EMS (Electronic Music Studios)

Electronic Music Studios (London) Ltd. (usually abbreviated to EMS) is a synthesizer company formed in 1969 by Dr. Peter Zinovieff and his fellow cohorts Tristram Cary and David Cockerell. The company created the VCS 3 the same year. The synthesizer was developed in the basement of Zinovieff's London house. The company still manufactures the EMS VCS3 and Synthi A.

EMS synthesizers and London studios were used by artists such as Pink Floyd (Meddle, Obscured by Clouds, Dark Side of the Moon, Animals, Wish You Were Here), The Who (Won't Get Fooled Again), BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Brian Eno and Roxy Music, Tangerine Dream (all early albums), Hawkwind, Tim Blake, and Jean Michel Jarre.

Rather than using patch cords to route audio and control signals among modules, EMS synthesizers used a matrix plugboard into which the user stuck special pins that connected an input (listed on the Y-axis of the matrix) to an output (on the X-axis). This was easier to examine than the myriad of patch cords used to connect modules on other modular systems of the day, such as the Moog modular synthesizer.

EMS (Electronic Music Studios) and Back to the Phuture

Apparently Wendy Carlos slated the EMS Synthi VCS3, aka The Putney and called it a toy "Its components are highly unstable and unpredictable" however she recognised the benefits "it is small & portable & groups might like it for special effects".

Contrary to popular belief the knobs on the EMS equipment only went up to 10 and not 11.

Electronic Music Studios

Peter Zinovieff, EMS
Putney Studio

Peter Zinovieff, EMS
Chairman 1969 - 1979

VCS3 (aka The Putney), EMS