EMS VCS 3

The EMS VCS 3

The EMS VCS 3 is a portable analogue synthesizer with a flexible modular voice architecture introduced by Electronic Music Studios (EMS) in 1969. EMS released the product under various names.

Quotes about the EMS VCS 3

• It seems hard to think in terms of 'bargain prices' when describing EMS' diminutive VCS3, and yet when it was released in 1969, it was comparatively affordable. Today, they are among the most valuable vintage synthesizers, bringing in over 7k on the used market. [...] There aren't too many of them around these days, and EMS has, at long last, stopped manufacturing even the small number of specially ordered instruments that kept the company alive for so many decades. If you have one, you don't need us to tell you of its worth. The VCS3 is, quite simply, a marvel.
  • Scot Solida of MusicRadar (May 26, 2022) [1]

• The VCS3 (and its later, nearly identical cousin-in-a-suitcase, the Synthi AKS) have a strong presence in music history. From Tangerine Dream to Jean-Michel Jarre to Gong and Hawkwind, just about anyone who made an impact on electronic music in the 1970s used an EMS synth.The VCS3, with its stylish, polished L-shaped enclosure, was so hip that every single member of Pink Floyd claimed to play it on the liner notes of The Dark Side of the Moon, even though the uncredited Synthi AKS was quite clearly used for the most significant electronic bits.
  • Scot Solida of MusicRadar (May 26, 2022) [2]

• Looking like it was pulled from the cockpit of a Mongo Rocketship, the VCS3's design is enough to send a synth boffin into paroxysms of pleasure. Big, colour-capped knobs, a push-pin modulation matrix and a military grade joystick give the instrument a certain air of 'laboratory chic'. It virtually begs you to use it to create weird, atonal avant garde music. [...] The VCS3 invites experimentation and its users are happy to oblige. Even veteran synthesists can achieve unexpected results simply by shoving a few pins into the matrix and wiggling the joystick. Just don't expect it to stay in tune. Oscillator stability is not one of the instruments' strong points.
  • Scot Solida of MusicRadar (May 26, 2022) [3]