Apple IIe Based Electronic Arts Synthesizer IIe_eBayHTML

Pellegrino's Apple IIe Based Electronic Arts Synthesizer

Listed on eBay (7/29-8/5)/2010

This auction is for an Apple IIe based electronic arts synthesizer. It's a one-of-a kind, first-of-a kind sonic/visual music synthesizer from the studios of electronic arts pioneer, Ron Pellegrino (http://www.ronpellegrinoselectronicartsproductions.org/). One owner, one user.

This description includes 14 photos of what's included in the complete package .

I spent over 3 hours per day over an 11 day stretch checking out every card and every function. The entire system is in perfect working order. I did some cleaning and lubricating of electrical contacts and set a number of multi-pin chips (know that all the electronics on the system's 9 cards were in the early 1980s put in place by SF Bay Area electronic artists (not workers in Chinese factories) and if you're properly grounded those chips welcome your touch). But I must admit that I was amazed that the system I assembled some 25-27 years ago was completely intact and just as seductive as it was in earlier days. In fact, despite my efforts to be disciplined and to work only to test functionality, at one point I had to stop testing to set up my Sony Digital Walkman to record material that was just too good and too crazy to leave behind.

An electronic arts synthesizer is a system for generating and integrating electronic sound and light. I've been designing such systems since the late 1960s when I started creating studios that used analog music synthesizers, oscilloscopes, and 16 mm film cameras and projectors both in studio and live performance settings. Early in the 1970s, after a research stint at the National Center for Experiments in Television in San Francisco, I added video systems to the mix. By 1974 I added optical scanners and lasers. I started looking into plugging digital computers in my systems from day one but what I discovered via all my programming classes and computer music seminars was that I found main frames with their punched cards and mini computers with their paper tape to be infinitely clumsy and boring even after research visits to the powerhouses of the day—Bell Labs and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

It was early in the 1980s when the Apple micros had gained sufficient sophistication and traction to lure the most creative of the SF Bay Area artist/engineers to create special purpose electronic arts modules to fit on add-on cards. By that time it was clear to me that the field was ripe for building an electronic arts synthesizer around the Apple micro and the IIe was to be the heart and brains of it all.

This system was designed over a 3 year period from 1983 to 1986 using hardware/software pieces I collected from all over the SF Bay Area while I was traveling around for info exchanges with other artists. In the facilities of Electronic Arts Productions the system was used as a research tool, as a composition studio, and as a live performance studio and concert instrument until the late 1980s when an integrated combination of a Macintosh, an Amiga, and associated software were phased in to replace it. I also used the alphaSyntauri/IIe system to drive a laser animator but early in 2010 the laser animator was sold along with a Synthi AKS I also used to drive it.

This system embodies the tenor of the times during the early to mid 1980s, a period when Silicon Valley from Berkeley/San Francisco to Santa Cruz was awash in artist/engineers with eyes aglow from ideas born of the coupling of technology and the arts along with all of its promises. You can be certain that Yamaha and its oriental pals had reverse engineered the alphaSyntauri for the conceptual structure of their new synthesizers, the DX7 and its offshoots. Yamaha actually did license the FM research of John Chowning at Stanford for the DX7 but that sort of gentlemanly behavior had a short lifespan; it was much easier and less expensive for the orientals to spy on the SF Bay Area scene and rip at will. The alphaSyntauri system set the conceptual stage for what was to follow for decades in the the synthesizer world but today it still doesn't get the recognition it deserves. The Decillionix sound sampling system is another case in point. It was the first affordable digital sampling system on the scene. Like so much of what was happening in the electronic arts in the SF Bay Area at that time it was created by artists for the play of other artists. The same can be said of most of the graphics programs that make up this system.

Electronic artists of that time, including hardware and software designers, came together for shows and gatherings because they were high on their visions of the future of the medium and wanted to share their enthusiasm and their ideas; but, like most artists, their business sense was not their strong suit and that made their work easy prey for corporations. Some people, such as music synthesizer designers Don Buchla and Serge Tcherepnin, were more adept at the business end, but most artist/engineers just scattered their seed on the field, free-love style, so their ideas and implementations were easy pickings for corporate spies.

This system's hardware includes: 1) an Apple IIe with 128K of RAM, 2), 2 disk drives and their controller card, 3) 2 Apple game paddles and a joystick, 4) a Sider 10 MB hard drive (the largest available at that time), 5) the alphaSyntauri 5-octave keyboard and 2 Mountain Music cards, 6) a Decillionix Sound Sampling Card and Feedback Pot, 7) a Rapid Systems 4 channel Digital Oscilloscope, 8) a Micro Illustrator Touch Tablet, 9), a Syntech MIDI Interface, 10) System Saver (cooling fan/surge suppressor). The IIe has 8 card slots and this system comes with 10 cards so some swapping is necessary if everything is to be used. All the original instruction manuals plus all the software disks and numerous copies of them are included for the hardware listed in this paragraph. Also included are extras such as 1) Wildcard (facilitates copying any disk protected or not), 2) Synthestra (MIDI sequencing software), 3) Passport MIDI voice librarians (for the Yamaha FB01 and any Casio synth), 4) The Visible Computer: 6502 (Machine Language Teaching System), and PRODOS (manuals included).

