”I chosed the name after several sleepless nights, it had to be a short name that ended with an X, it is likely that Tex Willer also influenced me, at the time Bonelli comics drove me crazy...The graphics, on the other hand, were partly inspired by an electronic components company, with these horizontal cuts that caused a sensation; I submitted the idea to the graphic designer in Elka and they completed the necessary fonts.”
Lorenzo
The Synthex
And here we are at Mario Maggi’s historical masterpiece, the one that finally granted him revenge on Prophet and Oberheim, in the face of greater polyphony and great potential including the polyphonic sequencer, the multimode filter, the chorus, the ring modulator and a price, to say the least, advantageous over the competition. A masterpiece with a troubled genesis but which has finally seen our engineer triumph.
“The Synthex was the logical conclusion of over 12 years of working with synthesizers. To understand this well, you have to look far into the past. However, after planning the series production of the MCS70, I learned that a new device was about to hit the market: a polyphonic synthesizer called Prophet-5. This was the reason. Until then, we had a small workshop with a small number of freelance technicians, with whom we produced the MCS70. I was then forced to stop building 9 more MCS70s that were on schedule and started working on a polyphonic project myself… the Synthex project had begun. For the Synthex, it was clear that a consolidated company with a factory was needed for such a large project.
“I chosed the name after several sleepless nights, it had to be a short name that ended with an X, it is likely that Tex Willer also influenced me, at the time Bonelli comics drove me crazy…The graphics, on the other hand, were partly inspired by an electronic components company, with these horizontal cuts that caused a sensation; I submitted the idea to the graphic designer in Elka and they completed the necessary fonts.”
There was the prototype that was presented to Elka, with a very different panel from the current one: it had no chorus, there was no sequencer, there was the minimum: two oscillators, a filter with VCA, two envelopes and an LFO, the bare minimum. But it already had a sound that was recognizable.
The first draft of the program for the Synthex, a 1.5 Kb program, was made by handwriting the instructions on the paper and typing with the hexadecimal keypad on a low-cost development system, calculating all relative jumps in hexadecimal to hand, there was nothing at all. Then, as the project progressed, a first development system came out where there was an assembler. I equipped myself with this system which basically had 256 bytes of RAM, zero mass memory, there were no floppies, there were no hard disks … nothing.
Fortunately, there was a cassette interface and therefore, with two audio recorders, I could save the programs that otherwise I had to write on paper … in this way, you could save the programs and load them; loading time for a Synthex-style program was 5 minutes…unthinkable for today’s rhythms.
In the two years of realization of the Synthex prototype, (which finally had the microprocessor onboard) it is also necessary to understand the time needed to learn how to write software with primordial tools; at the beginning, to view the program, I had only a twenty-character display, with a single line…I had to read the program one line at a time, then I was able to build a first video card to be able to display more characters all together, but I had to start from scratch because there was nothing available. A few years later I managed to get my hands on the first floppy disc.
In the Synthex there is a single processor – in those days they cost a kidney and therefore its inclusion was considered a considerable luxury – with speeds equal to 1 mHz, the same processor as the Apple II and Commodore 64, the 6502 model still today. in production by the Western Design Center. The antagonist of those times was the Z80, contained in Prophet 5 and, before that, in the Spectrum Sinclair.
I initially offered the project to three other companies before ELKA eventually accepted. First I offered it to Galanti, owner of GEM, then to EKO and finally to Mario Crucianelli, owner of CRUMAR. Especially the negotiations with CRUMAR lasted several days, but luckily for me they finally gave up on the project.
After a few months, I was about to give up..
Then it happened that a friend decided to go to Castelfidardo to have his organ repaired by ELKA. I decided to go with him and bring the SYNTHEX prototype with me to make one last attempt to find him a manufacturer.
The director of Elka’s music department and also the council were extremely impressed with the sound and the many possibilities. And without wasting a second of time, they asked me if I wanted to present the Synthex at the next music fair to test the reactions of the visitors.
Two months later, together with Elka, we presented the Synthex at Musikmesse, with additional features and a new panel. I got to know Elka’s sales partners from all over the world and, in turn, the young Paul Wiffen, who had been hired by Elka UK, and who would also become the Synthex demonstrator in the future.
I arrived in Frankfurt two days late, due to the usual problems of the last second and as soon as I arrived on the stand there were already two distributors waiting to listen to the instrument, I didn’t even have time to leave my luggage at the hotel: I layed the prototype on a counter and I did the demonstration with the polyphonic sequencer.
And keep in mind that, in those days, a working polyphonic sequencer was a sensational thing, especially incorporated into a synthesizer, it was a new experience. Immediately after the Fair, there was a great credibility impact and, in Elka, the decision was made to start with the first series of fifty instruments.
My feeling was that they were too many, I panicked…I didn’t think it would be possible to sell them all (I would have proposed ten machines), they decided fifty and instead they hit the forecast in full because the instruments were literally swallowed by the music market.
