Recently had to fully test and evaluate an rare old modular synth. Splendid , I thought, a chance to try out another interesting old synth that I hadn’t seen before. Got to the current resting place to find it was an old PPG analogue modular that appeared to be a fair copy of and old Moog modular. Here’s the tough bit, all the controls were labeled in German!

Everything…

Started off by identifying the oscillators (only three – shame). Then had a brainwave, step back until the writing couldn’t be read and bingo everything became recognisable. Reason – it was such a good copy of a modular Moog that the knob layouts started to look familiar so various modules could be identified. From that observation I worked out the EIN and AUS were the inputs and outputs so with a fistful of patch cables the old beast was soon making some great sounds.

One major difference (improvement) was that most module had several control voltage inputs.

The sequencer was such a close copy of a Moog that I ended up operating it without reading anything. But all in all a very nice machine with a very classy filter, capable of some very nice sounds.