While the old name is one I particularly like, it seems not everyone is taking to these specialised names. Everyone knows what a dot com domain is though.
If I was to write Synthesizers.Audio on a piece of paper and hand it around a group of people, most wouldn’t recognise it as a website. However, if I wrote SynthTweaks.com on a piece of paper and handed that around the same group of people, everyone would know instantly what it is.

And that, my dear friends, is the sole reason for the new domain name.

Coming soon, in accordance with the new name, will be more articles on custom DIY synth projects, more repairs, articles on programming synths and free patch files to download from the synths I own.

Stay tuned.

Check out AmbisonicMusic.com HERE.

Step 1
(Note: I have my taskbar at the top of the screen)
Right click the speaker icon on your taskbar and select ‘Playback devices’.

Step 2
Right click the ‘Speakers’ listing of your sound card/interface (mine is an RME Fireface UFX interface) and set it as the default device. Click ‘apply’ and a green tick should then show over the icon.

Step 3
Right click the speaker icon again and then left click ‘Configure speakers’. Select the setup that matches your interface and speakers. I have 7.1 selected here but the most common configuration is 5.1.
Click the ‘Test’ button and you should hear sounds played from each speaker one at a time with an animation over the currently sounding speaker.
If all is well, click ‘Next’.

Step 4
Tick all the boxes corresponding to the speakers you have (again, this grab shows my 7.1 setup). Click ‘Next’.

Step 5
Tick each box corresponding to large, full range speakers and leave unticked each box corresponding to small, limited bass response speakers. This step is important. If you are running large speakers, they will produce the full bass range for those channels if the boxes are ticked. Otherwise, they will produce limited bass and the lower bass range will be redirected to the subwoofer.
Click ‘Next’ and then ‘Finished’ and your system should now play back the 5.1 FLAC and 5.1 AC3 (Dolby Digital) files on Synthesizers.Audio (and any other discreet surround media you have) in full, discreet surround sound.

Check out the Multichannel Audio page for FLAC and AC3 5.1 audio downloads.

First up, we need to remove the remains of the old chip pins. Turn the Module Board over to the solder side and apply a small amount of fresh solder to each of the pin remains. This will more easily facilitate the following steps.

Remove the remains of each pin by heating each one and pushing the pin out with a wire offcut. An offcut from a power diode is ideal. It is thick enough to be solid while still fitting in the PCB hole. Alternatively, you can use a paperclip or a dressmaking pin. Make sure you pull the offcut (or pin/paperclip) out of the hole before you remove the soldering iron or you’ll end up soldering it to the board!
I had forgotten to take a photo of this step so the following image was taken AFTER I had removed all the pins and the solder. Your PCB will still have the pins and the solder in it.

If the pins don’t come all the way out in the previous step (none of mine did!) then, with the Module Board vertical, apply heat to each pin (one at a time) on the solder side of the PCB and pull it out with a pair of needle nose pliers. Then move on to the next pin until all are removed.

Once the pins are removed, with the Module Board solder side up, heat each solder pad and suck the remaining solder out with your desoldering pump. Do not apply too much heat or too much pressure during this step. The pads on this PCB are easily damaged from overheating.

You should end up with holes that are mostly solder free. A tiny amount of solder remaining is not a problem. We are after enough room to easily press the IC socket in. Hold the PCB up to a light to check.

Once you have the holes clear, solder in the SIL IC socket. It is easiest to hold the PCB vertically, pre tin your soldering iron, place your finger on one end of the socket and apply the soldering iron to the pin at the OTHER end to your finger to apply a temporary solder joint to hold the socket in place. Let it cool and do the same for the pin at the opposite end.
Then, with the PCB laying solder side up, solder the pins working from the middle to the outside, finally resoldering the outermost pins that had the temporary holding joints.

Check your soldering for shorts and check again!

