A Link to what Robin Wood says about EMS and Synthi A and VCS3 production in 2009

And another link to what Robin Wood says about VCS3's and Synthi A's production in 2011, I'm beginning to see a trend, not an end. Link here

Stop Press, a little birdie told me that Peter Zinovieff will be at Bletchley Park for a special Vintage Computer Fair open day on the 19th and 20th June 2010. The birdie was right.

Chapter One

I have decided to impart a little of my knowledge about EMS, and how I came to own my first Synthi AKS.

I first encountered an EMS product at "The Record Shop" in Hermitage Road in Hitchin, they also had a ARP Silver faced Odyssey, I can't remember if the VCS3 had a keyboard, but I'm guessing it did, the VCS3 was far more fun to use than the ARP Odyssey, but the Odyssey was much more a musical instrument than the VCS3, I knew then that I really wanted a VCS3, or so I thought.

I went along to the EMS shop in Putney, the actual address was 277 Putney Bridge Road, this was a recent move, so didn't get to see the inside of the music workshop at 49 Deodar Road. I have no idea who I spoke to, whomever I spoke with, explained the functions of the VCS3, then showed me the Synthi AKS, well I was sold, and bought it almost on the spot, I had to raise £420, and I believe at this time the VAT rate for luxury goods was a whacking 25%.

By hook or by crook, I managed to scrape the full amount together, and within a week or two I was back at the Putney showroom to collect the Synthi AKS, complete with all the manuals, stand and mains cable, I remember getting home with it, and playing with it for several hours, even taking it to bed with me, for one last fiddle, before falling asleep.

I quickly found out that if I was going to make any serious music, I would need to have some kind of recording device, I looked around, and the only thing available at a ridiculous price was a Teac A-3340, which was a 4 track reel to reel tape recorder, the price was around £2000, and having just spent £420 on my AKS, I naturally didn't have that sort of cash available, so I looked around locally and found someone selling a Vortexion Mono reel to reel tape recorder, that was a modest £30.

It was about this time that I realised that the synth wasn't behaving as it should, a very difficult thing to determine, as you don't really have any reference point to go on, but I had found that if I put a fairly loud signal into the Ring Modulator the Envelope shaper would trigger, I concluded that this was a fault, although Brian Eno had the same fault on his VCS3, and considered it to be an advantage, this is probably why I failed as a synth programmer.

I took the Synth back to EMS in Putney, and after they had had it for a couple of weeks, they rang me to say they had fixed the fault, I went and picked it up, got it home, tried it out, it had same fault, I got a guy who worked in the Sales department where I worked, to ring EMS up, and this guy was extremely well spoken and an ex-marine to boot, he negotiated with EMS to exchange the faulty Synth, I took a day off work, and drove up to Putney, expecting to pick up my new synth, when I got there, they directed me to go to Hilton Electronics in Wareham, Dorset, which I did, and true to their word, they exchanged my faulty AKS. Later I had a couple of modifications done to the synth, firstly I chose to have Portamento added, then I had the Oscillator Sync added, only to Osc 2, if I remember rightly.

It was around this time I was involved with a local rock band called "Sam" it was comprised of four guys, Richard Goss (Guitar and Sax), Steve Watkins (Lead Guitar), Melvyn Collins (Bass) and Tony Spinks (Drums), I was sort of roadie as I think I had a van at this time, I think I also was sort of FOH sound guy, and used the Synthi AKS to produce various sound effects during the set. BTW I'm not 100% sure about Steve Watkin name, I could be wrong. I know he worked in a large Music Store in Luton, right next to the Town Hall, and I bought two 4 x 12 Marshall speaker cabinets from him, ex Deep Purple, which I used when I ran a my mobile disco Moog Acoustic Disco (M.A.D.)

I took my Synthi AKS along, to generate Police siren noises and the like. I had started to take piano lessons with a lovely lady called Ruth Butler, I wasn't a very good student, as I had far too many distractions, girls, cars, pubs and work, but I then decided I needed a proper keyboard to play the synth, so I saved up and bought a DK2 keyboard, I think they were about £140 in 1974/1975.

I was a fairly regular visitor to the EMS shop in Putney, I also bought Tristram Cary's TRIOS a two record album with comprehensive player and instruction manual of how the piece should be performed live, I still have that album.

I also bought a Patchbook of Sounds for the AKS, and got it home, only to find that the book had so many errors, nearly all the patches didn't work, I spent an afternoon on the phone to EMS, going though every patch that didn't work with them, the excuse for all the mistakes was down to the printer of the patchbook, they (EMS) had sent him the corrections, but he hadn't printed them, I was very naive then, and believed EMS.

I can remember going to a workshop that EMS had in Cricklewood, which could have been David Cockerell's house/workshop, it seemed that they did a lot of R&D there, well that was my impression when I visited, I know that access to the workshop was via a side door next to a General Hardware store, it was usually a hive of activity, and I was always made most welcome, I quite often dropped in, as this was on my way to my various places of work, and I'm sure at least on one occasion I picked up my synth from there after it had been modified.

I now have a very well behaved synth and keyboard, and I made a few recordings with it, my girlfriend had another friend, who happened to be a guy called John Hooton, he was very gifted musically, and asked if he could borrow my AKS and Vortexion tape recorder, I very kindly said yes, and off it went for a couple of weeks, or was it months, anyway I got them both back in very good order, and I listened to what John had done on the tapes I'd supplied him, and I was very impressed, he was far more talented than me, so I thought, I'm pretty lame at this music stuff, so it was not long after that, I decided that the synth was not for me.

I had been looking at the way that technology was moving towards computers, so I decided that maybe this was the way to go, so I decided to sell the AKS, after placing adverts in my local paper and the "Melody Maker", and only attracting timewasters, I took off with the synth and everything in the van, and drove to various music stores in and around London, trying to sell the AKS, with little success, until I found a shop that bought and sold nearly anything, I took the synth inside expecting to be told, sorry mate, no one is buying these, it's analogue, everyone is asking for digital synth's, but this guy liked what he saw, and as I had everything the synth was sold with, and more, and he knew it wasn't nicked, and he offered me £800 cash, which I accepted, and I drove home dreaming of owning a Commodore Personal Electronic Transactor or PET for short.

If you read this and can add any further information, please contact me.

More to follow soon in Chapter Two