose" packages all of the time in the states. I guess that could be said for any postage though- good thing it showed up!

So that's where Korg got the inspiration for the Monotribe!

Probably a high school project. Very fun win!

Lex: It's Flip-flops all the way down.

Fantastic find! In 1975 I was 10 years old, so that was before even I got into synths, haha! I never knew these things existed. I think that sequencer logic shares some ideas with the Turing Machine Eurorack module, which is very popular.

It's like a fractal generator, where the notes are coming out in a chaotic random form and yet there is an order to them.

Richard Nicol at Pittsburgh Modular owns a Triadex Muse. It can be seen regularly in the back of his livestreams. He even played with it once. Weird instrument.

Fascinating episode and great song/composition/improv' - thank you...

Very informative, thanks for that. Interesting sounds and wow on the redo!!!

As a yank, class of 75 sounds more like "High school class of 75" to me, but could be a college/university, not sure. Awesome regardless.

Amazing!

I noticed the psych-tone article was by Don Lancaster,, who was famous electronics author, possiibly best known for his "TTL Cookbook" and "TV Typewriter" project that was used by many early computer enthusiasts as a vdu terminal (including Steve Wozniac, one of the founders of Apple I beleive)!

nice getting into that Tom Whitwell's Turing Machine world

Awesome find and what a piece of history. I liked your jam very much

you are fantastic and awesome, I am so glad I actually know you , not just know of you !!! Wow this session was mindblowing synth spectacularnessish ness

I did that on the inside of my Doepfer LC9 case I wrote a bunch of notes to my Kids, as their gonna inherit it, And im sure knowing them they will tear into it, and the modules are cool, with stuff on them so it kind of hyped me up to kind of design the inside of the box, i also included all of the stickers from the strains of herb i was Dabbin at hehehe

Holy cow! I only remember SWTPC from their SS-50 and SS-50C bus 6809 computers.

Had a psych tone about 1972. Still have one of the "tunes" etched in my brain. Want to make a proper song from it some day but seem to lack round tuits. I lived close to SWTPC and had actually visited their offices as well I did PAiA when I went to Oklahoma City one time. I still have a PAiA Gnome in the basement.

Ahaha, "dance the night away" killed me.

Great stuff Sam. Cheers. Lee

You remind me of that one guy in every post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie who is always really eccentric about re-purposing salvaged hardware or technology, but then is eventually thrown through a wall or choked to death by a radioactive mutant.

Would love to see an I/O port installed to allow the SWTP computer to be able to remotely set the sequencer settings. It'd be neat to marry the two bits of hardware together.

Flip Flops now sounds so weird for me. Cool vid.

If you are ever in Melbourne Australia, come visit MESS. They have a Triadx Muse. And, what's that obscure Australian one? Oh yeah, a Fairlight CMI...

I bid on that! Glad to see you won it!

Anything from a violin to an oboe if you could imagine an orchestra completely built from sawtooth oscillators

I was bidding on this and trying to get it cheap! You beat me, you bastard.

I expect that the synths we are building now will become a part of music archaeology in some decades.

Very interesting! From the circuit it looks a bit like a variation on the shift-register-based sequencing of a Noisering, Turing Machine and so forth. Using the inverted outs makes an interesting variation, and it’s cool to see how long that idea has been around.

You're awesome Sam 😱

As a german guy i would never play with your flipflops without my socks on 😂

You’re amazing!

cool find and build!

Awesome 😁 😁 a kosmo module of this would be so tempting!

8:53 you killing me man, proper made me laugh, rincing those sound effects :D

It was the commonness of results like that, compared with the price of these kits (considering allowance rates), that really suppressed the interest in doing electronics back then, IMO.

Also I used punched holes in strip of paper to program old EPROM chip.

I've gotta build one of these things.

Synthesizer archeology ;D