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Top 10 Vintage Synths (Under $10,000)
The price of classic synthesizers continues to rise. Which ones are worth their asking price?
With few exceptions, almost everyone agrees on which vintage synths they consider classics. The synths in this list range from 38 to 51 years old. As time marches on, prices on the used market for most of these beauties just keep going up. Many are some of the most desirable electronic instruments you’ll find, and they’re practically guaranteed to hold their value. For now, at least, you should be able to find most of them for less than $10,000—sometimes much less, though nothing prevents someone from asking for more—and all of them originally sold for $10,000 or less. So here they are, listed in chronological order.
EMS VCS3 (1969)
The Voltage Controlled Studio 3 was the first truly portable synthesizer, preceding the Minimoog by just over a year. It was the creation of David Cockerell, Tristam Cary, and Electronic Music Studios owner Peter Zinovieff. Wanting the VCS3 to capture the education market, they built it as cheaply as possible to undercut any competition (which accounts for its reputation for instability and unreliability.) The ability to connect any circuit to any other makes the VCS3 a true modular synth. Instead of using patch cords, though, you could connect an oscillator to the filter, for example, by sticking a pin at their intersection on its 16×16 matrix panel.
The VCS3 has two audio oscillators, a lowpass filter, an LFO, a noise generator, and a single trapezoid envelope generator, as well as ring modulation, spring reverb, two speakers, and a joystick for controlling any two parameters simultaneously. Its most common use is for sound effects, though it never really caught on much outside of the U.K.—probably because its keyboard was an optional add-on. The VCS3 launched Brian Eno’s career and remained his instrument of choice for years. It made its biggest impression, though, on Pink Floyd’s “On the Run” from Dark Side of the Moon.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Vintage Synths (Under $10,000) – NEXT
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Moog Minimoog Model D (1970)
Ah, the Minimoog—could there ever be a more iconic and desirable synth? Most people consider the Model D the prototype for every synth that came after it. It was the first mass-produced synthesizer designed expressly for stage use and the first ever sold in music stores. (Previous Moog instruments were modular systems, usually made to order.) Housed in a lovely wood cabinet with a distinctive tilting control panel, the Model D was also the first hardwired synth that didn’t rely on user-defined patch connections. Each of its three oscillators has a wide frequency range down to one cycle every ten seconds. Distortion from the oscillators and the celebrated Moog ladder filter give the Minimoog a timbral character all its own. Its twin contour (envelope) generators are hardwired to the filter and amplifier, and that was another first. It also has jacks for connecting external audio and various controllers.
Another first were the pitch-bend and modulation wheels that, in the right hands, made it a particularly expressive instrument. (Moog failed to patent that feature, and it was soon copied by most of their competitors.) Since its launch in November 1970, pretty much every electronic musician and keyboardist has recorded and played onstage with a Minimoog. By the time they ceased manufacture in 1980, R.A. Moog Co. and then Moog Music had sold 12,269 of them. Moog Music introduced an updated Model D in July 2016 but discontinued it the following year.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Vintage Synths (Under $10,000) – NEXT
ARP 2600 (1971)
The 2600 was the second product from Alan R. Pearlman’s ARP Instruments and the first synth to make patch cords optional. He teamed with engineer Dennis Colin to design a portable instrument for schools, and together they created a highly versatile semimodular synth that traveled far beyond the classroom. With three VCOs, a lowpass filter, ADSR and AR envelopes, an envelope follower, ring modulation, spring reverb, and a pair of built-in amplified speakers, the 2600 contains all its signal generating and processing electronics in a single enclosure.
The instrument’s first big break came when Pete Townshend recorded his 2600 extensively on Who Comes Next in 1971. The following year, Edgar Winter showed off his 2600 chops on his hit song “Frankenstein,” and Stevie Wonder demonstrated his on Sesame Street the year after that. Ben Burtt’s 2600 even gave voice to R2D2 in Star Wars. After gracing many hit records and undergoing many cosmetic and functional changes, the 2600 went out of production in 1981. Fortunately, Korg revived this classic instrument earlier this year with the release of their ARP 2600 FS, but only in limited numbers.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Vintage Synths (Under $10,000) – NEXT
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Oberheim Four-Voice (1975)
With so many outstanding models to choose from, selecting an Oberheim for this list was no easy task. We could just as easily have gone with the OB-8, OB-Xa, or Matrix-12, but Tom Oberheim’s greatest contribution to synth design is undoubtedly the SEM (Synthesizer Expander Module), which he first introduced at AES in May 1974. With two VCOs, two 3-stage envelopes, an LFO, and a state-variable, resonant, 2-pole filter, the SEM is a complete synthesizer voice on its own.
