Muse Wonder vs MiniMax M3

Patchbay is a small workshop in Rotterdam where three of us spend our days bringing vintage synthesizers back to life. We repair and restore instruments from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s — Minimoogs with drifting oscillators, Junos with silent choruses, Prophet-5s that have not powered on in decades — tracing faults board by board, replacing tired components, and calibrating each machine until it sounds musical again. We believe these instruments were built to be played, not preserved behind glass, so we work carefully and reversibly wherever possible, documenting every repair and keeping original parts when they can be saved. Musicians, studios, and collectors bring us synths from across Europe, sometimes in flight cases, sometimes in pieces. Whether it needs a full restoration or a single sticky key, we treat it as if it were our own, and we will not send it home until we would happily play it ourselves.

Patchbay began in a cluttered apartment in Rotterdam, where three friends spent weekends coaxing old synthesizers back to life. What started as a shared obsession quickly outgrew the living room. In 2016, we opened our first proper workshop in a converted warehouse on the south side of the city, and we have been soldering, calibrating, and listening closely ever since.

We are a small team of three. Niels handles the analog work, coaxing warm tones from aging oscillators and reluctant filters. Marijn focuses on digital systems and the occasional stubborn MIDI quirk. Sanna manages restorations, sourcing rare components and keeping long projects on track. Between us, we have decades of experience with the machines that shaped electronic music.

Every synth that passes through our doors carries decades of sound inside it. Our job is to make sure that story continues.