The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

In a message dated 24/7/02 9:14:14 am, sidstation@... writes:

>hi,
>i like the droid. i thought about droid to make my litlle friend;) 
>what is the ems vcs3? never heard of it. is there a webpage of it ?
>
>-phonophobie
>
NEVER HEARD OF THE VCS3?!?!?!?!- Christ- the kids of today LOL!!
Well it was designed in 1965 by David Cockrell (The man behind Akai's most 
sucessful Sampler range- S-900/950/1000/1100). Electronic Music Studios- or 
EMS for short- were (and still are) Britain's most sucessful synthesiser 
manufacturers. It was that synth which was resposible for pretty much all the 
BBC's Radiophonic material all the way through the 60's, 70's and 80's.

Basically the EMS VCS3 is a small modular synthesiser, but instead of 
patchcords, it had a 16x16 pinboard matrix- meaning you could do totally 
crazy patches- making sounds that would literally take your head right off! 
The basic machine had NO KEYBOARD, but a Joystick instead- Past masters 
include; Pierre Henry, Brian Eno, Pink Floyd, Delia Derbyshire/ David 
Vorhaus- White Noise, Faust, Kraftwerk, Jean Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream, 
and later, Sonic Boom, Howie B, Coldcut, Stereolab, Aphex Twin, Atom Heart 
and hundreds more!

check out;

http://www.vintagesynth.org/misc/vcs3.shtml

Alternatively just put EMS VCS3 into the search engine!!

IMO this is how ALL synths should be made- and as soon as I have 2 grand to 
burn, I will buy one of these beauties!!

Tom :-)

--- In AN1x-list@y..., terryfunken@a... wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 24/7/02 9:14:14 am, sidstation@h... writes:
> 
> >hi,
> >i like the droid. i thought about droid to make my litlle friend;) 
> >what is the ems vcs3? never heard of it. is there a webpage of it ?
> >
> >-phonophobie
> >
> NEVER HEARD OF THE VCS3?!?!?!?!- Christ- the kids of today LOL!!
> Well it was designed in 1965 by David Cockrell (The man behind 
Akai's most 
> sucessful Sampler range- S-900/950/1000/1100). Electronic Music 
Studios- or 
> EMS for short- were (and still are) Britain's most sucessful 
synthesiser 
> manufacturers. It was that synth which was resposible for pretty 
much all the 
> BBC's Radiophonic material all the way through the 60's, 70's and 
80's.
> 
> Basically the EMS VCS3 is a small modular synthesiser, but instead 
of 
> patchcords, it had a 16x16 pinboard matrix- meaning you could do 
totally 
> crazy patches- making sounds that would literally take your head 
right off! 
> The basic machine had NO KEYBOARD, but a Joystick instead- Past 
masters 
> include; Pierre Henry, Brian Eno, Pink Floyd, Delia Derbyshire/ 
David 
> Vorhaus- White Noise, Faust, Kraftwerk, Jean Michel Jarre, Tangerine 
Dream, 
> and later, Sonic Boom, Howie B, Coldcut, Stereolab, Aphex Twin, Atom 
Heart 
> and hundreds more!
> 
> check out;
> 
> http://www.vintagesynth.org/misc/vcs3.shtml
> 
> Alternatively just put EMS VCS3 into the search engine!!
> 
> IMO this is how ALL synths should be made- and as soon as I have 2 
grand to 
> burn, I will buy one of these beauties!!
> 
> Tom :-)

hi tom,
sorry i doesn´t realized ems - Electronic Music Studios UK- it was a 
little bit early . and was not realy awake;) i thought you were 
talking about a new synth. however i have to say that i am not realy 
such a synthexpert..eheh :) i checked the vcs3 now, and even how it 
looks makes me very curious! is the price still t

Hi Tom,

I played around with a Putney VCS3 in college, only it had a keyboard.  Is this the same (or similar) beast?  I've actually never seen one without a keyboard.

Also, FWIW, the (in)famous opening riff to The Who's "Baba O'Reilly" is played on a VCS3 ...

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Design Consultant
Ashby Solutions\ufffd   http://consult.ashbysolutions.com
CloneWheel Support Group and HiNote moderator
978.386.7389  voice/fax
bruce@...

At 04:45 AM 7/24/2002 -0400, you wrote:

>In a message dated 24/7/02 9:14:14 am, sidstation@... writes:
>
>>hi,
>>i like the droid. i thought about droid to make my litlle friend;) 
>>what is the ems vcs3? never heard of it. is there a webpage of it ?
>>
>>-phonophobie
>>
>NEVER HEARD OF THE VCS3?!?!?!?!- Christ- the kids of today LOL!!
>Well it was designed in 1965 by David Cockrell (The man behind Akai's most 
>sucessful Sampler range- S-900/950/1000/1100). Electronic Music Studios- or 
>EMS for short- were (and still are) Britain's most sucessful synthesiser 
>manufacturers. It was that synth which was resposible for pretty much all the 
>BBC's Radiophonic material all the way through the 60's, 70's and 80's.
>
>Basically the EMS VCS3 is a small modular synthesiser, but instead of 
>patchcords, it had a 16x16 pinboard matrix- meaning you could do totally 
>crazy patches- making sounds that would literally take your head right off! 
>The basic machine had NO KEYBOARD, but a Joystick instead- Past masters 
>include; Pierre Henry, Brian Eno, Pink Floyd, Delia Derbyshire/ David 
>Vorhaus- White Noise, Faust, Kraftwerk, Jean Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream, 
>and later, Sonic Boom, Howie B, Coldcut, Stereolab, Aphex Twin, Atom Heart 
>and hundreds more!
>
>check out;
>
><http://www.vintagesynth.org/misc/vcs3.shtml>http://www.vintagesynth.org/misc/vcs3.shtml
>
>Alternatively just put EMS VCS3 into the search engine!!
>
>IMO this is how ALL synths should be made- and as soon as I have 2 grand to 
>burn, I will buy one of these beauties!!
>
>Tom :-)

> Also, FWIW, the (in)famous opening riff to The Who's "Baba O'Reilly" is played
on a VCS3 ...

Not alone, however.  The organ was fed into the audio input jack on the little
alien beast.  Listen to what an LFO is doing to the filter while another LFO is
square waving the VCA for the blippitty sound.  Enormous power and flexability
for its time and still holds its own against a lot of stuff.

The best well-known example of the Putney alone (produced in Putney, England
therefore the nickname) is "On the Run" from Dark Side of the Moon.

Would ANYONE on this list turn down a Putney if given to them?  I'll bet all of
my equipment - NO WAY.  Programmer's delight.

Ed Edwards
Leader: Ezekiel's Wheel      \ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffdRetro-Progressive Rock\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd
http://www.untiedmusic.com/ezekiel
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/227/ezekiels_wheel.html
\ufffd\ufffd.\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd.\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd.\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd.\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd.\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd.\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd.\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd.\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd.\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd.\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd.\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd.\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd.\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd.\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd.\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd.\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd.\ufffd\ufffd