EMS VCS 3

The VCS 3 (an initialism for Voltage Controlled Studio with 3 oscillators) is a portable analog synthesiser with a flexible semi-modular voice architecture.

History

It was created 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 synthesiser—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 alleged by many (including synthesiser enthusiast Gordon Reid in his articles on the EMS company for Sound on Sound magazine in 2000) to be somewhat hopeless as a melodic instrument due to its unusual method of tuning and inherent instability; however, it is renowned as an extremely powerful generator of electronic effects and processor of external sounds.

The VCS 3 was quite popular among progressive rock bands and was used on recordings by The Alan Parsons Project, Jean Michel Jarre, Hawkwind, Brian Eno (with Roxy Music), King Crimson, The Who, Gong, and Pink Floyd, among many others. Well-known examples of its use are on The Who track "Won't Get Fooled Again" from Who's Next and Pink Floyd's "On the Run" from The Dark Side of the Moon.

Description

The VCS 3 has three oscillators, a noise generator, two input amplifiers, a ring modulator, a 18dB/octave 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'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, and the AKS (essentially a VCS 3 housed in a plastic briefcase). The AKS also has a sequencer built into the keyboard in the lid.

In spite of the fact that it is a monophonic synthesiser, the VCS 3 underwent something of a renaissance in the late 1990s and early 2000s, both in popularity and in price. Artists looking to evoke a quaint, synthesised sound began to make the VCS 3 popular, and thus, prices for the synthesiser reached as much as £3000 and even more for famous ones—higher even than when they were first released. In August 2010, VCS 3 reached £6700 in an eBay auction.

Notable users

Richard Wright, David Gilmour and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd
John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin
Download (Cevin Key and Phil Western)
Kraftwerk
Michel Waisvisz
Todd Rundgren
Brian Eno
Paul Davis
Ice-T
Newcleus
Eddie Jobson
The Who
King Crimson
Tim Blake
TONTO's Expanding Head Band
Zorch
David Vorhaus
BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Klaus Schulze
Edgar Froese
Aphex Twin
Vince Clarke
Jean Michel Jarre
Chemical Brothers
Ozric Tentacles
Tangerine Dream
Franco Battiato on Fetus and Pollution
Andy Whitmore
Paolo Tofani and Area
Portishead
Morgan Fisher
LCD Soundsystem

In popular culture

A modified EMS VCS 3 is presented as the "Harrington 1200" automatic song-writing machine in the "Music" episode of the British comedy Look Around You.

Development

The original VCS No.1 was a hand-built rackmount unit with two oscillators, one filter and one envelope designed by Cockerell before the formation of EMS. When a benefactor, Don Banks, asked Zinovieff for a synthesiser, Zinovieff and Cockerell decided to work together on building an instrument that was small, portable, but very powerful and flexible. Thus came the VCS 3, an entire new class of musical instrument.^{[citation needed]}

External links