Vox Ampliphonic Stereo Multi-Voice

[Bassmanfox]

http://www.voxshowroom.com/us/misc/multi.html

It looks like it would be real fun, plus it mentions it works with guitar.  We just got a wind player in our band and I was looking to give her some effects.  It would be cool to find one geared towards it.  So if anyone knows of anything like this I'd appreciate the help.   

[Rob Strand]

I don't know much about that unit specifically but I suspect it generates an octave up and an octave down then feeds the (probably square) outputs through a set of voicing filters something like that used on old organs.  How it does the octave up and octave down is up for grabs.  The octave down could be done with the business part of a Boss OC-2  - I know sax players use these so I don't see why you couldn't experiment with other instruments.

Wasn't Jeff Baxter was an occassional wind player?

[Meanderthal]

 I believe Maestro used to make a pitch to cv analog synth geared towards woodwinds.

[Bassmanfox]

Unbelievably I went to the local guitar shop today and saw the maestro woodwind synth.  I plan on buying it soon and hopefully reverse engineering it, so if anyone knows anything don't hesitate to tell me. 

[Rodgre]

I have one of the Vox Ampliphonic effects. I believe it's the Clarinet version.... It's about the size of an old cassette Walkman, with a 1/8" input. It gives you fuzz, octave up, octave down and a reedy filtered tone. It's not really a true synthesizer, but an octave-type effect. Very cool for some nasty tones on guitar and bass.

Roger

[Sir H C]

The woodwind sound system schematics should be out there.  I can look into scanning them.  They do not do any CV style stuff, only the Korg X-911 does that (and the ARP Avatar).  These are just filters, octaves, and fuzzes that can be used to modify the input (1/8" jack but you can put a guitar in).  Pretty cool sounds in there, very similar to the Hammond/Innovex Condor or the Maestro Rhythm and Sound for guitar.

[Dan N]

Here's an illegible schematic from an ebay sale of the Octavoice II, a smaller Vox thingy:

http://users.rio.com/senorris/junk/Octavoicesch.gif

I had one of the Maestro woodwind units and thought it was just about worth the $15 it cost. Probably was not working properly.

Conn made something similar called a Multi-Vider. If you need a woodwind unit, the Conn's go much cheaper. I have a dead one (made for Conn by Jordan Electronics!?!).

[Sir H C]

The Maestro one needs a kick to get it to work well with guitar signals.  I put about a gain of 10 on the front then they seem to work.  Otherwise just not real happening.

[HenryWolfe]

I just heard one of the Vox Stereo Multi Voice's at our store in Berkeley CA. It sounds F'n insane, really cool fuzzy synthy sound like one of Vox's portable electric organs. Very crazy breakup/glitch sounds you'd expect at the end of long notes with one of these pitch effects. Really cool with a cranked amp very intense.

[Psychophonic]

Well with only 9 posts in well over a decade, I guess there aren't many of these Vox units out there. I recently acquired one, rocker switches were intermittent at best, footswitch missing, but fairly clean overall. I found an original footswitch for it, somewhat in disrepair, but I got one.

Wow. With a bit of Deoxit, this thing is working great. Lots of fun to play with if you're into fuzz and octave pedals. The one YouTube video I've seen does not do this unit any justice. It certainly deserves a proper demo, I'm just not that guy. This thing is Awesome.

Question. The vibrato is cool but the rate knob does nothing. Regardless of the knob's position, rate stays the same. Any ideas? Worn out pot?

[ElectricDruid]

Well with only 9 posts in well over a decade, I guess there aren't many of these Vox units out there. I recently acquired one, rocker switches were intermittent at best, footswitch missing, but fairly clean overall. I found an original footswitch for it, somewhat in disrepair, but I got one.

Wow. With a bit of Deoxit, this thing is working great. Lots of fun to play with if you're into fuzz and octave pedals. The one YouTube video I've seen does not do this unit any justice. It certainly deserves a proper demo, I'm just not that guy. This thing is Awesome.

That looks amazing. Would love to hear it.

Question. The vibrato is cool but the rate knob does nothing. Regardless of the knob's position, rate stays the same. Any ideas? Worn out pot?

Quite possibly. Take it to bits, get the pot out and test it with a multimeter.