Today, the first fifty Synthex can be recognized by a detail: very expensive black painted knobs, of English production, were used. This paint, with use, tended to scratch and lose its satin finish, revealing the black color below.
Later instruments had knobs made directly at Elka, by their trusted printer, which do not have this drawback. However, just to return to market forecasts, they did not have time to finish selling the first fifty that they were forced to launch a new order for another two hundred machines.
It was a continuous rising; there was no time to build and deliver them, the distributors were thirsty for machines, it was an almost tragicomic situation.
In Elka they had a great experience of home organs, and – to facilitate the production line – they immediately proposed the wooden cabinet with the possibility of attaching the independent legs; the instrument was available with a flight case, legs and legs case; dedicated pedals were never produced.
The Synthex price was five and a half millions of Lire at the time; at that time the alternative was represented by the Prophet 5, which in Italy costed seven or eight millions and then Oberheim OBx, in short, there were only much more expensive machines which, among other things, had a lower polyphony and did not have an internal sequencer”
“After the first series of 50, MIDI came out: a sensational novelty; so it became necessary to retrofit the machine. Fortunately, on the Synthex I had planned a multi-connector for the computer interface – before MIDI existed I was already aware of the possibilities of control offered by the microprocessor on the instrument’s voices, to make it do things that were unthinkable for an analog instrument.
Once MIDI arrived, a new printed circuit was made, the EPROMs of the software were replaced and the note on/note off compatibility was obtained, but above all the notes were received and transmitted to and from the internal sequencer.
There is a series of functional features that are now considered a standard, but which have been included for the first time in a musical instrument with the Synthex; I’ll list them: the multimode filter with polyphonic management, the analog chorus on board, the multi lines and multitimbral sequencer, the hybrid oscillators.
In short, the eighteen hundred and fifty instruments built by Elka at the time (and it is no mystery to anyone that, among the “noble” users it is possible to mention Keith Emerson, JM Jarre, Tangerine Dream, Stevie Wonder, Nick Rhodes, Geoff Downes…), today they are the object of a merciless hunt both by vintage collectors and by professionals…
So why, starting from that experience, not doing something even more powerful, analogical and definitive?
After all, I am the owner of the project, which I created together with the name, the logo, the panel layout, the circuit board design and the eprom code, so I registered the trademark in my name.”
This logically put an end to the dream of the Finnish Soundion (which after acquiring the Elka, hoped to be able to manufacture the Synthex as well) but not to Mario’s dream, which for years has been working on the new version of its creature, the Synthex 2, whose indicative images and the impressive specifications can be seen on Maggi’s website, again an authentic innovation in an area where almost everything has already been done and which we hope will soon see the light.
Always been one of the greatest and passionate users of the Synthex, Jean Michel Jarre explains the reason for his love for this synthesizer, which he also uses with the legendary Laser Harp interface.
Click and watch the video of Jean Michel Jarre talking about the Synthex and explaining the reason of his love for this synthesizer.
But what did Mario do, after the Synthex adventure, to what did he dedicate his brilliant inventiveness?
“After Synthex, I made several projects outside the musical world (testing equipment, medical equipment…) and then I made a parametric equalizer, controllable via MIDI, which has the possibility of morphing between the parameters; a sort of dynamic equalization that can be completely automated. On this project there have been long negotiations with Audio Kinetics and Solid State Logic…”
We were also able to find a fascinating testimony of his fraternal friend Templeton, who talks about the days of Synthex creation:
Artwork created by Roberto Bellucci of Elettronica Musicale Italiana, for the first edition of “Museo del Synth Marchigiano e Italiano”.
“Mario Maggi had his own personal philosophy and a unique way of studying and developing his projects. He was ahead of everyone else by at least 10 years. Absurd that the electronics industry has not wanted to support him in his brilliant research.
I still remember very well the problems with the purchase of the special integrated AD-DAs from Intersil and other manufacturers. I knew that fortunately Mario was supported in his research by other young people who helped him a lot, some of whom provided the components for free.
I still remember very well the problems with the purchase of the special integrated AD-DAs from Intersil and other manufacturers. I knew that fortunately Mario was supported in his research by other young people who helped him a lot, some of whom provided the components for free.
For my part, I raked in all the stocks of components of England to find integrated with the right features!
Many of those who still took the bottle in those years, and use this tool today, find it difficult to understand the harsh conditions under which this great and at the same time modest developer had to work in Italy. Hardly anyone can imagine how difficult it was to find a sponsor for a new project.
Mario Maggi has practically always had to self-finance his work, and this also applies to the SYNTHEX. Fortunatamanete has had little help from friends, such as small donations, logistic support, supply of tons of pastries (as fuel for the brain), supply of special components and much more.
But all this was just a drop in the ocean, compared to the dedication and investment that brought this disinterested man to realize his ideas.
