Electronic Music Studios
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Electronic Music Studios (EMS) is a
synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
company formed in Putney, London in 1969 by
Peter Zinovieff Peter Zinovieff (26 January 1933 – 23 June 2021) was a British composer, musician and inventor. In the late 1960s, his company, Electronic Music Studios (EMS), made the VCS3, a synthesizer used by many early progressive rock bands such as Pi ...
, Tristram Cary and David Cockerell. It is now based in Ladock,
Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
.


Founders

The founding partners had wide experience in both electronics and music. Cockerell, who was EMS' main equipment designer in its early years, was an electronics engineer and computer programmer. In the mid-1960s Zinovieff had formed the electronic music group Unit Delta Plus with Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson of the
BBC Radiophonic Workshop The BBC Radiophonic Workshop was one of the sound effects units of the BBC, created in 1958 to produce Incidental music, incidental sounds and new music for radio and, later, television. The unit is known for its experimental and pioneering ...
. Cary was a noted composer and a pioneer in electronic music—he was one of the first people in the UK to work in the
musique concrete Musique is the French word for music. Musique may also refer to: Music *Musique (disco band), a 1970s studio band produced by Patrick Adams *Musique, a British dance act consisting of Moussa Clarke and Nick Hanson best known for their 2001 song ...
field and built one of the country's first electronic music studios; he also worked widely in film and TV, composing scores for numerous
Ealing Studios Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in west London, England. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on th ...
and Hammer Films productions, and he is well known for his work on the BBC's ''
Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...
'', notably on the classic serial ''
The Daleks ''The Daleks'' (also known as ''The Mutants'' and ''The Dead Planet'' is the second serial in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast on BBC TV in seven weekly parts from 21 December 1963 to ...
''.


VCS 3

The company's first commercial synthesiser, the VCS 3, designed by David Cockerell, was introduced in 1969. It was developed in the basement of Zinovieff's house and was nicknamed "The Putney" after the London suburb where he was living at the time. EMS' original aim was to create a versatile monophonic synthesiser that would retail for just £100. While this proved unattainable in practice, the company nevertheless succeeded in manufacturing and selling the VCS3 for just £330, less than its nearest American competitor the
Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...
(which originally retailed for US$1495 when released in 1970) and far cheaper than Moog's modular systems, which cost thousands of dollars. EMS also released the DK1, a velocity sensitive dynamic monophonic keyboard controller for use with VCS3; this included an extra VCO and VCA and retailed for £145. (moved from: – duophonic version of DK1, released in 1971. The DK1 was nicknamed "The Cricklewood" after the London suburb where Cockerell lived. EMS used to have a R&D department based over a DIY shop in Cricklewood Lane, Cricklewood, London, so that could have influenced the name of the mechanical keyboard. It is not widely known that EMS electronic equipment was mostly made by another company "Hilton Electronics" based in Wareham, Dorset. The VCS3 consisted of 3
voltage-controlled oscillator A voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is an electronic oscillator whose oscillation frequency is controlled by a voltage input. The applied input voltage determines the instantaneous oscillation frequency. Consequently, a VCO can be used for fre ...
s (VCOs), a
noise generator A noise generator is a circuit that produces electrical noise (i.e., a random signal). Noise generators are used to test signals for measuring noise figure, frequency response, and other parameters. Noise generators are also used for Random numbe ...
, two input amplifiers,
ring modulator In electronics, ring modulation is a signal processing function, an implementation of frequency mixing, in which two signals are combined to yield an output signal. One signal, called the carrier, is typically a sine wave or another simple wa ...
, voltage-controlled
low-pass filter A low-pass filter is a filter that passes signals with a frequency lower than a selected cutoff frequency and attenuates signals with frequencies higher than the cutoff frequency. The exact frequency response of the filter depends on the filt ...
, trapezoid envelope generator, voltage-controlled
reverberation In acoustics, reverberation (commonly shortened to reverb) is a persistence of sound after it is produced. It is often created when a sound is reflection (physics), reflected on surfaces, causing multiple reflections that build up and then de ...
, level meter, two output amplifiers thus providing a stereo output, and a
joystick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Also known as the control column, it is the principal control devic ...
providing 'X' and 'Y' modulation control. A distinctive design feature of the VCS3 (and later EMS systems) was that, rather than using patch cords to route audio and control signals between modules, Cockerell employed a small matrix plugboard (patchboard) into which the user stuck special conductive pins that connected an input (listed on the X-axis of the matrix) to an output (on the Y-axis). This matrix plugboard gave the VCS3 a high degree of inter-connectivity, comparable to that of much larger modular systems, and far greater than similar small synthesisers like the Minimoog. It was also much easier to examine than the tangle of patch cords used to interconnect other modular systems of the day, such as the Moog modular synthesizer and was many times smaller than the cumbersome Moog patch bays, which used patch cord leads capped with 1/4-inch 'phone' jacks. A live performance version, the VCS4, was built later the same year but was never put into production. It comprised two VCS3s side-by-side with a keyboard, mixer and signal processing in front, all in a single wooden cabinet. Although EMS lost track of the instrument in 1983, it survived and in the United States, until 2019 when musician Simon Desorgher sold it to the Goldsmiths College, University of London Electronic Music Studios. The company's next project, the Synthi KB1 (1970), designed by Cockerell, also never went into production. It featured the same synthesis modules as the VCS3, but housed in a horizontal box casing, with a 29-note mini-keyboard controller and two small built in speakers. Only one prototype unit was built and this was subsequently sold to the progressive rock group
Yes Yes or YES may refer to: * An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no Education * YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US * Young Eisner Scholars, in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and Appalachia, US * Young Ep ...
.


