Sequential Circuits Six-Trak

Its i doodle to use, just type in a parameter and adjust it with the (single) rotary edit knob. Even if you dont know what youre doing, eventually you'll end up with a good sound. The manual is necessary if you want to find out about the hidden functions regarding midi- modes, etc.

Its got 6 oscillators of a rather basic VCO-VCA-VCF structure, one global lfo, pulsewidth modulation, a 4pole lowpass filter with resonance and 3 ADSR's for pitch, filter and amp. No effects, but a basic sequencer and MIDI! All parameters are midi-cc controllable, which is widely regarded as its best feature.

This is a basic analogue synth, so the sounds arent very realistic. Good for blippy sounds, pads (in poly mode) and leads in unison mode.

Mine's been around 15 years and it's in great shape. (Could be because it used to belong to a christian congregation...

Sequential vanished some 10 years ago, but www.winecountrysequential.com have parts for it and I guess they provide some info as well.

Its a nice little machine with some good analogue sounds... If you find one cheap I would advise you to buy it, you wont regret it.

The Six-trak is a really simple machine to operate as long as you understand the basics of subtractive synthesis. Editing is done using the menu (which is written on the casing for those of us who haven't time to commit every page of the manual to memory). The parameters range from coarse tuning to overall voice volume and are essentially divided into seperate categories for oscillator, filter, amplifier, envelope generator etc. Each parameter has a number which is entered using a keypad when in program mode and a value control knob to adjust the level of each parameter. Once edited patches can be stored in any of the 100 memories. The presets are generally good although they can sound pretty thin when used in solo lines. Some of the pads sound great when playing chords such as the Angelic Choir (very Simple Minds 'Theme For Great Cities) but the main feature of this machine is the stack mode. This essentially allows up to six part multi-timrbality of any of the patches to be played monophonically (since the synth has only six note polyphony and can result in some killer basses and lead sounds. A basic arpeggiator and on-board real-time six track (hence the name!) sequencer are also provided. All this and MIDI too!
The manual in my case was particularly nightmarish since it was written entirely in French (how I was glad I'd payed attention throughout my schooldays) but what the hell...I only payed #400 for a great analogue synth by one of the leading manufacturers of their day! If you are lucky enough to have an English manual then it should be fairly comprehensive (since my attempt at translating my own proved worthwhile...oh those hours with a French-English dictionary).

6-note polyphony 100 programmable memories No effects (sorry '90's DSP people!) No expansions Basic MIDI modes On-board sketch pad sequencer (all real-time and easy to use) Built in basic arpeggiator (up, down, up/down!)

Sorry but no velocity or aftertouch, no effects, nothing...just good, wholesome, old-fashioned analogue fun! If you want a great general purpose analogue synth to sample sounds from or to use in conjunction with an existing set-up then but one (but don't pay too much for it...retro fever brings out the worst in people!). Great for dance tracks. Need I say more.

Reliability? I've had mine for 13 years now and it has once lost all the memories which cost me a weekend reprogramming it! However other than that once it is a fairly reliable piece of kit, sturdily built, but does have a tendency to de-tune (this can be fixed easily using the auto-tune function which shoud be done after switching on.)

Never attempted to trace or stalk company members! Never needed a repair job. Not bad considering I bought it second-hand in 1985!

I would definitely buy another one...it's like part of the family now. I also own a Roland Juno 6 (my first!), Yamaha CS1X, Emu EMAX, Casio RZ1 (fab kick drum), Emu Morpheus, Korg Wavestation SR and have toyed around with various others over the years. I wish it had some effects but that's why God invented Zoom and Alesis.