Glimpse vs MiniMax M3

Patchbay is a small repair studio in Rotterdam, built around three hands, one bench, and a shared patience for machines that should have been forgotten. We work on vintage synthesizers — the hissing, glowing, drifting instruments that shaped records decades ago and still find their way to us in boxes, corners, and half-finished projects. Some arrive dead silent. Others howl through cracked pots, sticky keys, and memories of bad rooms. We like that. Our approach is careful: diagnose, restore, and explain what we found. We replace what must be replaced, but we preserve what gives an instrument its character, including its quirks when they are honest ones. Each repair is handled directly by the three of us, from first inspection to final listening. We are not a factory and we do not rush. We are three people in Rotterdam who believe old synthesizers deserve attention, patience, and a little stubborn love.

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.