The graphics programs include: 1) The Graphics Magician, 2) Take 1(animation), 3) Fantavision (animation), 4) Blazing Paddles (painting), 5) Pixit (painting), 6) Dazzle Draw (painting), and 7) Ceemac (animation). During the 1980s the animation programs were featured on scores of public shows I did at universities and museums to give folks an idea of what could be done in the electronic arts with just a microcomputer. The entire set made up teaching material I used in 1983-85 when I taught the earliest university microcomputer graphics classes for non-techies, but in addition to artists in my classes I had people from computer science, physics, music, education, as well as engineers from Hewlett-Packard and other North Bay Telecommunications Valley companies.

The alphaSyntauri is what I'd call a sweet synth compared to its ballsy oriental cousins born just after it. It has more in common with digital music systems that came before it than those that came after it. Its sound cannot be very well replicated by sampling systems because its voice is more like a human voice in the sense that it changes subtly from play to play. Music examples created with this system are available at http://www.ronpellegrinoselectronicartsproductions.org/Pages/EmrgntMusNVisMusCD4/EmrgntMusNVisMusCD4.html on Track 3 - alphaPoints, Track 5 - alphaGlasssongs, Track 7 - alphaSpring, and Track 10 - alphaSunset.

A video example is available at http://www.ronpellegrinoselectronicartsproductions.org/Pages/OhNineVideo/Pellegrino_sNewVideos.html in the form of an Excerpt from Study 3 - Cynthia's Dream. Eleven additional video examples from a related Apple IIe based system are available on Volumes 1 and 2 of Part 2: The DVDs of Emergent Music And Visual Music: Inside Studies http://www.ronpellegrinoselectronicartsproductions.org/Pages/OhNineSiteExtension/Introduction.html.

The Amdek monitor (purchased with the IIe in 1983 is free for the asking but the buyer must pay shipping. It is not necessary to use this specific monitor because any monitor with an NTSC video input will do the job; so I suggest that picking one up locally might be less expensive and of better quality than having the Amdek shipped; but it's the buyer's decision.

The system will be shipped in multiple boxes. One for the Apple IIe. One for the Sider harddisk. One for the alphaSyntauri. One for all the small hardware items and disks. One for the many manuals. And one for the Amdek if the buyer requests it. The listed shipping cost via UPS Ground is for the first five boxes. If the Amdek monitor is requested, an additional shipping cost will be added.

Pellegrino's Instruments Distributed via eBay in the Recent Past


Since the mid-1990s people have been contacting me and trying to convince me to sell them one or more of my classic analog synths, the set of instruments that in 1973 became my road system as well as important players in my Electronic Arts Productions studios. My response to them was always the same - “Sorry, not now. All of them are parts of a grand plan.”

For decades one of my daydreams (the grand plan) gradually took a form that blocked me from selling any of my instruments, analog or digital or acoustic. The dream was both simple and awfully complex - put four decades of sonic and visual music systems which had absorbed vast quantities of my attention into one huge integrated composition/performance system and then play it until the juices ran dry.

Since the 1960s one of my favorite games in designing studios was to solve the myriad communication problems that bloomed whenever one networks systems that were neither designed nor inclined to work together. That was the MO for every project that led to the design of my academic, corporate, and artist facilities. In my daydreams I was actually running thought experiments and looking forward to the opportunity to implement those thoughts on the gear I’d been collecting and playing for decades.

In 2005 I finally bought a place that had a space large enough to accommodate the dream - it had a 1,000 sq. ft. great room with 13 foot beamed ceilings surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on several acres of woods with 150-year old pecan trees, redbud, catalpa, azaleas, dogwood, magnolia, and many other flowering plants plus an always fascinating assortment of Texas wildlife moving around and through the woods. But wouldn’t you know it? That old integrative dream was once again pushed aside and then to the back of the to-do list by the dream that has been my driver since the late 1960s - playing with whatever is most attractive in terms of learning potential in the current crop of emerging technology in the arts plus the time it takes to indulge in the always anticipated pleasure of exploring the great American Songbook on my sweet little 6 foot Yamaha grand.

