[Coco] Speech Systems Symphony 12 & Piano attachment

[Rob Rosenbrock]

The cart has a long ribbon cable coming out from the end opposite the CoCo port connector

I will see if I can take pictures of it today

Sent from my iPad

> On Aug 12, 2025, at 12:27 PM, Mike Brant via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com> wrote:
> 
> I think i remember that cart i asked people what it was for and no one
> knew about it.  I don't think i have it anymore but now I want one.
> 
>> On Tue, Aug 12, 2025, 11:43 AM Brian Blake via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Rob, thanks for sharing this info.
>> 
>> Is there any way you could take some pic of the cartridge PCB - top &
>> bottom? I'd like to get it documented and maybe try to reproduce it. I have
>> a feeling items like these weren't sold in great numbers, and the
>> documentation is non-existent.
>> 
>> The irony here is, now that I know what some of these items are, I'm about
>> 90% convinced I had the cartridge at one point, and sold it along with all
>> of my CoCo stuff in 2017. I had a long white Speech Systems cartridge with
>> a single DIN port on it - I think it was 5 pins. I had no idea what it was
>> for then...
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Tue, Aug 12, 2025 at 11:22 AM Rob Rosenbrock via Coco <
>> coco at maltedmedia.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> On 2025-08-11 10:55 pm, Brian Blake via Coco wrote:
>>>> Greetings CoCoNutz,
>>>> 
>>>> This one may be testing some brain cells, as I've never seen this
>>>> device in
>>>> the wild - only in Rainbow ads...
>>>> 
>>>> I recently bought and assembled the Philharmonic 12 (Speech System
>>>> Symphony
>>>> 12 repro), and am really wanting to test it's 12 voices. Currently, no
>>>> Symphony files exist in the CoCo archive. The Musica files play fine
>>>> (mostly), but are only 4 voice compositions. The Speech Systems ads
>>>> from
>>>> BITD show a 61 key keyboard attached, that uses a CZ-101  cartridge(?)
>>>> to
>>>> connect to the CoCo.
>>>> 
>>>> Does anyone know anything about these devices? I'm wondering if a MIDI
>>>> keyboard and adapter would act similarly in the Symphony XII software.
>>>> In
>>>> my reading so far, this isn't mentioned, though Speech Systems also
>>>> sold a
>>>> CoCoMIDI program and cartridge...
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> If anyone has any info on these Speech Systems products (beyond what is
>>>> in
>>>> the CoCo Archive) I'd love to arrange to get a copy uploaded to the
>>>> archive. I'd really like to test the Philharmonic out to 12 voices
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> 
>>>> Brian
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> --
>>>> Ohioan by birth, Floridian by the grace of U-Haul and a bad economy...
>>>> --------
>>>> Sarcasm is the body's natural defense to stupidity.
>>> 
>>> I have the keyboard. If I remember right, the cartridge I have is just a
>>> PIA to interface the keybed to the buss. $FF64
>>> 
>>> I bought my keyboard as part of Synther 77. It's been a long time, but I
>>> do remember the program having some sort of sequencer.
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Coco mailing list
>>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>>> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Ohioan by birth, Floridian by the grace of U-Haul and a bad economy...
>> --------
>> Sarcasm is the body's natural defense to stupidity.
>> 
>> --
>> Coco mailing list
>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>> 
> 
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