French Connections Back In Stock

We finally have some Analogue Systems French Connection keyboards in stock. If you've inquired before, these beauties can be hard to get a hold of sometimes. This batch looks incredible. The walnut grain is stunning. If you don't know much about the French Connection here's a little rundown.

The French Connection is a controller keyboard for analog synthesizers. It's based on one of the first synthesizers, which also happens to be one of the first electronic musical instruments, the Ondes Martenot. Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead was looking for an alternative for touring to his fragile Ondes Martenot. Bob Williams of Analogue Systems came up with the French Connection for him. Luckily Bob made these incredible instruments available to the public.

The French Connection has control voltage outputs for pitch, button, gate, and trigger. You can hook it to virtually any synthesizer or oscillator that tracks one volt per octave (and others too). It has a normal keyboard with low-note priority or you can switch it to the button & slider modes. The button, a nice looking solid walnut block, is pushed down to create a varying gate output. That means that you don't need an envelope generator. Just plug the button output directly into your VCA. The harder or faster you push the louder it gets. The slider, a nylon string with a brass ring attached, controls the pitch. There are circular indentations below the string that mark the white keys, and silver rivets that mark the black keys. These indicators make playing the French Connection very easy and quite intuitive. The action of the slider is smooth and precise allowing for accurate glissandos and playing techniques unattainable previously.