EMS

Also known as: Electronic Music Studios, EMS Synthesisers, EMS London

Unclaimed

20 Products · Used by 140 Artists

EMS Synthi A Synthesizers

$22,710.85

1 available store

5.0 (7)

47 artists using

EMS VCS 3 Synthesizers

5.0 (9)

53 artists using

EMS VCS3 Mk II Synthesizers

5.0 (1)

4 artists using

EMS Universal Sequencer Audio Sequencers

4.0 (1)

^# 46

in Audio Sequencers Rank

1 artist using

EMS Synthi AKS Synthesizers

5.0 (6)

37 artists using

EMS Synthi Hi-Fli Effects Processors

7 artists using

EMS Vocoder 2000 Effects Processors

9 artists using

EMS DK1 Synthesizers

1 artist using

EMS DK2 Synthesizers

1 artist using

EMS Synthi KB1 Synthesizers

1 artist using

EMS Synthi 100 Modular Synthesizers

5.0 (1)

14 artists using

EMS Pitch to Voltage Converter Converters

3 artists using

EMS Sequencer 256 Audio Sequencers

3 artists using

EMS Vocoder 3000 Effects Processors

1 artist using

EMS PFS-1 Phase Frequency Shifter Effects Processors

1 artist using

EMS Polysynthi Synthesizers

2 artists using

EMS Vocoder 1000 Effects Processors

5.0 (1)

3 artists using

EMS 49 X 49 Matrix Modular Synthesizers

1 artist using

EMS Random Voltage Generator Converters

EMS Vocoder 5000 Effects Processors

Electronic Music Studios (EMS) is a British synthesizer manufacturer founded in Putney, London in 1969 by Peter Zinovieff, composer Tristram Cary, and engineer David Cockerell. The company is best known for the VCS3, a portable analogue synthesizer with a pin-matrix patching system introduced in 1969, and its suitcase-housed sibling the Synthi A and Synthi AKS, which added a built-in keyboard and sequencer. EMS instruments became a defining sound of early progressive rock, krautrock, and experimental electronic music, with the VCS3 and AKS famously featured on recordings by Pink Floyd, Brian Eno, Jean-Michel Jarre, David Bowie, Roxy Music, and many others.

The original London-era company closed in the late 1970s, and the EMS name and production was later taken up by Robin Wood, who continues to build Synthi A and VCS3 units by hand from a workshop in Ladock, Cornwall. Alongside new instruments, EMS offers spares, repairs, and modifications for vintage units, keeping the distinctive trapezoidal cabinets, oscillator designs, and pin-matrix patchbays in small-batch production. The brand occupies a specialist niche in the synthesizer world, valued for its idiosyncratic circuitry, unstable-by-design oscillators, and the tactile, almost game-like workflow of its matrix patching.

EMS has 20 products cataloged on Equipboard, including Synthesizers, Effects Processors, and Modular Synthesizers. Their gear is featured by 140 artists, with the strongest followings in Electronic, Rock, and Pop. Notable users include Jean Michel Jarre, Sonic Boom, and Meat Beat Manifesto.