Hy4 vs Mistral Large 4

Patchbay is a three-person studio in Rotterdam repairing vintage synthesizers and the odd drum machine or piece of studio equipment. We look after instruments that have survived tours, basements, and years of silence in cupboards. Our task is not to make them new, but to make them dependable while keeping the character that made them worth saving.

Every repair starts with listening: to the fault, to the owner, and to the instrument itself. From there we diagnose carefully, solder cleanly, calibrate patiently, and replace parts only when necessary. Between us we bring electronics, restoration, design, and studio experience, which keeps the work practical, unhurried, and attentive to small details. We document what we find, source components with care, and explain the work in plain language. Some jobs take an afternoon; others become long conversations with forty-year-old circuits. In each case, the goal is simple: return the machine to the hands, recordings, and rooms where it belongs.

Patchbay sits in a former warehouse on Rotterdam's northern edge, where the Maas meets the industrial harbour. Three of us work here—no more, no less—surrounded by oscilloscopes, desoldering stations, and the persistent hum of transformers. We repair vintage synthesizers. That is the whole business.

We are not a museum, and we are not a factory. Every Minimoog, ARP 2600, or Juno that crosses our bench receives the same stubborn attention: traced schematics, replaced capacitors, calibrated voltages, hours spent listening for the note that was never quite right. The machines arrive broken, silent, forgotten. They leave singing.

Rotterdam built its reputation on moving heavy things and keeping them moving. We apply the same pragmatism to circuits that predate us by forty years. If it made sound once, it can make sound again. That is the promise we keep, solder joint by solder joint.