Electronic Music Studios - Synthi A / Synthi AK / Synthi AKS

Synthi A / Synthi AK / Synthi AKS

During 1971 EMS released a portable version of the VCS3, the EMS Synthi A, originally called the "Portabella", a pun on London's Portobello Road. Built into a compact Spartanite attaché case, this unit was even cheaper than the original VCS3 and retailed for just £198. The following year EMS released an expanded version, the Synthi AKS, which retailed for £420 and featured a sequencer and a small keyboard built into the lid. The first 30 AK units featured a black and silver touch pad, a Spin-and-touch random note selector and a resistive touch-sensitive keyboard; these original keyboards proved difficult to use, so they were subsequently replaced with the more familiar blue capacitive touch sensitive keyboard with integrated sequencer, and became known as the KS version.

The Synthi AKS proved very popular and AKS units owned by Eno, Pink Floyd and Jean-Michel Jarre featured prominently in music by these artists in the early 1970s; one of the best-known appearances of an AKS on record is the track "On The Run" from Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, and it can be seen being used by Roger Waters and David Gilmour during the recording of the album in footage included both the 1st Director's Cut of Live at Pompeii and in the DSOTM episode of the BBC documentary series Classic Albums respectively (Gilmour used his to demonstrate the sequence used in the song).