It was almost never supported by public institutions and later, it was only exploited by the various companies. Mario Maggi was, is, and always will be, a capable and modest person, without great pretensions except to carry on his dream, kind and generous with everyone, a true idealist.
He is a man who you can trustfully entrust your credit card and wallet with the certainty that he will not take a penny.
He has collaborated with various companies in the field of electronic music (Crumar – Elka). Companies that had a great fortune to have him as a technical consultant, but like all profit-making companies they did not always understand him as a person and as a developer and ended up with wasting his work.
Electronic & Music Maker of the April 1983, article
about Synthex
Mario was and is a friend, a friend of the musicians, of all the musicians, even those he never met but who appreciate him and the tools he built. A person who lovingly commits to explaining the work he has done on Synthex.
If only once had you seen his laboratory, where he spent hours developing the software, reprogramming it, constantly erasing the Synthex eprom to correct this and that error.
If at least once you had spent one of the thousands of nights with him, sitting and destroying your eyes in front of the 14 “green phosphor monitor, at the constant, stubborn and patient work from 3 pm until 3 or 4 am… maybe then you could understand.
And to the friends who teased him about his “obsession” with his work he always answered with a pleasant smile and when he worked he was always in complete serenity: never a curse, not even when, very quickly, he worked simultaneously with the keyboards of two computers , soldered, unsoldered, controlled with the oscilloscope, programmed and reprogrammed the eprom without stopping.
Mario for me was happiness embodied, combined with a competence so unique that he could work in any large research center or at NASA.
But he preferred his world, the world of music and his cellar-laboratory.
Unfortunately, this world he loved so much has hardly supported him, only a few gentlemen among the musicians. Today he would at least receive the thanks of many. But Mario Maggi has not received any thanks from this world. If you look for it on the Internet, sadly you will find only 46 references in various languages about him (starting from October 2004) that have also spoken mostly superficially and telegraphically.
I am convinced that if Mario Maggi had worked in America, his projects would have become much more popular. I don’t mean that it wasn’t really supported by anyone, but it was too ‘small’. Those who volunteered to work with him were, like him, the last idealists and will go down in history as illustrious strangers.
My last memory of Mario Maggi was when I heard it last time (for professional reasons I didn’t have the opportunity to come to Italy and meet him) and he told me he was tired, but he wanted to continue working with all his strength on the DIGITAL MODULAR SYNTH project (we imagine it’s talking about the project known as Synthex 2).
I still remember his eyes that radiated joy and our last banquet of sweets. In recent years, I have tried to find it and meet it again, but to no avail. Maybe he really went to work in another world, where he found more openness to his ideas.”
Music Maker cover (april 1985) – Keith Emerson with his Synthex
A review by YouTube channel SynthMania
A recent splendid demo video of the Synthex sounds, made by the collector and composer Reuben Jones, to whom all our respect for the passion dedicated to this synth goes!
The latest video made by our friend Reuben Jones is a jam with three of the most beautiful Italian synths, among which the very rare Logan Vocalist stands out
It is news these days of a Synthex put up for sale on the same online auction site where the modular guitar synth, Vemia, was sold, which was restored and developed by Mario himself, perhaps it is a sign that our dear engineer is finally back to work?
CREDITS
Many thanks to Roberto Bellucci, great and passionate connoisseur of Italian instruments, as well as curator of the important Italian Music Electronics Facebook page, for his generous advice and the kind concession of the material in his possession. Thanks also to Daniele, aka mr. VSMI, for the very rare photo of the mysterious mono synth.
Thanks to Enrico Cosimi, for his excellent interview with Mario Maggi and for his always illuminating articles and comments.
Thanks to Amazona, for the interview which was fundamental to clarify some points that were obscure, especially regarding the MCS70 and thanks also to Marco Molendi and Andrea Manuelli for bringing it back to life!
German Synthex brochure with full specifications
Thanks to Templeton for his passionate account of the moments he lived with Mario, which served to render a portrait of the man, as well as of the genius. Also on Robert Wittek’s beautiful site there is a beautiful article that covers the Synthex extensively, including the technical part.
Thanks to the excellent Tonehome.de site for the excellent photographic material on Syntar and to the Suonoelettronico.it site for specifics and technical information about it. Thanks to Francesco Mulassano of Soundmit for the images of the article on the Synthex of E&MM magazine.
Ending,
Thanks to all the contributions of the fans (including Reuben Jones and MrFirechild for their love and their beautiful Synthex demo videos) recovered in hours and hours of patient and persistent research on the web: writing an article on Mr. Maggi was one of the humanly more exciting, beautiful and formative experiences and, despite not having had the opportunity to meet him, this obstinate, humble and mythical pioneer seems to have always known him and we really end up loving him as the friend and brother we always wanted to have.
We therefore close with a last, fundamental thanks and a heartfelt wish:
THANKS AND LONG LIFE, MARIO MAGGI!
