Formanta EMS-1

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"This synth was developed in USSR in 80-s years on the same military radio plant in Kachkanar where well known Polivoks synth was produced. Perhaps, Formanta ems-01 is most unusual sounding synth among the soviet made synthesizers. Its modulation possibilities are infinite, raw analog sound is absolutely unique, and it looks like peace of rock.

Let’s see overal architecture of the instrument. Instrument has two sections. The first section is analog mono-synth with two oscillators. It is the wild heart of the beast. Synth has 3-octave keyboard based on electromagnetic elements. It means that contacts of the keys will last forever. Every oscillator has triangle, saw and square waveforms. You can change square’s pulse width by knob or modulate it by LFO. Audio diapason of the every oscillator changes from 16’ to 2’. Mixer section has 5 knobs for control of amount audio from: 1 osc., 2 osc., external input, noise source, ring modulator. Then there is flexible LFO with controllable delay onboard. LFO has 6 waveforms: noise, sample-and-hold, two types of saw, square and sine. You can route LFO to modulate: every oscillator pitch, filter’s cutoff, VCA. Then you can switch LFO to trigger VCA and VCF envelopes, and you can modulate speed of LFO from keytracking. There is a ring modulator. You can switch input signals for ring modulator as 1osc. and 2osc., or as 1osc. and LFO. Then we have unique analog filter based on the same circuitry which used in Polivoks synth. You can control filter’s resonanse and cutoff by knobs, amount of modulation from LFO to cutoff, amount of modulation from dedicated AR envelope. Filter can be switched in low-pass mode or in band-pass mode. Filter’s envelope can be switched to positive or negative direction. Also we have VCA with dedicated ADSR envelope with autotrigger possibility. There is a portamento. You can adjust its time and switch off portamento from second oscillator and to get very special effect, this feature also borrowed from Polivoks synth. There are also: memory for last pushed key, slide knob which change overal tune in about 3 octaves, interval knob for detuning oscillators in about 1 octave, detune knob for detuning oscillators in about 1 ton range. Synth section has factory installed CV-in in Hz/Volt scale, but for its own gate trigger signals standard.

Then there is second section of instrument. It is analog organ with 5 octave keyboard also on electromagnetic contacts. Organ has 6 preset sounds. For organ you can control: tune, amount of pitch modulation from dedicated triangle lfo, frequency of pitch modulation, delay of pitch modulation. Some organ’s preset sounds feed to rich analog 3-stage chorus effect. Then you can independently route synthesizer and organ to exellent analog stereo-phaser effect. Stereo-phaser has control of resonanse. On the back of the instrument there are outs for phones, audio mono sum, audio stereo outs, and input for pedal controller. Also there are CV-in, CV-out and external audio in.

Here is audio demo of just this formanta ems-01 which i am selling. All tracks was recorded direct to PC without any additional effects and without

any multi-tracking. The signal recorded from stereo outputs. The track formanta7.mp3 is yamaha vss-200 processed through the external input. Just listen to incredible sound of ems-01:

formanta1.mp3
formanta2.mp3
formanta3.mp3
formanta4.mp3
formanta5.mp3
formanta6.mp3
formanta7.mp3
formanta8.mp3
formanta9.mp3
formanta10.mp3"