Sequential Circuits Six-Trak

Not as cumbersome as some people indicate -- individual, menu-based parameter selection was a newer method for the time to be sure (much more common now), but one gets the hang of it in no time. A user has all the parameters laid out neatly on the board just like a modular synth, its just so happens that one knob is assignable to them all, rather than having a dedicated knob for each. Of course you do lose some real-time functionality because of this, obviously you can't tweak multiple parameters simultaneously (the MIDI does remedy this), but I don't feel that it detracts in any major way from the strengths of the synth.

Polyphony is 6...no touch-sensitivity, but the feature's not really necessary given the kind of sounds this unit produces (in a word...spacey). No built in effects, but nothing a couple of stomp-boxes couldn't remedy. No expansion, but it has full MIDI manipulation...meaning, if you had to have that real-time parameter control, one could hook up, say, a Behringer controller keyboard for this purpose. I've read the Max has this same ability, rendering it an extremely underrated synth, as I believe the Six Trak to be. It (the Six Trak) has a concise and FANTASTIC onboard sequencer for a synth built in 1983. You can sequence six different patches and produce some very nice ethereal soundscapes. Listen to the track 'DreamScape' on my band's profile (myspace.com/technologicalsun) for a sample of this feature. The sweep going off the background during the main melody was generated by the Six Trak's sequencer.

No expansion that I'm aware of.

The sounds produced by this unit are among the most underrated and overlooked of any synthesizer, analog or digital, ever produced in my opinion. Six...six oscillators, that can be stacked into a monophonic patch. You can produce monstrous Moog / Pro-One like leads to very delicate oscillating sweeps and everything in between. With enough patience, and a thorough understanding of the parameters you can approach Prophet-5 sounds with this unit.

I've read opinions ragging on the menu-based editing, and I've even heard some complaining that it has a 'thin' sound. Such views are either a complete falsehood / BS, or the person who advocates such a view never really got into the nuts ans bolts of this instrument.

My unit was rained on (kept indoors ever since), and urinated on by a dog, and it still boots right up after 12 years of ownership. I haven't even had to replace the battery in that time!

Would go to Wine Country (where else can you go with SCI defunct now 22 years?), but I've never had to. May send it over for a 'tune-up' in the near future, though...

Absolutely awesome machine, one of the ultimate analog IMO when you consider that you get that phat sound with full MIDI capability. Maybe 30 knobs would have been nice, but a minute pric to pay given the incredible sound of this synth

Latest software by Wine Country.

If you can use a one-vco synth such as the Yamaha CS01, then you can use this. Only one knob for parameters, but the legend is printed on the front panel so you can't lose it and it's simple to type the relevanty number in... after a while they're in you memory anyway - 19 = filter cutoff, 29 = cross modulation... etc

Only a 8 because it obviously easier to have one knob per parameter, but it's really not that hard to use the data entry system.

6 note polyphony, 1 more than a Prophet 65 :-) , no FX, MIDI is pretty good - all aspects of the synth respond to MIDI in and SysEx dump of entire memory is a synch. Keyboard not the worst I have played, but not a Bluthner either.

On board seqencer is very cool, very easy to use and MIDI clock syncable to other equipment - six tracks (hence the name) and individually erasasble (unlike the JX-3p, where you have to dump the whole thing if you play a wrong note).

Arpegiator is worth a very special mention - it goes up... it goes down... ok so far...

but it is the Assign mode i use a LOT - it plays the arpegiated notes back in the order you hold them down... an live programmable arpeggiator! beautiful. You can then hit the hold button or pedal, freeze the pattern and play along with the arpeggiator - in a different voice! Beautiful. Klaus Schulze loved this same feature on the Prophet 2000 and used it on gigs. Only gripe is that it is not transposable on the Six Trak.

Beautiful, proper, true, real analogue. It makes Prophet 5 like sounds, big sweeping, filter opening pads, or little whistly things, or decent bass sounds or squarewave modulated ambiences. Needs a bit of bass eq or a compressor to fatten it up completely, but what old synth doesn't have some external treatment.

When i got mine, someone had programmed a *perfect* slap-bass sound into it... very good indeed.

OK, its only one vco per voice, but there are often times when you don't need full Prophet 5 bigness... you can't fit *everything* into the mix.


However, for when you do want a six-oscillator monster sound, you can flip the Six Trak into "stack" mode... in which you can stack *any* six sounds together under one key - it's not just six VCOs, but six *patches* for very expresssive lead sounds.I've programmed a big, resonant, evolving Moog Modular type sound like this on mine which i use a lot.

I got mine second hand, when it was about ten years old and i stll have it (13 years later) and it still works perfectly, even the keyboard.

