In June, 2021, I got my second dose and had a feeling that I should stop in the nearby pawn shop. Disappointed, I saw nothing of interest, maybe I'd buy a guitar gig bag.
Then I turned to leave and saw sitting on a shelf the badge with 80s lettering, "SEQUENTIAL CIRCUITS". I stopped dead in my tracks, my eyes widened and I immediately stepped up to examine it. A mint Pro-One monosynth from 1982 sat before me with a far lower price than I'd expect to see on such a sought after vintage synth.
A salesman walks up and asks if I'd like to try it out, and I say "yes" while trying hard to conceal my excitement. The last thing I wanted to do is tip them off that they were charging a third of what this should be selling for. Him calling is a "video game noise machine" gave me hope that I'd make it out without them realizing what it's actually worth.
I plugged it in to an amp and became experimenting with the knobs, but no sound came out. I was disappointed, but after a few minutes, I finally got some noises to come out, but the note was always the same regardless of what key I pressed. Wondering if I would need to repair this beauty, I stumbled upon the "KYBD" switch, which I learned upon enabling it that it enabled the keyboard. Everything was now working.
As I tune in some nice sounds, I realize I've got a bit of a crowd behind me, apparently they posted this on FB Marketplace, and someone was waiting patiently for me to step away from it. I bluntly told him that I was buying it, but he still stood by until I actually picked it up.
I stepped up to the counter, tight-lipped, and saying nothing much as they ran my card, then they had to go in the back to enter warranty/return information. I was dying for that receipt, and once I had it, I blurted out that this keyboard is vintage synth, and worth 3 times what I just paid for it, proud that I had the receipt in hand, I smiled ear to ear.
Upon setting this up, this jam was basically the first thing I did with it. No planning, just playing it and fiddling with the knobs. Being a monosynth, I recorded two tracks to double up melodies, but again, this was all completely freeform exploration of an amazing addition to my equipment.
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Pro-One 1 [JAM]
As of October 8th, 2021.