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Dream. And oddly enough, I was in a band in college with a guy who
owned one, probably the only one in the entire Western United States
at the time.
The Synthi sported three oscillators, with independent range, level,
and waveform controls, variable-color noise generators, a ring
modulator, envelope shaper, and its own spring reverb unit. But most
notably, it featured a patchboard pin matrix, which looked like the
pinboard for the game "Battleship". One created sounds using the pin
matrix, putting pins into different holes, and modified them using a
joystick controller. "Created" is a generous use of the term, because
the results were almost always unpredictable, sometimes poor (as in
no sound at all), but most of the time amazingly cool. Although, my
old college bandmate somehow knew how to get a few sounds
consistently.
The AKS Synthi A, and its wooden-cabinet cousin the VCS3
Putney, did not have keyboards attached to them. EMS produced a
separate controller keyboard for its synthesizers. The Synthi A's
controller keyboard could be placed in the carrying case lid.
In keeping with the true spirit of the Synthi A, this voice has
modulation routed to just about everything, and does not produce
anything musical or entirely predictable.
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