Serge synthesizer

[1] Tcherepnin was a professor at CalArts at the time, and desired to create something like the exclusively expensive Buchla modular synthesizers "for the people that would be both inexpensive and powerful.

While the synthesizers were inexpensive compared to Moog, Buchla, and other manufacturers, Serge Tcherepnin's emphasis was always on providing musicians with quality equipment.

In contrast, Buchla modules were optimised to do one thing very well, using different signal levels and connector types to separate “sound and structure” (audio and control).

Cologne-based flutist Camilla Hoitenga, Estonian pianist Taavi Kerikmäe and Argentinian technician Francisco Colasanto employed a rare 1970s Serge modular synthesizer that once belonged to Karlheinz Stockhausen in their project Poles, an homage to Stockhausen centered around his composition Poles (1969-70).

Commercial builds and DIY kits of Serge synthesizers are currently available under license from a number of manufacturers.

The top and bottom of the graphic sheets folded over onto the back of the panels and had wiring information printed on them.

Serge initially adopted a series of geometric designs denoting signal types, input, outputs, and triggers.

The banana leads supplied by Serge and STS are 4 mm Pomona made heavy insulated in silicone cable.

The second generation of modules included: He also upgraded the mixer, dual processor, Send & Return, Oscillator etc.

He designed and built custom modules for Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff's TONTO system (as used on several Stevie Wonder albums), and worked with Frank Eventoff on his Sonica and Rainmaker instruments.

Around 1976, Serge started to replace most of his first generation modules with a new range of state-of-the-art designs, featuring highly accurate 1V/Oct oscillators and high dynamic range VCAs (voltage controlled amplifiers), a new filter technology with low-noise and mixers with equal power multi-channel panning.

A new, simpler panel graphics style was also introduced, losing most of the geometric designs, just retaining a simple rectangle around the outputs.

In addition to fully featured standard synthesis modules such as voltage controlled oscillators, filters, and envelope generators, the Serge system includes esoteric audio signal processors such as a Wave Multiplier, a multipurpose slew / envelope module and a very flexible touch-sensitive keyboard controller combined with a 16-stage analogue sequencer, known as the TKB.

Many of the circuit boards could by used or combined in a variety of ways, and an exhaustive list of modules would be difficult to compile.

Filter banks were made in small numbers, but it is uncertain if any of the hex panners shown in the catalogue were ever built.

Throughout this period, systems were available built or as kits - boards supplied pre-built and tested but you wire the panels up yourself.

Two panels could be mounted either side of a 1" black power distribution strip in a Serge "boat" (box).

By the late 1990s, Serge kits were no longer produced, and with schematics intentionally unavailable, "support" usually meant sending panels to STS - expensive and inconvenient for customers outside the USA.

As of 2018, Serge himself is actively collaborating with Random*Source as Chief Innovation Officer and is developing new circuits.