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Creation of curent sample packs
ЭЛЕКТРОНИКА ЭМ-15 VENTA electronic piano
Curently I'm working on series of sample packs using ЭЛЕКТРОНИКА ЭМ-15 VENTA electronic piano.

This instrument is electronic piano by its true definition - it has an analog circuitry which produces timbre  similar (questionable) of a piano. Not to be confused with electric piano or digital piano. Besides piano preset VENTA also has such presets as: 

  • honky-tonk
  • harpsichord
  • banjo
  • electro piano
  • marimba

It is really primitive electronic piano, but the ability to mix presets, adjustable built-in flanger effect and overall analog nature makes interesting characteristic sound. I haven't explored it completely, but if you are curious and a little bit familiar with Russian language, you can find more information about this particular electronic piano and the rest of ЭЛЕКТРОНИКА ЭМ series on Museum of Soviet Synths.

I got this instrument for free at local Facebook giveaway group. Things appear and are taken really quickly there so I was pretty much lucky that someone else spotted it for me and sent me a link for that particular Facebook post.
VENTA piano in pictures
  1. honky-tonk, harpsichord banjo, electro piano, marimba, decay and flanger switches
    presets
    These are the only presets, but they can be mixed together in different combinations. Last two switches are decay [спад] (fixed length) and built-in flanger effect [флэнджер] (adjustable at the right side of the front panel)
  2. venta electronic piano on bathroom scales
    weight
    As seen the electronic piano weighs around 18 kg (39.68 lbs) including the key cover. It is advertised as portable instrument. The whole construction is made out of metal sheets and is really sturdy, but the shape of the built-in carrying handle is not that comfortable for such weight. Although inside of the handle is made out of smoothed hard plastic, the edges of it feels quite sharp.
  3. the keys of ЭЛЕКТРОНИКА ЭМ-15 VENTA electronic piano
    top panel and keys
    The keys are full-size plastic non-weighted on decent spring mechanism. I guess there are number of analog components for each key since few particular keys are having an extended decay time even with decay switch applied. Few other keys are a little bit unresponsive but they get better after playing for some time. Might be the case of corroded contacts in keybed or some expired analog components. So far I have kept the sticker on top panel from the previous owner.
  4. The flanger section of ЭЛЕКТРОНИКА ЭМ-15 VENTA electronic piano
    flanger section
    Apart from the last knob which is master volume [уровень] flanger is adjustable with these knobs: brightness [яркость], filter [фильтр], depth [глубина], speed [скорость]. For those presets which have vibrato sound (for example honky-tonk) flanger sounds really interesting when the speed of LFO intersects with the frequency of preset's vibrato. Surprisingly these potentiometers are not crackly.