Serge Modular Music System

The Serge synthesizer aka Serge Modular Music System or Serge Modular system is an analogue modular synthesizer originally designed by CalArts professor Serge Tcherepnin, beginning in 1974.

History
In 1992 Serge production and intellectual property were taken over by Sound Transform Systems (STS) of Oakland, California, founded by Rex Probe in 1984.

Paperface
The original Serge panel was pre-drilled aluminum with panel art on paper glued on and covered with protective mylar film.

Intention
Unlike other synthesizer systems with components designed to control the basics of musical sounds, such as pitch, duration, amplitude envelope, timbre. The intent of the Serge system is that the electronics speaks for itself. It makes interesting (although "un-musical") functions such as positive slew, negative slew, peak and trough, comparators, processors, wave shapers, etc. available. Typically Serge modules are multipurpose, e.g. the Serge TKB is a touch activated keyboard, analogue programmer and sequencer, while the Serge Universal Slope Generator can serve as an envelope generator, slew processor, LFO, VCO, frequency divider, lowpass VCF, trigger/gate delay, or envelope follower.

Patching
Serge uses banana jacks for patching. The Serge connector color scheme is more about the type signal than its function but with some flexibility e.g. some CVs can go negative. Many black inputs are AC coupled, but most black outputs are not.

Kits

 * EuroSerge Series kits by ELBY Designs
 * Random*Source DIY Serge kits
 * CGS