ELEKTRONIKA EM 25

via this auction
"rare Soviet analog polyphonic synthesizer - ELEKTRONIKA EM 25. This auction synth was made in November 1991 by most pupular Soviet brand. "Elektronika" was the so-called brand name for any former Soviet electronic product made in any former Soviet factory more or less involved in the manufacturing of any electronic devices and there were a whole range of electronic products released in Russia (watches, TV sets, amps, speakers, tuners, and more) that used this 'trademark'.

Elektronika EM-25 is a polyphonic synth specialising in strings, organ and brass. Like other such instruments, it has a 'divide-down' variety to give a totally polyphonic generator through a single filter, amp and envelope.

The strings section had mixable contrabass, cello and violins with variable attack and decay and the obligatory chorus unit for the rich ensemble effect.

The organ offered variable footages at 16', 8', 4' and 2' with variable attack and decay whilst the brass section offered trombone and trumpet. Of course, none of these sounds 'realistic' but there are plenty of controls and facilities to coax some sonic mileage out of this trio of sounds.

There is an LFO that could be used to sweep the apparently fiercely resonant, self-oscillating filter and all the sections could be mixed and balanced - even split across the keyboard range - and so, in that respect, the EM-25 was not unlike the Moog Opus, Korg Trident and other such keyboards. To the left was a performance section - "Transposer" with a pitchbend lever that appears to have been lifted directly from Roland's 'bender' design!

As other soviet synths EM 25 has it`s own unique sound. You can get from the synth - warm analog strings, smooth pads, orchestral sounds, fat synthetic brasses and leads, various space fx sounds etc."