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Look at this insanely rare and restored “EMS Synthi 100” analogue synthesizer

Boban Docevski

In 1974, EMS (Electronic Music Studios Instruments) introduced the Synthi 100. This is a musical instrument used by many big studios and composers back at the time, here is a list of some of them: Radio Belgrade; Wolfgang Dauner; Daniel Miller (Mute Records); Melodia – Moscow record label; Karl-Heinz Stockhausen; Elizabeth Parker with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop etc.

Synthi 100 was used for making the sounds of many BBC productions, including Doctor Who, Blakes 7 and the original Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy radio version.

It is a huge, robust and complex machine, its Designer, David Cockerell, once said that ‘You had to take walls down to get it into studios.’ Today it is considered as a classic example of early analog synthesizers and a benchmark in the field of electronic music.

The one shown here is an Original EMS Synthi 100 with serial number 16 (out of around only 30-40 that were built). It is in the final process of restoring and it has a price tag of 108,118.50 dollars. A real Rolls-Royce for vintage synth enthusiasts!

 

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Frontal view of restored Synthi 100

 

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Frequency counter

 

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Image from a Synthi 100 brochure

 

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Longer EMS brochure for the Synthi 100

 

 

 

Source: 1. Ebay 2. Synthmuseum 3. Tim Stinchcombe

 

Boban Docevski

Boban Docevski is one of the authors writing for The Vintage News