⭕ There is nothing much I have to say about this oddball classic,everyone has heard these at one time or another,whether it be on Doctor Who soundtracks,or maybe the demented twiddlings of Hawkwind,or early Brian Eno.There is pretty much nothing these synths wont do,given enough patience and setting up of the patchbay and the various controls.They are also renowned as treatment boxes,as you can plug any audio source you like into them and have endless fun with the envelope shaper and ring modulator etc.They are also notoriously random,which is how so many classic sounds found their way into so many classic recordings!
OK,down to business,this is a bog standard,stock,unmodified AKS.It is ex-education authority (lucky school I say!),and has a lot of scuffs on the ABS case.The control panel and decals arent too bad,Id give it 7.5/10 for cleanliness etc.There is a school name engraved over the right hand speaker grille.The 4 screws that hold the keyboard/sequencer unit into the bottom of the case are missing,they should be easy to locate,as they are common self-tappers.The Synthi logo is present and intact.Nothing is broken or missing,and it comes with all the patchpins,the original Cinch-Jones connector for the keyboard,and the original Bulgin mains cable.
In operation,it does all the weirdness you expect from these,there are a few patchholes that are grimy,and the whole thing could frankly do with a service,as it spent several years propped open in a school,then several years shut in a cupboard before it was rescued,after which it has only had a brief service, therefore the patchpanel needs a good clean and the contacts wiped over.The whole unit can be serviced by Robin Wood at EMS,or by any number of specialist synth centres worldwide,many of whom love having these things on the bench for all manner of reasons!The right hand speaker is currently not working,I am not sure if this is panel or op-amp related,and I dont have the knowledge to delve in and sort it,so I am leaving it as-is.The sequencer is occasionally jittery but works.There may be other,lesser faults that I am not aware of,as I only used this for a few weeks on a project before it was consigned to the back room,so go with the above tentative description and you wont go far wrong.