EMS VCS 3

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The VCS 3 (an acronym for Voltage Controlled Studio with 3 oscillators) is a portable analog synthesiser with a flexible semi-modular voice architecture, initially made in 1969 by Peter Zinovieff's EMS company. The electronics were largely designed by David Cockerell and the machine's distinctive visual appearance was the work of electronic composer Tristram Cary. The VCS 3 was more or less the first portable commercially available synthesizer - portable in the sense that the VCS 3 was housed entirely in a small, wooden case, unlike previous machines from American manufacturers such as Moog Music, ARP and Buchla which were housed in large cabinets and were known to take up entire rooms. Significantly, it retailed for just under £1000 in the UK. It was fondly acknowledged to be somewhat hopeless as a melodic instrument (due to its unreliable tuning); however it is renowned as an extremely powerful generator of electronic effects and processor of external sounds.

The VCS 3 has three Oscillators, a Noise Generator, two Input Amplifiers, a Ring Modulator, an 18dB Voltage Controlled Low Pass Filter (VCF), a Trapezoid Envelope Generator, Joy-Stick Controller, Voltage Controlled Spring Reverb unit and 2 Stereo Output Amplifiers. Unlike most modular synthesiser systems which use cables to link components together, the VCS 3 uses a distinctive patch board matrix into which pins are inserted in order to connect its components together.

The VCS 3 was quite popular among the progressive rock bands of the day and was used on recordings by Hawkwind, Brian Eno (when he was with Roxy Music), King Crimson, The Who, and Todd Rundgren, among many others. A well-known example of its use is on Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon.

The VCS 3, in spite of the fact that it is a monophonic synthesiser, underwent something of a renaissance in the late 1990s and early 2000s, both in popularity and in price. Artists looking to evoke a quaint, synthesized sound began to make the VCS 3 popular, and thus, prices for the synthesizer reached as much as £3000 - higher even than when they were first released.

The VCS 3's basic design was reused by EMS in many other of their own products, most notably in the EMS Synthi 100 and the Synthi A (essentially a VCS 3 housed in a plastic briefcase).