Two things however... The rubber panel switches have worn out, especially the most used ones. It was not too difficult for me to open her up and apply conductive rubber contact repair - the stuff for remote controls. I'm a bit of a techie, so i could do it myself... but it would be an expensive repair for anyone else.

Also, I've had to replace the memory retaining lithium battery twice.

On the plus side... I once left it endwise on a shelf six feet off the ground... from which it fell onto the floor very heavily, splitting one of the end cheeks...

It still worked!

All i had to do was glue the wood bit back together and you really would have known :-)

would you buy a used synth from me?:

Wine country were fine when i got an updated ROM and schematics from them.

Oh... this was the synth i wanted as a boy... didn't get one till i was in my twenties and it is still the synth i would get rid of last - simply because it sounds so good, and has a sequencer and a keyboard. Try making music with JUST a module :-)

It has a lot of character.

Alone, a seven. With midi controller, like the Peavy 1600 x, a nine.

Six notes polyphony, keyboard isnt anything to write hoe about, the midi spec isperfect for a 1983 polysynth, the on board squencer is nothing I would base a studio off of, but is good for recording quick ideas.

I love the way the synth sounds. Not a bass or pad machine, but good for pseudo-electric piano sounds. I cant say enough about how nice this machine sounds for the price.

Dependable.

Well, SCI has closed, so you are looking at Wine country or nothing... But most old-school techs know how to work with it. I recently had a button replaced for very little cash. Seeing how its twenty years old, thats not bad.

If it was lost I would replace it. I use it in conjunction with my MPC2000. I have an MS-20 to make the sounds it can't. I love the bell like quality it has, and how easy it is to program. But... you need a midi controller to really fall in love with it.
I compare it favorably to anyone thinking of buying a nord lead or whatever. Get this and a midi controller. You wont be sorry. Im not an analog purist, but there is something about real oscilators. I would have liked it if it had six outs, one for each track.
It always helps me make music.
In sum, this is a machine that is worht more than the sum of its parts. If you see one for under $300 in good condition, you should seriously think about it.

It is not so difficult to program if you know how analogue circuitry works; all the 36 parameters are listed in front of you so you just push two buttons and turn the knob.

MIDI IN/OUT, MIDI CC for all parameters, so it can be controlled from an external seq. Also 100 memory patches, quite impressive for 1983. Is in fact 6-part multitimbral, but it only has 6 voices, and the sound isn't too amazing in mono-mode. Unison and the stack-mode is
very phat. The filter and programming features are very good, not to mention the essential auto-tune function, a necessity on VCO-synths, IMO. It has a multiple-osc curtis chip, if I'm not mistaking.

The sound quality is pristine, in Unison mode it's phat,furious and sparkling analogue. You get the greatest basses and leads out of this thing, I can not praise it enough in this departm. Too many people puts it off without having taken the time to program it properly, and that's really a shame, 'cause their missing out on some great sounds as a consequence of this. Just don't compare it to a Prophet or Jupiter or even Juno, the six-trak isn't as good as any of these when it comes to polyphonic stuff. That said, I've gotten some very nice pads out of it, too. But it takes some programming to get there. That's the main thing with this board compared to
other,more acknowledged analogues. I recommend running it through some good external FX, though.
Then it really shines.

Very reliable, but notes hang up when I run polyphonic sounds from my sequencer. Is this fixable? Or is this an uncureable problem with the Six-trak's.
Please email me if you know anything about this. Your help would be much appreciated.

I guess Wine Country could help, if needed.

Great synth for basses and leads, also creates
great FX and some nice keys and pads, too. It is an underrated synth, it takes some time and knowledge of programming to get the best out of it.

This unit is one of the first off the line--not sure what software version though. I've had it since it was new. The "manual" was just a stack of papers stapled together! It was helpful and a fun read.

The presets are basic and cheesy. This was my first synth and I couldn't afford a lot of $$$. I wish I could have afforded a Prohpet 600. Editing the Six-Trak is a bit cumbersome because unlike the Prophet series, it doesn't have lots of knobs to play with-just one main one with a list of parameters printed on the control panel!

It is a six-voice synth, multitambral with an easy to use sequencer. Four octave keyboard, no velocity or aftertouch. No EFX, but hey--this was a basic no-frills 80's synth. No expansion capabilities that I know of, and MIDI implementation is basic; MIDI in and out.

The sequencer is easy to use and uncomplicated. Not a lot of memory there. It's a great tool or "sketch pad" for creating songs on the fly, but not serious enough for pro use. It also ocasionally loses time resolution.

Most of the factory sounds are just so-so. Anyone that says this is an amazing board hasn't heard or played a real vintage synth from the 80's (Oberheim OB series, Jupiter 8, Prohpet 5, etc). But in all fairness, the Six Trak has only one oscillator per voice, so what can you expect. Most sounds have that analog "warmth," but are thin. You can stack up 6 oscillators which provides an amazing sound, but of course that limits polophony to one voice.