Fit the repaired chip/s to the Module Board making sure you have it aligned properly in the socket with all pins in their correct holes and none bent out of their holes. It IS possible to insert the chip with it misaligned (i.e., one or more pins NOT in a hole and the whole chip offset). It is also possible to insert it the wrong way around.
Doing either of these things will probably damage the chip and/or the synth seriously!
The reason Roland removed pin 11 was so that the chip will only fit in the board one way. We have REMOVED that safety check so if you value your synth, DOUBLE CHECK YOUR WORK and then CHECK AGAIN!!

Update – I just had an idea while writing this article. Before fitting the chips into the sockets, you could solder up the socket at pin 11 on the Module Board (not pin 11 on the 80017A chip itself). That way, you’ll retain the safety feature of not being able to insert the 80017A chip with a dangerous pin offset. Make sure you solder up pin 11 though. If you solder the wrong one, it will be difficult to undo your error!

Once you are certain you have everything right, check again, then plug the Module Board back into your synth BEFORE you put the PCB screws back in (once again, I forgot to take a photo of that step so the photo below shows the PCB with the screws in it) and power it up in test mode (hold Key Transpose while turning the synth on, then press Poly 1&2 together). Play a note a few times and make sure all the voices are sounding and you have no crackles/noise. If all is well, leave the synth on for a while to let it warm up. If it keeps going without issue, you have successfully repaired your first 80017A chips!

If you still hear crackles on certain voices, you may either have another faulty chip and you will need to repeat this whole procedure for that chip (good thing you didn’t put the Module Board screws in yet isn’t it!), or you have an 80017A that is beyond repair and you’ll probably need to replace it with an analoguerennaisance.com chip. This is one of the reasons we fitted sockets!!

If all is well, screw the Module Board back in place.

If you have an oscilloscope, a good digital multimeter and a frequency counter or tuner and you know how to use them, I would recommend going through the alignment procedure described in the JUNO-106 service manual. Although my synth still has five out of six of the original 80017A chips in it, it was WAY out of alignment. I did the alignment procedure on mine and it sounds much more consistent between voices. The VCF now tracks the keyboard properly too. Prior to the alignment, the VCF tracking was all over the place and patches that made use of filter resonance did not sound the way they should!

A word of caution if you decide to do the alignment procedure: Make sure you do not short anything on the PCBs when attaching probes to the test points. You can easily damage your synth if you short something! Use a good quality probe designed to grip the test points with a spring loaded clamp. Most decent oscilloscopes come with such probes.
I very carefully bent the test point pins out to different angles to allow more room for attaching the probe without shorting anything. Be careful though, if you bend the pins too far, they will EASILY snap off!
Connect the earth pin of your test instruments to the ‘audio ground’ rather than ‘digital ground’ point. This isn’t mentioned in the manual.
Make sure your synth is thoroughly warmed up before you do the alignment. Otherwise, it will be in alignment when cold but will drift out as it warms up.

If the alignment procedure instructions in the service manual confuse you, do not fiddle with anything! At best, you’ll make things worse. At worst, you could damage your synth!

Once you are done, fit the screws back into the side cheeks of your restored Juno 106 and enjoy!

This made the removal of the resin MUCH easier than last time and had no adverse affects on any of the components. Therefore, I highly recommend leaving your chip/s soaking until you can see the resin splitting away from the ceramic base (typically between two to five days).
Once you have removed the chip/s from the Acetone, you should be able to simply remove the resin by pulling it away with your fingers. You should end up with a result similar to this:

For the next step, you’ll need a pair of tweezers and a 21 gauge needle (which you can get from a pharmacy). You could alternatively use a pin in place of the needle but the needle makes things easier because it has a tapered point which we use in the next step as a scoop:

We will now remove the remaining resin from the edges of the ICs and between the chip pins and the IC legs. Place the tip of your 21G needle (or pin if you prefer) under the residual resin between the IC legs and gently push it into the resin and lift. Don’t lever the needle against the ceramic PCB. Doing so could damage the tracks. Just lift upwards:

You probably won’t dislodge the resin but you should lift it enough to be able to grab it with your tweezers and pull it away from the chip:

Any remaining resin can be gently dislodged with the needle. Repeat for all the pins on the ICs, the main pins connecting the chip to the Module Board and anywhere else there is resin and you should end up with something like this (note here how bad the solder joints have become over time trapped in heat under the resin casing!!):

Next up, we’ll solder new pins to the chip. For this, I used sections of SIL (Single In Line) IC socket strip which should be readily available from most electronic components stores. In Australia, I purchased this from Jaycar Electronics. The strip I purchased comes in 32 pin lengths and is simply cut to length (12 pins wide) with a pair of side cutters. Pin 11 is also cut off with the side cutters to match the Module Board and the chip. Cut two strips in like manner. We’ll be soldering the second strip into the Module Board to make any future repairs MUCH easier.

If you have a small bench vice, use it to hold the IC strip and solder the chip onto it. I used a pair of wire strippers here for the task of holding the IC strip. If you have a pair like these, beware that the section doing the clamping is often plastic and it will melt if you solder the pins being held! I soldered one end (the end NOT being gripped!) and then turned the wire strippers around, reclamped the other side of the pins and soldered the remaining ones. Make sure everything is STRAIGHT vertically before soldering. It is very difficult to straighten things afterwards:

Using the second IC socket strip, check that the new pins on your repaired chip are straight and fit into the holes. If not, gently straighten them with a pair of needle nosed pliers. Do NOT push the chip into the socket. If you do, it will be VERY difficult to remove. You only need to sit the pins into the start of the holes in the socket to check their alignment:

This next step is optional but highly recommended if you have the necessary soldering skills. We are now going to resolder everything on the chip (make sure you resolder the 11 main pins on the white part of the chip too).
Make sure you use 60/40 tin/lead solder for this. DO NOT use lead free solder. It is not legally necessary because you are repairing a product that originally contained lead solder. Lead free solder melts at a higher temperature, is more difficult to work with, is less reliable and can result in overheated components during soldering. These components were NOT designed for high temperature, lead free soldering!
This also applies to the soldering we will be doing on the Module Board too.

If you have the necessary skills and experience for surface mount work, you will already know to keep the components as cool as possible. Solder a couple of pins on one IC, move to another one and do the same, let the board cool and then move to another IC (there are three on these chips). Continue until you’ve resoldered all the ICs and then do the same for the chip capacitors and the two solid links.
Again, you’ll need a fine tipped soldering iron for this.

If you happen to short out two pins, GENTLY use a good quality vacuum desoldering pump to remove the excess solder (or use a professional, temperature controlled, vacuum desoldering station which I have since purchased) and then resolder the joints. My desoldering pump is a Japanese one made by ‘Goot’ which I also purchased from Jaycar Electronics.

The desoldering station I have since purchased is one of these.

Make sure you inspect your work CAREFULLY with a magnifying lamp for further shorts which could easily damage the chip and/or your synth.

Shorts like the one below are obvious but it is easy to create very subtle shorts when working with SMD boards which can also be VERY easy to miss. Use the magnifying lamp and DOUBLE CHECK your work!

In part 3 we will remove the remains of the old pins from the Module Board, prepare the Module Board with the new IC sockets, fit the repaired chips, fit the Module Board back in the synth, test everything, do the synth alignment and put the screws back in the repaired synth.

On to part 3.

There are a number of options available to remedy this fault. If you are not experienced with a soldering iron, the best option is to send your synth to someone who is qualified and has the available tools and experience to do the repair for you.

If you ARE experienced with a soldering iron, then there are a number of DIY repair options. I will state at this point that the Juno 106 PCB is double sided, through hole plated and removing these chips is not easy, unless you have a dedicated, temperature controlled, vacuum desoldering station. I do provide a much easier alternative further down in this article to the traditional desoldering methods though.

