Compatibility

 

The LFO expander was specifically designed for use with the Yamaha CS80, minimoog and ARP2600. However, the LFO expander can be used with almost every synthesizer equipped with cv-in and/or cv-out jacks. Many mono-synths from the 70's and 80's have these jacks.

Just feed the keyboard-cv (cv-out, key-out) from the synth to the LFO-expander and feed the LFO-expander's main output back to the cv-in of your synth to add vibrato or bends to the notes you play on the keyboard. Have a look at the connection diagrams in the user manual to see how it works.

Some synths don't have oscillator inputs but do have filter- or volume inputs. In that case, functionality is limited to filter or volume control of coarse.

I tested the LFO expander on several synthesizers. In the following list you can see what synthesizers are potentially compatible with the LFO expander and what synthesizers were actually tested by me.

  PITCH VCF VCA   tested remarks
ARP
            
2600
yes
yes
yes
  
yes
  
Axxe
yes
yes
       VCF controlled by Axxes' "pedal" input
Odyssey
yes
yes
    
yes
 VCF controlled by Odyssey's "pedal" input
Solus
yes
yes
       VCF controlled by Solus' "pedal" input
             
Crumar
            
Spirit
yes
yes
        
Trilogy
  
yes
        
             
Korg
            
MS20
yes
yes
    
yes
  
             
Moog
            
Memorymoog
yes
yes
yes
  
yes
 via pedal-in, destination can be selected on memorymoog
Minimoog
yes
yes
yes
  
yes
  
Prodigy
yes
yes
        
Rogue
yes
         special Y-cable required, see user manual
Source
yes
         special Y-cable required, see user manual
             
Oberheim
            
OB-8
  
yes
yes
  
yes
 when connected to arpeggiator input, speed of arpeggiator can be
            controlled by foot-pedal (select pulsewave on expander)
OB-X
yes
yes
yes
  
yes
 passive pedal connected directly to vibrato in: pedal controls amount
            of OB-X's internal LFO. LFO-expander connected to vibrato-in:
            LFO-expander takes over control (speed variable lfo's + bends)
Two voice
yes
      
yes
 only one SEM controlled by jacks
             
Roland
            
Jupiter 4
  
yes
yes
  
yes
  
Jupiter 8
  
yes
yes
  
yes
  
Promars
yes
yes
yes
     via cv-in or bend-in
SH-1
yes
          
SH-2
yes
          
SH-3
?
yes
       not sure what vco-cont input does
SH-5
yes
yes
        
SH-7
yes
yes
       connect SH-7's gate-out to gate-in
SH09
yes
          
SH101
yes
      
yes
  
System 100 101
yes
yes
    
yes
  
             
SCI
            
Pro One
yes
yes
    
yes
  
P10
        
yes

P10 pedal inputs only react on positive voltage
P10 key-in is quantised, so not suitable for LFO and pitchbends
P5
           not tested, but I expect same behaviour as P10
             
Yamaha
            
CS10
yes
          
CS30
yes
      
yes
 use key-volt-in and out jacks
CS50
yes
yes
yes
  
yes
 slow lfo's and slow sweeps are filtered
CS60
yes
yes
yes
     slow lfo's and slow sweeps are filtered
CS80
yes
yes
yes
  
yes
 input voltage inverted by CS80