The upshot is that all the conditions were right for me to assume a different attitude about the instrument pals I had been carrying around with me for decades. Since they were no longer being played there was no way their electronic circuits could possibly be happy. Clearly the time had come to pass them along to others in the fields of music and the electronic arts.

It was in August of 2008 that the process of passing my instruments along to others began. After a bit of research it became clear that the idea of eBay, despite its overall clumsiness in implementation, was the best vehicle for communicating my plans to potentially interested parties. It was also difficult to determine the objective value of the instruments so I decided to leave that decision to people in the field and then just accept their collective assessment.

Here on my site I simply plan to link to descriptive copy and photos that I used on eBay for each of the instruments. Initially including that information on my site was not part of my distribution plan, so a few of the earliest files are no longer available; I deleted them to make space on my hard drives. Nevertheless, I figure the materiaI that remains is probably of historical interest to those inclined toward the electronic arts, especially the techheads.

My list begins with the earliest sales and works forward in time up to the latest sales. As is my usual practice in cranking up a project, I just jumped into the eBay business, struggled to understand its communicative logic (thankfully it's improving with time) and used whatever tools I had available in my studios. So the earliest photos (the clarinet and ARP 2600) were shot with a Sony digital video camera and of course, despite my best efforts with Photoshop tools, leave much to be desired in terms of resolution. But by the time I was ready to release the first of my Synthi AKS synths I had acquired a Canon PowerShot digital camera to help eBay bidders get a better view of what I was offering. As one might expect, the difference in resolution is significant.


The first instrument to fly out of my studios in the summer of 2008 was a professional model Buffet clarinet that I acquired in 1977. The clarinet was my first instrument at the age of nine so it was a good choice to open the flood gate to pass along my other instruments. It went to a Russian musician living in the southern part of the USA.

The second to go was my ARP 2600. I passed up on the highest bidder, a well known European keyboard artist, and instead sold the 2600 to the second highest bidder, a Brazilian artist from Rio de Janeiro who was designing a studio around a collection of classic analog synthesizers. I personally felt more in tune with his spirit.
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Next to go was one of my Synthi AKS synths to a young artist living in the American South who made a good case for selling him the instrument outside of eBay. I have a tendency to lean toward people who seem to love to care for instruments and to bring them up to their maximum potential; he seemed like that sort of person so it felt good to place it in his hands.

Following that, my Waterphone flew out the door. Yes, it is an acoustic instrument but it can create a sound world that overlaps with the electronic sound world. That instrument also went to the second highest bidder, a next step New Ager in the American Southwest. That felt like a good fit too.


Then my Fairlight Voicetracker, again sold to the second highest bidder, made its way to Vienna, Austria to a man who seemed in love with electronic instruments. He held down a medical day job so electronic music and its instruments might have been his great escape.


Following that, my Buchla 200 Series Box went to a New York City pro who scores films and is involved in other high profile projects. It almost went to the second highest bidder who, during the auction, made a strong effort to communicate his desire for the instrument, but the NYC pro knew how to tie up a deal quickly and cleanly so it’s now in his hands and I’m certain it’s getting the care and attention it deserves.


Months later in May of 2009, after I completed the first two parts of my latest major project, Emergent Music And Visual Music: Inside Studies, my second Synthi AKS and Laser Animator as a combination sonic and visual music synthesizer went to a performance artist in Vancouver, Canada. Part of my eBay offer was one month of email coaching to help the buyer get off to a fast start with the system so I’ve had a fair amount of communication with the buyer and I’m confident my Synthi AKS and Laser Animator have found a loving home.


In March of 2010 my trusty analog 4-track deck, the TEAC A-3440, was passed along to a New York State musician who preferred to remain very low profile. But he did say he "always wanted one of these machines" so now he has one. I hope he takes good care of it and it gives him what he desires.


In June of 2010 my Technics RS-1500US Analog Stereo Tape Deck found a new home via eBay. The following quotation from the buyer, a hollywood recording artist/engineer tells the story of where I placed my Technics analog stereo deck:

"I'm in the process of a remodeling of my house … In a month I hope the work will be done and by then I can locate a pair of rack ears to mount the reel-to-reel in a Professional Rack for my home Studio.

I'm an Audio Professional. I have won 3 Emmy awards for my work on Television shows. This unit will be used in a dual process. One, for my pleasure of listening to music and two, to re-record sound effects from digital to analogue tape @ 15ips and then back into a digital environment in order to warm up samples and to color the sound with tube amps and dolby SR noise reduction.

So, as you can see, the Technics tape recorder is going to a very good home and I do not plan on ever selling this unit. I had one of these "back in the day" and have regretted selling it and have looked for at least a year to find a good one in great shape without costing an arm and a leg.

Thank you for a great deal!"

Yes indeed. That helps to ease my mind. I love finding good homes for my old pals.



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