If you decide to give this repair a shot and damage your Juno 106 in the process, I am not responsible for any damage you cause!! You undertake these repairs at your own risk. If in doubt, get someone qualified to do the repair for you.

The first step is to find out which chip, or chips, are faulty. To do this, power off your Juno 106, press and hold the key transpose button and power it up while still holding key transpose. This puts it in diagnostic mode. Release key transpose and press Poly 1 and Poly 2 together, then release. The LED display should now look like this:

Plug in a pair of headphones or an amp and press one key repeatedly (any key will do) and the display will show which voice is sounding while the key is pressed, rotating voice one through six (voice two shown below):

Once you’ve located which chips are faulty, write down the voice numbers indicated on the LED display.
Next, you need to decide whether you want to fix the Roland chips or buy replacement ones. If you decide on the latter, the best replacements are available from analoguerenaissance.com.
If you decide you want to try to repair the Roland chips, you’ll need a glass jar with a tight fitting lid and a container of 100 percent pure Acetone. Once you’ve removed the faulty Roland chips, you’ll be soaking them in Acetone for a number of days to soften the black resin coating before removing it carefully. In some cases, removing this coating removes the faulty symptoms, albeit for a limited amount of time until the underlying cause of the fault which is dry solder joints on the components surfaces again down the track. It is quite acceptable to put these chips back in without re-coating them in anything.

If the Acetone soak does not fix your chip/s and they still either crackle or intermittently produce no sound, you will need to continue with a proper, long term repair. The main cause of faulty chips is poor soldering. Repairing this fault involves delicate surface mount soldering and requires ADVANCED soldering skills and a very fine tipped soldering iron.
I will cover this repair in part two of this article. Even if you have success just by removing the resin, your chip/s WILL eventually fail again and require complete resoldering. 

The next step is to disassemble your Juno 106. This may seem obvious but make sure the synth is UNPLUGGED from the mains (not just switched off) BEFORE you take it apart. Mains voltages are LETHAL!

Remove four screws from the side cheeks (two each side) and the top panel will swing up. My Juno is shown here propped up on a CD case for the sake of the photo. I have already removed the screws in this photo:

Lift up the front panel to reveal the printed circuit boards (PCBs):

The PCB we are interested in is the large one on the far left of the base of the Juno, known as the Module Board in the Roland service manual. You’ll see I’ve already repaired voice chip two using the Acetone soak method. This time, it is voice chip one that has become noisy in my Juno. I have no doubt I’ll have to do this repair to all the chips eventually. Also, the previously repaired chip needs re-seating in its socket. Update; this chip needed the resoldering repair due to dry (AKA cracked) solder joints and I’ve done that repair since writing this article to ALL my 80017a chips. I also invested in a proper, professional, temperature controlled, vacuum desoldering station making the desoldering job MUCH easier. 

Here is a closer view. Note the voice numbers along the bottom edge of the PCB from one to six in reverse order. Those numbers correspond to the numbers displayed on the LED display during the diagnostic test, hence why we wrote them down. Once again, you can see here more clearly my voice chip repair on chip two:

Before undertaking the following procedures, you might want to invest in an earthing strap. This is basically a wrist strap with a cable attached to it with an alligator clip attached to the other end which you connect to a ground point and/or desk mat on your work bench. These can be obtained from most electronics supply stores.
The PCBs in the Juno 106 are static sensitive and can be damaged by stray electrostatic charges that can build up in your body. The earth strap and mat discharges these buildups and prevents you damaging the PCBs when handling them.
You can choose to continue without an earthing setup but be VERY CAREFUL when handling the PCB and the components. I do not personally have an earthing setup like this and have not damaged any of the synths I have worked on over the last thirty years but I am very experienced in electronics and know the dangers. I am very careful when handling the PCBs and components.

Again, if you damage your Juno 106, I am not responsible for the damage! Continue at your own risk! If you are worried about this, get someone who is qualified and experienced to do the repair for you.

