Sunday 26 December 2021

Keio Synthesizer Traveler F-1

 An old, obscure, weird fuzz/wah/filter/noise/volume pedal from Japan dated from the the early 70s. Schematics and more info HERE. Note that a couple of resistor values was is incorrect in the original schematic but it has been corrected for the layout below.



7 comments:

  1. Incredible! Thank you so much : it's the one with the old Korg (Keio) filter, right? i'm eyeballing this one for a good while :that's a great x-mas present, Fuzzhead!

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    1. (I think I made a confusion with the Mr Multi, which is filter + phaser) : https://catalinbread.com/blogs/kulas-cabinet/korg-mr-multi
      Still, I think this Synthesizer traveler is a "I must build it" for sure!
      If i'm not mistaken, either this one or the Mr Multi features the discrete VCF from the might MaxiKorg800...

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    2. Funny you mention Mr Multi. I started on a layout for it today (with some mods by Deadend Fx)...but I have no clue when it will be finished since it is a biggie, 29x30. It sure looks and sounds like a a very interesting phaser/filter!

      I think this one has the discrete filter you mention since Mr Multi is mostly powered by op amps.

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    3. awesome (both for knowing that this one should feature the VCF i'm after... and for knowing that you work on a Mr Multi vero layout)!
      I can't start working on this one right now, but I will in the next weeks, and I will report how it works!
      THanks again

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  2. ... The user manual hosted on tonehome.de is will worth a look :D
    https://www.tonehome.de/keio/

    How easy would it be to get rid of the "singing" part of the pedal (so we have "only" VCF+fuzz)?

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    1. lol, love that manual!D-:

      Did some more reading about the Traveler. It appears that this inductorless version doesn't have a LFO section. It is possible that V2 have it but there is no schematic for it. :-(

      But the Mr Multi layout is almost finished, hopefully I can upload it this evening.

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    2. Thank you, FuzzHead, and happy new year.
      I didn't even know there had two versions of it, and that one featured a LFO !?
      I think the v1 should really be good enough, and maybe that I'll manage to add a CV input for modulation later if I feel the need for it.
      It's just the oscillator ("singing") part which seems useless to me nowadays, so getting rid of it would make the layout even simpler :)

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