Synthi 100

EMS moved into direct competition with Moog in 1971 with the development of its first large-scale modular synthesiser, the " Synthi 100", which originally retailed for £6,500. This unit was first known as the "Digitana" another was later dubbed "The Delaware", after Delaware Rd, Maida Vale, the location of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Mounted in a free-standing console cabinet, the Synthi 100 was the third development level of the original VCS3, being in essence 28 VCS3 units by circuit board count. It was driven by twelve VCOs and eight VCF oscillators. Featured a built-in
oscilloscope An oscilloscope (formerly known as an oscillograph, informally scope or O-scope) is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying voltages of one or more signals as a function of time. Their main purpose is capturing i ...
, two 60 x 60 patchbays, two joystick controllers, dual five-octave velocity-sensitive keyboard controllers and a 10,000 clock event with 6x6bit D/A outputs. e.g. 256 duophonic events (512 CV events) digital sequencer. About 30 units were built by EMS, and these enjoyed wide use in the 1970s and beyond; one model was sold to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and was used extensively on BBC productions including ''
Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...
'', ''
Blake's 7 ''Blake's 7'' is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. Four series of thirteen 50-minute episodes were broadcast on BBC1 between 1978 and 1981. It was created by Terry Nation, who also wrote the first series, prod ...
'' and the original radio version of '' The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy''. The sequencer module of the Synthi 100 was also made available as a separate unit, the Synthi Sequencer 256, which originally sold for £1,100.