OK, with that said, if you have not been scared off, let’s continue!
Next up, unplug all the connectors on this PCB. There’s no need to label them. The only two that are right next to each other are different sizes so it is obvious where they go. Besides that, the wiring loom keeps the connectors all in place.
After you’ve unplugged the PCB, remove the six screws holding it in place and the board will lift out.
Here’s a shot of the Module Board from my Juno sitting on my work bench with the repaired chip and the current faulty chip both removed and sitting above the PCB.

By far, the easiest method of removing a faulty chip is not by desoldering it first (once again, unless you have a professional, temperature controlled, vacuum desoldering station) but by GENTLY bending it back and forth until all the pins snap away from the PCB. This will require quite a few gentle bends back and forth but it will come out eventually. Do not become impatient with the chip. Treating it roughly can easily damage it or the components near it. Be GENTLE!
Later on, we will be removing the remains of the pins one at a time simply by heating them and pulling them out with a pair of needle nosed pliers.

Special note for HS60 & Juno 106s owners (these two Juno 106 variations have inbuilt amplifiers and speakers): The module board is mounted under the keyboard in these models and there is VERY LITTLE clearance between the 80017a chips and the bottom of the keyboard. Therefore, the chips will not have enough clearance if they are fitted with new pins and re-fitted to the module board in sockets as described later in this article. You will need to remove the chips with their pins intact and resolder them directly to the module board once done. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND getting a good quality temperature controlled, vacuum desoldering station to remove the chips. Thank you Olof for the additional information (see comments section below).

If you need to remove more than one faulty chip, MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHICH ONE IS WHICH. Even though they are the same design, they are made with components with varying tolerances and have slightly different characteristics. If you swap them and put them in different places, each voice will sound slightly different unless they are re-calibrated.

If you use the analoguerenaissance.com chips, you will need to do the re-calibration anyway and you’ll need the JUNO-106 service manual which outlines that procedure. The procedure is pretty simple but you will need the right tools (an oscilloscope, a digital multimeter and a frequency counter or tuner) and the knowledge to use them.

If you repair and replace the old chips and put them in the same positions they came from, theoretically, you should not need to do the alignment procedure. However, if you are up to it, you may want to do the alignment anyway. These synths are now around three decades old and mine was WAY out of alignment.

After we have soaked the chip in Acetone and removed the resin casing, we will solder on some new pins.
You might want to invest in a magnifying lamp for this work. They are well worth the investment and invaluable for checking your work for shorts and broken PCB tracks.
Here’s mine (and yes, my work bench needs a clean!!):

Next up is to soak the faulty chip in Acetone for a few days to soften the resin prior to removal. Make sure you use a GLASS jar for this because Acetone can melt some plastics. Make sure it is capped tightly to prevent the Acetone from evaporating. Here’s one of my chips which I left soaking in Acetone for a few days prior to removing the resin case:

In the following parts or this article, we’ll remove the resin from the chips, replace their pins, resolder the surface mount components on the chip/s (an optional but highly recommended extra step which permanently fixes the real cause of these chip failures), remove the remains of the chip pins from the Module Board, fit sockets to the PCB, plug the chips back in to the Module Board, refit the PCB into the synth, test everything and do the final reassembly. I also recommend downloading the service manual and doing the alignment if you have the tools available.

On to part two.

From my post on the REAPER audio forum:

As some of you know, over the past few months, I’ve been writing and recording a new album of electronic, instrumental music based on my influences from the 70s and 80s Berlin Electronic era entitled, “Hidden Gems | Instrumental Journeys.”
The latest track I’ve recorded is entitled, “Book of Remembrance,” and was originally recorded using the inbuilt sequencer in my SY77 and then transferred to REAPER via MIDI. I then recorded each of the MIDI parts to audio using my RME Fireface UFX and mixed the song in REAPER. The drum part was recorded initially using track 16 (pattern track) of the SY77 sequencer and the stock Yamaha drum kit for compositional purposes. I then played the MIDI file into my Roland TD12 drum module using one of the custom kit patches I made and into REAPER via the Fireface.
All synth sounds are SY77. Effects were turned off on the synth during the audio transfer to REAPER and later added via VST plugins. The delay, reverb and phasing plugins used are Valhalla Shimmer, Valhalla Room, VoS NastyDLA MKII and Arts Acoustic Big Rock.

