The

E-mu E-mu Systems was a software synthesizer, audio interface, MIDI interface, and MIDI keyboard manufacturer. Founded in 1971 as a synthesizer maker, E-mu was a pioneer in samplers, sample-based drum machines and low-cost digital sampling music ...

Audity was a digitally controlled, analog

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

made in 1978. It was inspired by

Tangerine Dream Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese having been the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup ...

Peter Baumann Peter Baumann (born 29 January 1953) is a German musician. He formed the core line-up of the pioneering German electronic group Tangerine Dream with Edgar Froese and Christopher Franke in 1971. Baumann composed his first solo album in 1976, w ...

, and eventually evolved into a state-of-the-art, 16-voice

polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, ...

analog synthesizer with an included digital keyboard and sequencer that was intended to compete with Sequential Circuits' Prophet 5. The project was funded with royalties from

Sequential Circuits Sequential is an American synthesizer company founded in 1974 as Sequential Circuits by Dave Smith. In 1978, Sequential released the Prophet-5, the first programmable polyphonic synthesizer; it became a market leader and industry standard, used ...

for their use of E-mu's digital scanning technology in their keyboards, and was to be sold for $69,200 (approximately $199,000, when adjusted for inflation in 2016). Only one Audity was ever built. It was exhibited at the May 1980 AES convention, but soon after Sequential Circuits notified E-mu that it was not going to continue paying royalties, which ensured the Audity's death. However, research on the Audity led to the development of the influential and successful Emulator, one of the first digital sampling keyboards. The only Audity ever made resides in the collection of National Music Centre at Studio Bell in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

. It no longer functions.

References

Audity {{Electronic-musical-instrument-stub