Electronic Music Laboratories, commonly abbreviated to EML, was a synthesizer company founded in 1968 in Vernon, Connecticut, by four engineers. It manufactured and designed a variety of synthesizers sharing the same basic design but configured in different ways.
The company originated by accident, after Dale Blake, Norman Millard, Dennis Daugherty, and Jeff Murray, employees of Gerber Scientific, founded the company in order to ensure that they all continued to have a job following an impending layoff. Following the schematics of a fellow audio engineer, Fred Locke, the four made synthesizers that directly competed with those of Moog Music and ARP. Although their synthesizers were not as sophisticated or capable as those designed by Bob Moog or Alan R. Pearlman, they were marketed as being much more reliable, which was true due to their use of op-amps instead of transistors.
The company's original EML-200 was designed in part for Connecticut's "Pilot Electronic Project" or "Project PEP" as an educational tool for secondary school students.[1] The program was created by then State Music Consultant Lloyd Schmidt.[2][3]
Although the company stopped manufacturing synthesizers in 1976, following the departure of two of their employees, the company continued to operate until 1984, designing and manufacturing products for others and repairing their synthesizers.
Products
ElectroComp EML-200 on electronic music classroom
1969: The ElectroComp 200 - monophonic. a 2-VCO "expansion" module, similar to the Oberheim SEM.
1970: The ElectroComp 100 - duophonic. a portable, "suitcase" synthesizer which was produced one year before the better known semi-modular ARP 2600. The ElectroComp 100 was followed by the similar (and higher production) ElectroComp 101.
1972: The ElectroComp 101 - duophonic
The ElectroComp 300 - a "controller" unit initially intended as an option for the EML200. It consists of a voltage source (with knobs & numeric keys), tiny synthesizer (without filter), and manual routing switches.[4]
The ElectroComp 301 a “controller” unit similar to the 300. The manual routing switches of the 300 were replaced by a joystick, and the synth section gained an LFO and a “sampler” (sample & hold). EML also produces a separate joystick controller.
The ElectroComp 400Sequencer & 401 Synthesizer - a sophisticated portable sequencer and a simple synthesiser. Commonly considered to be an imitation of ARP's 1601 Sequencer, but in fact, EML offered their sequencer before ARP's. A typical 400 system consisted of a 400 16 step programming panel, a 416 programming panel and a 401 synth module. Innovative features included a quantizer and voltage-controlled envelopes.
The ElectroComp 500 - Followed a trend among musicians and manufacturers towards more portable, "performance" synthesizers. Was essentially a 401 with a keyboard. Competed directly with the Minimoog and the ARP Odyssey, although it was more similar in design to the Odyssey than the Minimoog.
The PolyBox - a small module designed to add polyphony to monophonic analog synthesizers. They came in black or orange and featured a 13-key keyboard. Only around 150 were made.
The SynKey - EML's last major product, used divide-down oscillators and interval select buttons to give a basic paraphonic/chord function. Unique in its storage of patches on plastic punch-cards. Released in both programmable (2001) and non-programmable (1500) versions.
EML also produced a few custom-built units which used their standard modules in new (usually larger) configurations,
Synthesizer modules were also available, giving musicians the ability to build their own modular synthesizers at a lower cost than a Moog, EMS, or ARP. Note that another company, I.W.Turner, produced a series of “Electronic Music Lab” modules which are often mistaken for EML products.
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An analog synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses analog circuits and analog signals to generate sound electronically.
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ARP Instruments, Inc. was a Lexington, Massachusetts manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, founded by Alan Robert Pearlman in 1969. It created a popular and commercially successful range of synthesizers throughout the 1970s before declaring bankruptcy in 1981. The company earned a reputation for producing excellent sounding, innovative instruments and was granted several patents for the technology it developed.
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The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer invented by the American engineer Robert Moog in 1964. Moog's company, R. A. Moog Co., produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 2014. It was the first commercial synthesizer and established the analog synthesizer concept.
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