From my post on the REAPER audio forum:

This is a short improvised instrumental piece using just two instruments, Wurlitzer A200 E-Piano and Music Man Bass Guitar. Unlike most of my tracks, this one is actually under five minutes long.

Given that I am no master on bass (I can play bass reasonably well but not to the level you hear on this track), I played the bass part using the Scarbee MM Bass library in Kontakt 5 which is absolutely astounding with its scripting and sounds very authentic.
I also used the Scarbee A200 library for the Wurli piano too.

I recently purchased Lounge Lizard EP4 which sounds good and has plenty of control for tweaking the sound but I have to say, IMHO, it doesn’t beat the Scarbee samples for authenticity. One thing Lounge Lizard does have is very nice playability and great dynamic range. Regardless, I ended up settling on the Scarbee instrument for this track.

Reverb is Valhalla Vintage Verb.
Delay is VoS NastyDLA MkII pre-modulated with Arts Acoustic Big Rock.
Recorded in REAPER.

Download the ReaDave Tape Flanger FX Chain here: http://stash.reaper.fm/21683/ReaDave-Tape-Flanger-2.zip

While I was recording a new track (No More Pain) for my album ‘Hidden Gems | Instrumental Journeys’ I wanted an authentic tape flanging effect and was contemplating getting out my Sony open reel deck to do it but it needs some repairs and I really wanted to just focus on the music. Another thing stopping me was that authentic tape flanging requires TWO open reel decks, preferably of the same model and with the same tape/bias/eq/gain configuration.

So, off I went on a search for a decent flanging VST that could effectively emulate the famous tape flanging effect. However, after a few downloads and being less than impressed with their idea of tape flanging, I decided to see if I could put something together myself to do the job.
There are plenty of phasing and flanging VSTs available for free but none that I have found really do a convincing emulation of the deep, swirling tape flange that you get from the real (reel) thing.

The authentic effect uses two open reel decks with the outputs of each mixed together at exactly the same gain but out of phase with each other. The same signal is recorded on both decks, then both are rewound and set to play back in sync. As they are playing, a finger is gently placed on the supply reel of the first deck, slightly slowing it down and putting it behind the other deck. Then, the supply reel of the second deck is slowed down in the same manner and as it slows down and resync’s with the first deck, the signal passes through a null, creating a deep swirl we know now as flanging.

So, what I needed was something to emulate the slowing down and speeding up of two decks tied together. In my search, I found just such a plugin and it is available free (donation ware to be fair). If you think the plugin is worth it, please support the author.
The plugin is called Wow and Flutter and is made by the same guy who made the ‘Night Flight’ VSTi which is capable of accurately emulating the string section of the Eminent 310u organ made famous by Jean Michel Jarre on his ‘Oxygene’ album (still my favourite electronic music album) in 1976.
The Wow and Flutter VST and the demo of the Night Flight VSTi can both be found, along with some others he has released, at the following link (the full version of Night Flight, which I have purchased and highly recommend, is on the main page of his site):

http://www.interruptor.ch/vst_donationware.shtml

For this flanging effect, I created a track in REAPER with four track channels. I then added a JS Channel Mixer and used it to send the outputs of track channels one and two to all four track channels.
Next, I added a Stereo Phase Invert plugin to invert the phase of track channels 3&4.
Next up, I added a ReaEQ with a low shelving cut to track channels 3&4 (this is to preserve the bass response as the flange passes through zero (the null point).
Next, I added two instances of Wow and Flutter, one on track channels 1&2, the other on 3&4 and set them to different and varying LFO speeds to produce a random flanging effect.
Finally, I added another JS Channel Mixer to recombine all four track channels to 1&2.

