MATRIXSYNTH-B: 01/04/09

Nord Lead 2X

via this auction

"Here's what nord has to say: The Lead2 gets even more monsterized. Nord has upped the ante! The highly anticipated update of the Lead2 the Lead2x 49-Key Keyboard delivers 20-voice polyphony and 4-part multitimbrality so you can create layered sounds, power pads, stunning leads, and booming basses. Memory now offers 4 x 99 user programs, 100 user performances and 4 x 10 user percussion kits plus 6 x 99 factory programs and 3 x 100 factory performances! And it's patch compatible with the Nord Lead2 so you can transfer sounds directly between the models via MIDI. Awesome sound is yours with the brand new, crystal clear 24-bit DACs running at 96kHz."

Boss SYB3 Bass Synthesizer

via this auction

"Unused Never Sold"

Vintage Kawai K3 Digital Wave Synthesizer

via this auction
"The K3 is a wavetable synthesizer. It has 32 waveforms, some of which are samples of acoustic instruments like piano and percussion as well as some unique waveforms. By combining two of these waveforms you can create unique new sounds or add a twist to a traditional sound. Since there are only 32 of these waveforms, the K3 also features a programmable digital waveform where you can tweak the harmonic content of a waveform allowing for added flexibility and range of sounds.

What's really neat about the K3 is that (unlike the K1) it has analog filters and envelopes! So although the sound may be digital at first, it sure does get warmed going through the filter. The low pass resonant filter even has its own envelope generator. There's also a hi pass filter and a highly flexible LFO. The K3 is an interesting synth, nicely bridging the gap between the analog and digital domain of vintage synthesizers."

via this auction

Access Virus Rack

via this auction
"Following up on the success of the popular Virus, Access unleashed an upgraded model in 1999, the Virus B. The original Virus A had 12-voice polyphony, but the new OS in the Virus B doubles the polyphony from 12- to 24-voices and the oscillators, from 2 to 3 per voice. The new OS also added an enhanced programmable 32-band vocoder. There are now up to 82 simultaneous effects, a retro-phaser (6-stage stereo phaser with 24 filter-poles), chorus/flanger, ring modulator, multiple forms of distortion, an analog boost algorithm, and an envelope follower. Up to five FM (Frequency Modulation) modes are also on-board now and many new sounds have been created for this bigger and better version of the Virus.

OS 4.0 was released in late 2000 with even more amazing features! The update is downloadable from Access (free of charge!) and comes installed in all new Virus synths to ship after its release. OS 4.0 adds a reverb with advanced features such as pre-delay sync-able to Midi clock. There's also a groove delay, surround sound capability, external effect sends using the individual outputs, an Intelligent Random Patch Generator, sound categories to sort all your patches in a logical order, Direct FX to use your Virus as an effects-processor while maintaining full polyphony, 16 independent arpeggiators with numerous patterns and realtime parameter access, and an advanced distortion module with lo-fi and filter dsp-effects. OS 4.0 makes the Virus one of the best analog modeling synthesizers to date! Complete control of parameters is available via MIDI. "Adaptive Control Smoothing" ensures ultra smooth parameter changes. There's also a free Emagic sound-driver based Editor/Librarian for Windows and MacOS.

In 2001, the Virus Rack (pictured above) was released. This module retains most of the features through version 4.0 but sacrifices polyphony and an oscillator. This was to make the Virus significantly more affordable. Polyphony has been reduced to 16-voices but multitimbrality is still 16-parts. Instead of four, there are three oscillators per voice (two main oscillators plus one sub oscillator). Otherwise it has all the same great features as the Virus B!"