| Notes | The EMS Synthi A is a portable analog synthesizer (electronic musical instrument) made by Electronic Music Studios (London) Ltd (EMS) in 1971. It uses exactly the same electronics as the VCS 3, rehoused in a Spartanite briefcase.
During 1972 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 the more familiar blue capacitive touch sensitive keyboard with integrated sequencer, and became known as the KS version
Instead of routing signals using patch cables, as a Moog did, it uses a patch matrix with resistive pins. The 2700 ohm resistors soldered inside the pin vary in tolerance 5% variance and later 1%; the pins have different colours: the 'red' pins have 1% tolerance and the 'white' have 5% while the 'green' pins are attenuating pins having a resistance of 68,000 ohms.
The later Synthi AKS incorporated an early digital 256 event KS (Keyboard Sequencer) sequencer in the lid, input provided by a capacitance sensitive Buchla like keyboard . |
