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 SEM modules offered by Oberheim in 1974.
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).
The ElectroComp 400Sequencer & 401 Synthesizer - a sophisticated portable sequencer with a simple synthesiser. Commonly considered to be an imitation of ARP's Sequencer, but in fact, EML offered their sequencer before ARP's.
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 - one of EML's last products. Unique in its storage of patches on plastic punch-cards. Released in both programmable and non-programmable 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.
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Subtractive synthesis is a method of sound synthesis in which overtones of an audio signal are attenuated by a filter to alter the timbre of the sound.
An analog synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses analog circuits and analog signals to generate sound electronically.
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The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popular with progressive rock and jazz musicians and found wide use in disco, pop, rock and electronic music.
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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Donald Buchla was an American pioneer in the field of sound synthesis. Buchla popularized the "West Coast" style of synthesis. He was co-inventor of the voltage controlled modular synthesizer along with Robert Moog, the two working independently in the early 1960s.
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Polyphony is a property of musical instruments that means that they can play multiple independent melody lines simultaneously. Instruments featuring polyphony are said to be polyphonic. Instruments that are not capable of polyphony are monophonic or paraphonic.
A synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and frequency modulation synthesis. These sounds may be altered by components such as filters, which cut or boost frequencies; envelopes, which control articulation, or how notes begin and end; and low-frequency oscillators, which modulate parameters such as pitch, volume, or filter characteristics affecting timbre. Synthesizers are typically played with keyboards or controlled by sequencers, software or other instruments, and may be synchronized to other equipment via MIDI.
An analog sequencer is a music sequencer constructed from analog (analogue) electronics, invented in the first half of the 20th century.
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