Categories: Pro Audio Archive

The Publison DHM 89 B2: Highly advanced signal processor/sampler c. 1978

Download the original 2pp product sheet for the Publison model DHM 89 B2:

DOWNLOAD:Publison

Publison is a French manufacturer which made at least two generations of this highly advanced early digital signal processor/sampler.  Later offerings progressed to proto-DAW systems.   There seems to be a fair amount of information online regarding the later Infernal Machine Model 90, but very little on this early piece.  Best part:

…by 1982 you could also get a companion keyboard that offered the promise of ‘Taming’ any sound, IE., conventionally-pitched sample playback.  While I was well aware of super-pricing contemporary offerings by the like of New England Digital that offered similar performance possibilities, this lil keyboard took me by surprise.  Anyone using one of these things?  Drop a line…

chris

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  • WTF...that looks noice. Looks like someone could have some serious fun with it...at least me. :)

    • Oh yes, the Fucking Fucker. I played it at NAMM. It was nearly impossible for the average person to get any recognizable sound out of and every tube in it was nothing you'd find in a music store or a music supply chain.

      Eric Barbour is a self taught hobby type and like so many of those does not see things in the way Leo Fender did. It's no coincidence this amp was never replicated.

      • I didn't know that he'd even ever got it working.

        I built an amp about ten years ago that was basically an AC30 driving four EL84s through a driver transformer that used a vertical oscillator tube. Other than that it was all 12Afum7s and 84s. Solid state rectifier of course because tube rectifiers with Class A designs are idiot's play.

        People liked it until they found out it had this oddball tube and a transformer that cost a little money. Because musicians hear with their eyes and see with their ears that was the end of that.

        If people freak out at ONE tube Guitar Center doesn't have 25 seems ridiculous.

  • I passed up on Publison in 1991 for $800(regrets) but later bought its modern replacement..the Roland VP-9000. Really cool device.

  • I have (& love) one of these units!! It's touchy as hell and only works about 70% of the times I turn it on but when it does it's a beautiful thing. Used it a ton on my 2013 album ISHI on Leaving Records/Stones Throw to thicken/detune/shimmer/loop the synths, it sounds like NOTHING ELSE on earth, someone needs to do an amazing plugin version!

  • Hi People;

    Juste one thing : [Infernal Machine] and [DHM89B2] are not the same product.

    Both have différents fonction, and purpose, so the title is wrong, but information are right...^^

    Best regards

  • A studio I worked at 1982-1992 had two 89s and the key board.
    Good sounding but glitchy glitchy. Tough to set well.
    If they broke, you had to ship to France and wait 6 months.
    The studio owner, frustrated, set me up with a digikey chip tester and we fixed a unit eventually. Publison dremeled off all the chip numbers. The chip tester could identify chips and inform if blown.

    It was rare for any studio clients to use the keyboard.

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