Bontempi HT 313.10

Bontempi HT 313.10 (short analogue keyboard with home organ sound & accompaniment)

This toy- like keyboard from 1984 was the little sister of the wonderful Bontempi MRS 52/D. Unlike the latter, the accompaniment can be only played through the chord sequencer, there is no arpeggio, no manual chord mode and it has only 25 keys. Also the analogue sound (especially drums) seems to be a bit thinner and less warm.

This instrument was apparently also released as Bontempi HT 313-T100 and Bontempi MRS 52/0 (seen on eBay). Due to the similarities with Bontempi MRS 52/D I only describe here the differences to the latter.

different main features:

only 25 midsize keys
main voice polyphony always only 4 notes
different 6 preset sounds {organ, clarinet, violin, piano, harpsi, glock.} (selected in a sequence by a single button)
accompaniment can not be played live, but only through the chord sequencer
chord sequencer has no edit functions
no arpeggio
no "rhythm/ accomp. balance" knob
CPU "IMP 8442XCA, B-27430870" (40 pin DIL)
no line out jack

notes:

Like with Bontempi MRS 52/D, the main PCB of the Bontempi HT 313.10 contains a lot of discrete analogue stuff and seems to be technically similar; like the latter there are trimmer pots for main and rhythm voice pitch and vibrato intensity. The user interface works a little different since it employs less buttons than the MRS 52/D, but the chord sequencer works similar (see there), although it has only the "half", "whole" and "end" functions (on rightmost white keys) and thus lacks the edit controls. The LCD otherwise looks identical and there are also the same audiogames. The black acryl control panel with its green, yellow and red diagrams and funky orange buttons is a nice piece of classic cyberage design and reminds to the computer console from Disney's "Tron" movie.

attention: When AC- adapter voltage is set too high, the rhythm voice falls silent and only sounds during played keyboard notes; this can be confusing.

The preset sound style resembles the MRS 52/D, although 2 sounds are different. The "clarinet" is made from plain squarewave with delayed vibrato and reminds to a recorder flute, while the "glock." (means glockenspiel?) is a cheesy squarewave musicbox sound made from the same timbre with decay envelope. The "sustain" button adds a quite long 3s sustain to the sounds.

There is no manual chord mode on this instrument; only during chord programming the entire keyboard (beside the rightmost 4 control keys) plays single finger organ chords. In opposite to this, the running chord sequencer can only play accompaniment (with rhythm) and can not be used to play "manual" organ chords without a rhythm. During rhythm the "accomp, mem cancel, game select" button toggles between accompaniment (so far it was previously programmed in the chord sequencer) and plain rhythm; each press of this button immediately restarts the running rhythm pattern, which can be used as a sound effect. The "play, rec, game" button cycles through normal mode, chord sequencer record mode and audio game mode (where the previous button selects the game number - the MRS 52/D employs the "function" and "mode" button in a similar manner to navigate through its more versatile menu).

Generally the small Bontempi HT 313.10 is a nice sounding analogue keyboard, although more restricted and not as great as the Bontempi MRS 52/D.

*removal of these screws voids warranty...*

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