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The 10 greatest synthesizers of all time
The machines that changed music
Scot Solida, Mon 26 Oct 2009, 12:14 pm UTC
3. Sequential Circuits Prophet-5
If this were a list of the classiest instruments of all time, the Prophet-5 would be ensconced firmly at the top. With its oiled wood side panels and big, tactile buttons, it looked like it cost a fortune and, well, it did.
Sporting a signal path not unlike that of the ARP Odyssey (two synchable oscillators, noise, low-pass filter, a pair of ADSR envelope generators and an LFO), the Prophet-5 had all of the goods to keep even the most ambitious synthesist happy. However, it also added a wicked Poly Mod section that could be called upon to create some very unusual timbres.
There was a lot to play with and, for the first time ever, any and all tweaks could be written into memory for latter recall. Better still, it offered a full five voices of polyphony. Others might have offered more voices, but none of them allowed full programmability, too. Plus, it sounded nothing short of gorgeous, with a rich, full sound that was ideal for thick, nasal brass, deep, droning pads, burly basses and those searing osc-sync leads.
The Prophet-5 was, in short, exactly what performing musicians were clamouring for and, though it was priced at a whopping four grand, it sold in droves, making Dave Smith's Sequential Circuits an industry leader almost overnight and spawning legions of copycats from every corner of the globe.
2. EMS VCS3
English synthesizer designers are few and far between, but those who did pop up made an impact. From the Wasp to the OSCar to any number of Novation instruments, the British seem to have a knack for churning out unique, exciting and inspiring instruments, and usually at bargain prices.
It seems hard to think in terms of 'bargain prices' when describing EMS' diminutive VCS3, and yet when it was released in 1969, it was comparatively affordable. Today, they are among the most valuable vintage synthesizers, bringing in over 7k on the used market.
Why are collectors willing to pay so much for a three-oscillator monosynth? History, for one. The VCS3 (and its later, nearly identical cousin-in-a-suitcase, the Synthi AKS) have a strong presence in music history. From Tangerine Dream to Jean-Michel Jarre to Gong and Hawkwind, just about anyone who made an impact on electronic music in the 1970s used an EMS synth.
The VCS3, with its stylish, polished L-shaped enclosure, was so hip that every single member of Pink Floyd claimed to play it on the liner notes of The Dark Side of the Moon, even though the uncredited Synthi AKS was quite clearly used for the most significant electronic bits.
Looking like it was pulled from the cockpit of a Mongo Rocketship, the VCS3's design is enough to send a synth boffin into paroxysms of pleasure. Big, colour-capped knobs, a push-pin modulation matrix and a military grade joystick give the instrument a certain air of 'laboratory chic'. It virtually begs you to use it to create weird, atonal avant garde music. Keyboards? Why, chromatic music is so passe! At least its creator, geologist genius Peter Zinovieff thought so, and no such option was available for the first few years of the VCS3's long life.
The VCS3 invites experimentation and its users are happy to oblige. Even veteran synthesists can achieve unexpected results simply by shoving a few pins into the matrix and wiggling the joystick. Just don't expect it to stay in tune. Oscillator stability is not one of the instruments' strong points.
There aren't too many of them around these days, and EMS has, at long last, stopped manufacturing even the small number of specially ordered instruments that kept the company alive for so many decades. If you have one, you don't need us to tell you of its worth. The VCS3 is, quite simply, a marvel.
NEXT: the greatest synth of all time
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