AELITA
More actual pix - here
The AELITA is a 3-osc monophonic synthesizer with 44 keys, produced by Murom radio equipment factory. The device is housed in a strong aluminium body, and features a hinged synthesis control panel with 21 faders and 38 buttons. The hinged control panel folds down for transportation, simular to the keyboard lid of a piano.
The Aelita control panel is split into 5 sections: Tuning, Oscillators, Mixer, Filter, Amplitude Envelope.
The modulation routings are hardwired. There is a single shared LFO for Pitch and Filter modulation, with Amplitude and Filter having an envelope each. LFO has triangle, square, ramp, and sawtooth shapes.
Tuning controls allow each oscillator to be tuned over on entire octave, so chords can be programmed. There is also a global tuning control, for tuning all of the oscillators at once (can be used as pitch bender). The Aelita's secret weapon is found here in the Tuning section: its Unison mode. When selected, this mode fires all Oscillators at once, at every octave, and the result is a tremendous bustling sound. There is also 'strings' button to introduce vibrato in classic 'string machine' style.
Oscillator control lets the user select the octave and waveform (square, pulse, or sawtooth). Found here is the ring modulation function, hardwired to oscillator 1 modulating oscillator 3. The LFO oscillator controls are found in this section too.
The Mixer allows the oscillator volumes to be mixed together at the desired balance, with also the sub oscillator volume which is used in Unison mode. The Vibrato is also allocated here.
Filter section has the usual Cutoff and Resonance sliders, its envelope controls, and a slider for LFO modulation amount. There are also options for keyboard tracking.
The Amplitude Envelope does as you might expect, with sliders to control the various slopes of the envelope. Though it does not work in conventional ADSR style, the shapes that can be achieved have a good character that add to the synths bizarre and wonderful nature.
In conclusion, this synthesiser is very unique sounding. This may be due to the harsh filter, the tunable oscillators, or obscene Unison mode - whatever the reason, it is a very different sounding synth. It is capable of phat bass and weird bleeps, but excels when used for leads in its Unison mode; activate string mode in conjunction with Unison for truly barbaric sounds. Also the ability to make chords and to detune oscillators allow a rich palette of sounds to be made that are often sought after, but difficult to achieve on many analogue synths. Listen to the demos to hear the beauty of this analogue Queen.
Osc - 3 VCO
LFO – 1 (square, triangle, saw, ramp)
Env - 2 (Amp + Filter)
Modulation Matrix/Hardwired – Hardwired
Special Features – Unison, String mode, One Finger Chords
Velocity/Aftertouch – no
Polyphony – mono
MIDI – no
Supply voltage
– 220 V/50 Hz
Dimensions – 310x350x920
Weight – appr. 18kg (the factory case not included)