As I mentioned before, no EFX.....so pick up a cheap peadal that will fatten up the sound. I normally used a chorus pedal for the Six-Trak back when I bought it. I wish it reacted to velocity. I guess it's not the best synth for all around playing, but a fun board to have in your stack.

I've had the Six-Trak for almost 20 years. It's well-built....solid metal chassis with wooden end "cheeks". It's been on all my earlier gigs and travels well. It does suffer from some tuning problems, but has a self-tuning diagnostic. It's much more reliable than it's older and more revered brother, the Prophet 5.

Never dealth with the company, and they're out of business now. It was in the shop once for a minor problem right after I bought it but that was covered by the warranty.

I don't play the Six-Trak much anymore, but I don't want to part with it. Well, if someone offered me more than $500, I'd take it. It's fun to play with, fairly easy to program and easy to coax some weird sounds out of. I guess you could loosely compare it to the Juno 106 which came out about the same time, but that synth had a much more smooth sound and offered at least chorus as an effect, if I remember correctly.

I wish the Six-Trak had built in effects plus knobs and sliders like its other family members. The extra cost would have been worth the investment. It certainly was fun to gig with when I first started out. The wind sound, filter sweeps and portamento sounds were an asset to the music we made.

The presets in this are pretty decent. If you are a beginner with synthesis, they are nice enough for whatever you are doing (live, recording). However, once you get into editing it gets kind of cumbersome as you are dealing with buttons and not good old-fashioned knobs. I have not had a chance to read through the manual, but i have thumbed through it. Lot's of funny cartoon hands.

If you've read the other reviews, you know all of the technical stuff. No built in effects, but they are not necessary. I believe the chip can be upgraded, I could be wrong though. On board sequencer? You bedda bulleevit. Sweet too.

This is where I go off. The sound is amazing. Warm tones, fat bass. Mixes well in a live setting, sound fantastic recorded. Not velocity sensitive, but it's not really necessary.

This thing is built like a mac truck. Metal chassis, wood panels. I would depend on this if my life depended on it. Or it depended on my life. Whatever...

I have not had to deal with support, but I have read a lot about Wine Country and I have visited their site. They seem like they have their act together.

I must be honest, I bought this with money I didn't have. It was purchased as an investment, because I knew I could easily make a hundred bucks off of it. I made the mistake of plugging it in when I got home. This baby sounds incredibly beautiful and has since replaced my other various keyboards as the primary synth used live. By this. You will not regret it.

Well... Parameters are written on the front pannel, but accessing them can be made only by using 0-9 buttons, which makes the Six-Trak hard to program.

Good features for a 49 keys MIDI analog synth.

Six-Trak sounds as some of the better analog synths! Stack mode is incredible (warm, hot, powerful...)

Seems to be unbreakable, never let me down, one would just need to take care of the connectors. Resists to stage, rain... Audio out is a bit fragile, however.

If I could have again one, I would certainly buy it! I miss its bizarre, fat, heavy, powerful, hot sounds! A good machine for me!

The factory patches are a bit cheezy but quite useable and make great starting points for some fantastic patches!
Patch editing is all done with the keypad and the parameter dial on the top of the unit. Most, if not all of the patch parms are printed right on the top of the unit for E-Z reference! Lots of fun to tweek, even if you do have to do a lot of button pushing...
I WISH a patch editor were available for this machine!
Manual is pretty straightforward, though not really necessary since the info is in-your-face already.

6-voice polyphony (reduces as you stack oscillators)
Six incredible analog oscillators!
No FX but what's to stop you from running this thru a reverb or other FX processor?
MIDI in and out/thru (one connector that can do both functions thru firmware.)
Monophonic audio output (if it had stereo it would be the ultimate inexpensive synth!!)
Has a nifty little six-channel basic sequencer.

Many of the patches are plain AWESOME out of the box, however with a little tweeking you can do anything with this that you can do with most other analog synths...
Like most analog synths I would use this most for dance, rock (especially progressive) Fusion, Funk, and techno!
Does not respond or send velocity or pressure.

Mine has been going strong for about 10 years since I got it, I have had to clean the pots in it ( the parameter pot gets 'crazy' if it gets dirty) but its a solid built synth!
I have gigged with this, and would like to have another analog machine along for the ride as well...

These can still be had at very reasonable prices, and the bang for the buck is very high!
Its the only true analog synth in my current rig
Love the flexibility of programming sounds and the thick analog tone
I wish it had a stereo output- if it did it would be the perfect synth!
it definitely helps make music! I recommend you grab one of these if you can find one!! :)

This little babe is super easy for all normal stuff like patch editing and playing, the reason it doesn't get a ten is that it has a few hidden function that you reach by pressing two or more buttons simultainously -but these are clearly stated in the comprehensive manual so that's not really a problem as long as you have a manual.
Editing patches seemed a bit intimidating at first 'cause there's only one rotary wheel that you have to attach a parameter to, but this is actually good because you examine every setting more this way.