Synthi A / Synthi AK / Synthi AKS

In 1971 EMS released a portable version of the VCS3, the EMS Synthi A, originally called the "Portabella", a pun on London's
Portobello Road is a street in the Notting Hill district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London. It runs almost the length of Notting Hill from South to North, roughly parallel with Ladbroke Grove. On Saturdays it is home to Portobello ...
. Built into a compact Spartanite attaché case, this unit was even cheaper than the original VCS3 and retailed for just £198. The following year EMS released an expanded version, the Synthi AKS, which retailed for £420 and featured a sequencer and a small keyboard built into the lid. The first 30 AK units featured a black and silver touch pad, a Spin-and-touch random note selector and a resistive touch-sensitive keyboard; these original keyboards proved difficult to use, so they were subsequently replaced with blue capacitive touch-sensitive keyboard with integrated sequencer, and became known as the KS version. The Synthi AKS proved very popular and AKS units owned by Eno, Pink Floyd and
Jean-Michel Jarre Jean-Michel André Jarre (; born 24 August 1948) is a French composer, performer and record producer. He is a pioneer in the Electronic music, electronic, Ambient music, ambient and New-age music, new-age genres, and is known for organising out ...
featured prominently in music by these artists in the early 1970s; one of the best-known appearances of an AKS on record is the track " On the Run" from Pink Floyd's ''
The Dark Side of the Moon ''The Dark Side of the Moon'' is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 1 March 1973, by Capitol Records in the US and on 16 March 1973, by Harvest Records in the UK. Developed during live performances before ...
'' (1973), and it can be seen being used by
Roger Waters George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English musician and singer-songwriter. In 1965, he co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd as the bassist. Following the departure of the group's main songwriter Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became ...
and
David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter who is a member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined in 1967, shortly before the departure of the founder member Syd Barrett. By the early 1980s, Pink F ...
during the recording of the album in footage included in the 1st Director's Cut of '' Live at Pompeii'' and in the DSOTM episode of the BBC documentary series '' Classic Albums'', respectively (Gilmour used his to demonstrate the sequence used in the song).


