The Polysynthi was produced in 1978 by EMS during a period of financial difficulty and was therefore discontinued later, that same year. EMS produced less than 30 Polysynthi Synthesizers and so the EMS Polysynthi is an incredibly rare instrument. The Polysynthi had a fully polyphonic 4 octave keyboard controlling a Voltage Controlled Oscillator Bank (VCBO). There was only 1 VCA and 1 Filter, switchable between 2 pole (12dB) or 4 pole (24dB) available for all the voices, therefore the instrument was really only ‘para-phonic.’

The Polysynthi featured 2 x Voltage Controlled LFO’s (VCLFO) with sine and variable pulse waveforms which could modulate each other or be frequency modulated by either of the 2 ADSR’s. The LFO’s could also trigger the ADRS’s allowing performers to control parameters such as the filter or the analog delay line. The Polysynthi’s voltage controlled analog delay had a switch for short echoes (which could produce chorus, flanging and reverb effects) and long echoes of upto 1 second. The Polysynthi’s sound sources were two VCO’s producing triangle, square and pulse waveforms and there was also a noise generator. These sound sources could be mixed independently via the Polysynthi’s VCBO mixer section.

Multi-Samples

There are a total of 213 multi-sampled “patches.” Each patch has been created by carefully sampling the EMS Polysynthi at various pitches across several octaves.

Loop Machine

The Loop Machine contains 186 looped sequences. Each sequence has been stretched across the keyboard from C1 to G8 and has been ‘Beat Machined’ to allow all sequences to be played in sync with the tempo of your host DAW.

SFX

SFX are a collection of 184 one-hit and looped sound effects and ambiences perfect for creating soundscapes and special effects. The samples are spread across the keyboard. There are 2 ‘banks’ of SFX that can be selected via the instrument’s preset menu.

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