Six voices polyphony -or multitimbrality!!! I can't point this out enough! It has only one multioscillator (saw, tri or pulse -all selectable at once) per voice but you can make stacked sounds wich are detuned to hell if you like! Three envelopes (VCO, VCF, VCA) and one LFO (tri and square), unison and stack. An onboard sequencer which is pretty cool, an arpeggiator with up/down and assign patterns (assign plays the note in the order you played them) and a latch function so that you can arpeggiate something and then play along with another sound on the five other voices -cool multitimbral feature. And the very coolest thing, you can set the arpeggiator and sequencer to sync to an external clock or be stepped by a pulse. I have a Roland TR606 that sends out these pulses if you play with the toms and if I program a cool tom pattern I can control the Six Trak with this and make it funk away with some cool arpeggiated bassline together with my 606 as I jam along on the keyb of the Six Trak! How's that for versatility?!
It also take midi CC to every parameter of the sound so you can easily change the filter in realtime with your sequencer. You can even make it six monosynths by assigning a channel each to the 6 voices and play different sounds and melodies on them all! That's very cool for a 20 year old synth!

The sounds are just marvellous, the day I purchased mine I also played a Prophet 5, a Korg MS2000, a Korg Trident, a Roland SH5 and a MiniMoog and I thought the Six Trak sounded much better than any of the others! To the Mini's defence I must say it was extremely battered and probably quite broken so that might be why I didn't like it that much. But I still think that my Six Trak is way cooler than any Prophet 5!
It's very easy to get fat basses out of it and I have no problem making leads or effects either. If you get into it you can get quite a few kick drums and percussive stuff as well. No velocity or aftertouch but it has a funky mod wheel and a rocking non-springloaded pitchbend wheel so you can get really expressive with it anyway. You can also make it play legato so the sounds envelopes don't retrigger.

Unfortunately mine is in pretty bad condition and actually made out of three scrapped ones, so it's pretty unstable in pitch and I usually have to wait for it to get in tune. But it's pretty stable in it's present condition -doesn't get any worse anyway :) So I guess they are good if in better shape.
I would not gig at all with this nice box, since it's too precious to me.

I mailed the company that took over after Sequential Circuits, Winecountry and they gave me a prompt and polite answer so I think it's good.

This is a gem -I love it, the sounds, the feeling everything is very nice about this synth! Heck, even my girlfriend likes it! It goes excellent with my Novation Super Bass Station, TB303, TR606 and Juno 106 (although I'm selling my Juno to get a Future Retro 777 instead). There are lot's of cheap Six Traks out there so I'd get one again right away, I actually nearly got myself another one since they are so cool. I often start out with some tune I have in my head when making a new son, and I usually take my standard all in all sound on my Six Trak to try the tune out, then I make a completely new sound on the Six Trak that fits better to the tune and after that I add the other synths in various lines.

She's pretty damned easy to use, but I'm still finding new features, and programing new sounds every day.

I dig the modulation wheel on this baby, you can get some crazy Rick James action going on! This is a pretty funky machine. Most of the Sugar hill rap records were cut with sequential gear, like the prophet five and the Drumtrax. Check out my stuff http://drzoom.iuma.com
I use the Sixtrack quite a bit!

This is one phat machine! Check it out in use http://drzoom.iuma.com
But don't bite my sounds!

If you have the manual, very easy to use. Whithout, it can be hard because some options are available by a combination of buttons. Try to get the documentation with it.

6 VCO, 6 VCF, 6VCA. Simple sequencer (not very usable) and simple arpegiator.
All the parameters of a sound can be change by midi controller. The MIDI implementation is fun (volume on controller 36 ;-) ).
You can use it as a monophonic or polyphonic device.
No Midi Velocity for the keyboard, just note send.

Here we are. The SixTrack has big sounds. You can make very fat bass amazing pads or wonderful effects. Programming it is a pleasure, just select a parameter and turn the knob.

It sometimes count from one to six at start-up, need to be tune every 2 hours as a true analogic synth but it's a reliable machine. I use it for gig.

Nothing to say about it.

I would buy it again and again. I'm doing techno and drum 'n bass and it's a perfect device for this (and I think for all the electronic musicians too). I have 6 analogue voices for less 200 $, all the parameters are MIDI, the sounds are fantastic and it's a simple and reliable machine. Sometimes I just play with it during 2 hours, just to turn knobs and hear it shouts :-) If you find one, hear it and you will buy it.

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.