In music and the media

EMS synthesisers and their London studios were used by many prominent rock and electronic artists including
Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...
(''
Meddle ''Meddle'' is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released by Harvest Records on 5 November 1971 in the United Kingdom. The album was produced between the band's touring commitments, from January to August 1971 at a se ...
,
Obscured by Clouds ''Obscured by Clouds'' is the seventh studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released on 2 June 1972 by Harvest and Capitol Records. It serves as the soundtrack for the French film '' La Vallée'', by Barbet Schroeder. ...
,
The Dark Side of the Moon ''The Dark Side of the Moon'' is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 1 March 1973, by Capitol Records in the US and on 16 March 1973, by Harvest Records in the UK. Developed during live performances before ...
,
Wish You Were Here Wish You Were Here may refer to: Film, television, and theater Film * ''Wish You Were Here'' (1987 film), a British comedy-drama film by David Leland * ''Wish You Were Here'' (2012 film), an Australian drama/mystery film by Kieran Darcy-Smith ...
,
Animals Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, have myocytes and are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a ...
,
The Wall ''The Wall'' is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 30 November 1979 by Harvest/ EMI and Columbia/ CBS Records. It is a rock opera which explores Pink, a jaded rock star, as he constructs a psychologic ...
''),
The Who The Who are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup (1964–1978) consisted of lead vocalist Roger Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon. Considered one of th ...
('' Won't Get Fooled Again''),
BBC Radiophonic Workshop The BBC Radiophonic Workshop was one of the sound effects units of the BBC, created in 1958 to produce Incidental music, incidental sounds and new music for radio and, later, television. The unit is known for its experimental and pioneering ...
,
Brian Eno Brian Peter George Jean-Baptiste de la Salle Eno (, born 15 May 1948), also mononymously known as Eno, is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, visual artist, and activist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambien ...
and
Roxy Music Roxy Music are an English rock music, rock band formed in 1970 by Bryan Ferry (lead vocals/keyboards/principal songwriter) and Graham Simpson (musician), Graham Simpson (bass). By the time the band recorded their Roxy Music (album), first albu ...
,
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 the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup of the grou ...
(all early
albums An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...
),
Hawkwind Hawkwind are an English rock band known as one of the earliest space rock groups. Since their formation in November 1969, Hawkwind have gone through many incarnations and have incorporated many different styles into their music, including hard ...
, Tim Blake,
Jean Michel Jarre Jean-Michel André Jarre (; born 24 August 1948) is a French composer, performer and record producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and new-age genres, and is known for organising outdoor spectacles featuring his music, accompan ...
and
Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, ) is a Germany, German Electronic music, electronic band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk was among the first successful a ...
and David Vorhaus ('' White Noise 2''). As noted above, the Synthi 100 "Delaware" owned by the Radiophonic Workshop was used extensively for BBC radio and television productions in the 1970s.
The EMS Synthi Hi-Fli analog multi effect processor was used extensively by Tony TS Mcphee of The Groundhogs and was used on the album ''
SOLID Solid is a state of matter where molecules are closely packed and can not slide past each other. Solids resist compression, expansion, or external forces that would alter its shape, with the degree to which they are resisted dependent upon the ...
'' in 1974. Footage exists of them live at the
Marquee Club The Marquee Club was a music venue in London, England, that opened in 1958 with a range of jazz and skiffle acts. It was a small and relatively cheap club, in the heart of London's West End of London, West End. It was the location of the first ...
in London and it is clearly visible on its stand on stage. This footage was broadcast on
The Old Grey Whistle Test ''The Old Grey Whistle Test'' (sometimes abbreviated to ''Whistle Test'' or ''OGWT'') is a British television music series broadcast by the BBC. It was devised by producer Rowan Ayers, commissioned by David Attenborough, and aired on BBC2 from ...
in 1974. In late 2010 Zinovieff put his original Synthi A synthesiser (serial number 4016) up for sale. This instrument, which he believes was the one featured in the "Every Picnic Needs a Synthi" press advertisement, was fully restored by Robin Wood at EMS. (See als
EMS Dr Zinovieff's original Synthi A (Sphere item # 8024) at VEMIA
EMS equipment can be seen in the 1978 British
horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...
'' The Shout'' starring
Alan Bates Sir Alan Arthur Bates (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor who came to prominence in the Cinema of the United Kingdom#The 1960s, 1960s, when he appeared in films ranging from ''Whistle Down the Wind (film), Whistle Down ...
,
John Hurt Sir John Vincent Hurt (22 January 1940 – 28 January 2017) was an English actor. Regarded as one of the finest actors of his time and known for the "most distinctive voice in Cinema of the United Kingdom, Britain", he was described by David Ly ...
and Susannah York, the equipment featured includes a Synthi Sequencer 256, a Vocoder 2000 and a VCS3, the film is available on DVD (Network 79527630), the equipment was loaned to "The Rank Organisation" by Dartington College in Devon, and the featured Synthi Sequencer 256 was recently sold on the "Vintage Electronic Musical Instrument Auction" VEMIA website in April 2011.


Timeline of major products

* 1969 - EMS VCS 3 * 1971 - EMS Synthi A * 1971 - EMS Synthi AK * 1971 - EMS Synthi 100 * 1971 - EMS Synthi Sequencer 256 (digital sequencer) * 1972 - EMS Synthi AKS * 1973 - EMS Synthi Hi-Fli ( multi-effect) * 1974 - EMS Spectron ( video synthesizer, formerly ''Spectre'') (see also ) * 1975 - EMS Synthi E * 1976 - EMS Vocoder 5000 * 1977 - EMS Vocoder 2000 * 1978 - EMS PolySynthi (
polyphonic synthesizer Polyphony is a property of musical instruments that means that they can play multiple independent melody lines simultaneously. Instruments featuring polyphony are said to be polyphonic. Instruments that are not capable of polyphony are monophon ...
)


References


Bibliography

*
Inside story about the beginnings of EMS, studios, non-commercial equipment, people and users. * * () * * as a corner of radio program Sound Lounge


Footnotes


Further reading

* (Chapter 14 details EMS.) * * * (Pages 110-114 British Modular Systems). * (Pages 111-126 EMS).


External links

* * * *
David Cockerell Interview
NAMM Oral History Library (2008) {{Radiophonic Workshop Synthesizer manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Cornwall EMS synthesizers Music sequencers Musical instrument manufacturing companies based in London