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The Cantos Music Collection features more than 700 keyboard instruments and other musical artifacts and is the largest of its kind in the world. Telling a musical story spanning from 200 BC through to the present, the Collection serves as a touch point for learning, engagement, healing and entertainment for people of all ages and interests.

As our mandate grows to tell Canada's national music story, the size and scope of our Collection will too. Stay tuned for exciting developments in our Collection.

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What's New

The electronics workshop has been working hard to bring some vintage synths back to life and two of them are now on display in the electronics gallery:

Emulator 1 The Emulator 1 was the first “affordable” digital sampler.  It is an 8 voice, 8 bit sampler with analog filters and processing.  Ours features the “JL COOPER – Emulator Generator Modulator” modification which adds additional envelope control and processing/routing. Legend has it only around 500 of these were made and it originally had a price tag of just under $10,000 in 1981, the next sampling option (the Fairlight CMI) was close to double the price, often more depending on configuration.    This instrument was donated by Brian Kehew of the Moog Cookbook.

Waldorf Wave (1993) The Wave is the Flagship instrument in the Waldorf catalogue . It’s a very sophisticated and rare digital wavetable synthesizer featuring analog style controls and processing facilities.  It’s a modern classic often found in the collections of the industries’ top producers and sound designers… we are lucky to have one!