Basically, the Wow and Flutter plugin does the job of slowing down each virtual open reel deck independently, convincingly producing the famous effect.

I will include this text and a ‘how to’ of creating four track channels (for those less familiar with this part of REAPER) in the download for the FX Chain I created for this flanging effect.

Out of respect for the Wow and Flutter plugin creator (and to honour any legal distribution requirements), I have not included the plugin in my download but you can obtain it from the URL I included earlier.
No plugin presets are required because the FX Chain contains the settings and channel assignments for all plugins.

As noted in the README, the only requirement for this to work correctly is to set the track to have FOUR track channels BEFORE inserting the FX Chain. This is MOST IMPORTANT!

For those who want to try a nice variation on this flange, bypass (don’t remove) the phase invert and ReaEQ plugins. This will maintain the low end response and stop the complete HF null.

The early use of tape flanging actually used this technique. Phase inversion of one signal and EQ compensation was a later addition.

If you want a more dramatic null effect, bypass only the ReaEQ. This will produce a FULL null at the zero point but will also completely cancel ALL audio, INCLUDING the LF at the null.

Extracts from my posts on the REAPER audio forum:

This is the latest track for my new album ‘Hidden Gems | Instrumental Journeys‘ and is called ‘No More Pain‘. It is dedicated to those suffering under the cruel hand of ISIS.
For this track, I used a combination of software and hardware synthesizers and sequencers and also incorporated some tape flanging (an emulation using a custom process I made up from a bunch of plugins and some REAPER multi channel routing) and a Leslie 147 emulation (GSi VB3). I also made use of this years’ KVR developer challenge winner, Acon Digital Multiply (GREAT plugin!).
This track started off as my first experiment just after purchasing Zebra2. I was just messing about improvising with a patch that incorporated a plucked arpeggio and happened to record the MIDI. That then became the MIDI track that I used for all the other arpeggio parts. I also duplicated and edited the same MIDI part and used it for the Diva bass and pad parts.

Each of the layered arpeggio tracks were recorded one at a time with all hardware and software being tweaked in real time as the parts were recorded. The Zebra2 part was recorded first, then the Bazille pads (the first was duplicated and tape flanged), then the System 100 parts, and finally, the three JX-3P parts. Diva bass and pads were added last.

Here’s the full list of instruments and FX:

Soft Synths:
Diva – Bass and JP8 Cinematic Pads.
Bazille – Pads (one instance through tape flanging, another through Valhalla Shimmer).
Zebra2 – Plucked arpeggios.

Analog Hardware Synths and MIDI Controllers:
Roland System 100 – Main sequenced arpeggios (panned hard L & R), oscillators deliberately slightly detuned – controlled via System 700 sequencer and Frostwave Quad MIDI – CV.
Roland JX-3P & PG200 (with Inque MIDI mod which allows velocity sensitivity via MIDI and PG200/MIDI inputs to be used at the same time) – additional arpeggios (three layers, one through Leslie 147 emu, one through Acon Digital Multiply and another through Delay and Reverb only).
Yamaha NP31 – Keyboard controller for Zebra2.

Sequencers/Arpeggiators:
Roland System 700 analog sequencer (sync’d to REAPER via audio control from REAPER metronome which was split into bar/beat signals and sent to two RME outputs)
Simp Arp (Wolfgang Krumme).
Zebra2 Arpeggiator.

MIDI Control of analog gear:
Frostwave Quad MIDI – CV Converter.

FX:
Valhalla VintageVerb.
Valhalla Shimmer.
VoS NastyDLA MKII.
Acon Digital Multiply (on one instance of JX-3P arpeggios).
ReaDelay
GSi VB3 (for Leslie 147 emu)
Interruptor.ch Wow and Flutter (x2), JS Channelmixer (x2), ReaEQ, JS Stereo Phase Invert - For tape flanging emulation.

DAW:
REAPER.