The FVS-1 (Four-Voice Synthesizer) has four SEMs and a 49-note keyboard, but no pitch-bend or modulation controllers. Although they lack the two-voice TVS-1’s mini-sequencer, most of them have the optional Polyphonic Synthesizer Programmer. It stores most parameters for eight patches, but not all of them. And because each SEM is an independent voice, the FVS-1 is both 4-note polyphonic and 4-part multitimbral. Tom didn’t stop at four voices, though, later introducing six- and eight-voice models (as if the FVS-2 wasn’t heavy enough). Once Sequential Circuits debuted the Prophet-5, however, SEM-based Oberheims quickly fell into disfavor because of their weight, size, and expense.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Vintage Synths (Under $10,000) – NEXT
Yamaha CS-80 (1977)
Yamaha’s most in-demand early entry in the polysynth wars was the CS-80, one of several models released in 1977. It’s truly polyphonic, and its 61-note wooden keyboard responds to velocity and aftertouch. Although the CS-80 has no pitch-bend or mod wheels or levers, it does have a pitch ribbon and comes with a pedal to control expression and filter cutoff. Buttons on the front panel select any of 22 fixed factory patches and 4 user patches. On the control panel’s left, you’ll see a flip-up panel concealing four rows of miniature sliders that control 26 user parameters for the user patches—no digital memory needed.
The CS-80 is 8-note polyphonic, and each note can layer two voices. Each voice has one VCO with a suboscillator, an ADSR amplitude envelope, and resonant lowpass and highpass filters that share an ADR envelope. You can apply chorus, tremolo, and delay effects to the stereo output. All told, the CS-80 weighs 220 pounds with all its accessories. Yamaha made fewer than 800 of them, and most of those need to be salvaged or restored. Vangelis, whose score for the 1982 film Blade Runner has his CS-80 all over it, called it “the most important synthesizer of my career.”
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Vintage Synths (Under $10,000) – NEXT
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Korg MS-20 (1978)
The dual-oscillator, dual-filter MS-20 is a compact semimodular monosynth that didn’t make much of a splash when it first shipped. Its single-oscillator sibling, the MS-10, was even less in demand. They never sounded as pretty as their competitors, and for the most part, they still don’t. Once the MS-20 started showing up in classified ads and pawn shops, though, budding synthesists and starving musicians made edgy music with it, and its charms were more widely recognized. Now its distinctive tonal palette is so popular that Korg has resurrected the MS-20 in a choice of colors and sizes and added MIDI and USB connectivity.
Many features make the MS-20 unique. Its External Signal Processor (ESP) pairs a frequency-to-voltage converter with an envelope follower. That allows you to more effectively use it as an audio processor for vocals and other instruments than most other synths. It has only one assignable bipolar wheel and a momentary button for triggering modulation. Because you can reconfigure it with patch cords, its flexibility breaches hardcore modular territory at a much lower cost. With voltage-controlled highpass and lowpass filters in series, nonstandard envelopes, a modulation generator (LFO) with a waveshaping knob, and other features not found on most synths, the MS-20 has a voice and a vibe all its own.
Note: Korg has resurrected the MS-20.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Vintage Synths (Under $10,000) – NEXT
Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 (1978)
Did you know that former Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman suggested the Prophet’s name and some of its front-panel layout features? When Dave Smith and company debuted the Prophet-5 at the January NAMM Show in 1978, the Earth shifted on its axis. For years, everyone had been clamoring for a true polysynth, one with independent articulation for every voice. But the clincher was that not only does it have five independent voices, it also memorizes every parameter that defines each patch. Combining all-analog sound production with a digitally scanned keyboard and microprocessor-based patch storage in a relatively lightweight package, the Prophet-5 was a dream come true for keyboard players around the world. In no time at all, everyone heard its sound on literally hundreds of hit records as other synth manufacturers scrambled to catch up.
Inside, you’ll find five voice cards, each with a chipset that furnishes two VCOS, a lowpass VCF, and two ADSRs. With features such as polyphonic modulation (Poly-Mod) and automatic tuning, the Prophet-5 had numerous revisions over the years. The first 182 units were built by hand and had enclosures made of koa. Later the same year, Rev 2 was mass-produced and encased in walnut, with easier-to-service circuit boards and external patch storage on audio cassettes. Rev 3 replaced the SSM chips with chips from Doug Curtis, and Rev 3.3 was the final update in 1982. When MIDI appeared the followed year, Sequencer Circuits made an optional MIDI retrofit kit for Revs 3.2 and 3.3.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Vintage Synths (Under $10,000) – NEXT
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Roland Jupiter-8 (1981)
Roland designed its most desirable synth ever in order to compete with the Prophet-5 and OB-Xa. Released in 1981, the Jupiter-8 (also called the JP-8) is an 8-voice, 16-oscillator instrument with a split keyboard—a first for a true polysynth. You can assign four voices to the keyboard’s left and four to its right or layer voices so that each key plays two timbres. Its arpeggiator can play either or both sides, too. You can stack all 16 oscillators in unison mode and glide between chords with polyphonic portamento. Each voice has two ADSRs, an LFO with sample-and-hold, and a lowpass filter you can switch from 2-pole to 4-pole. Patch storage memorizes 64 patches and 8 preset pairs, which load two split or layered patches simultaneously.
The 47-pound Jupiter-8’s real claim to fame is its sound, and that’s what make it such an object of desire today. That’s also what made it the choice of musicians like Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes, who called it “the best designed synthesizer I’ve ever seen.” In 1982, Roland replaced it with the Jupiter-8A, adding a Digital Communications Bus (DCB), faster automatic tuning, better oscillator stability, and a brighter display.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Vintage Synths (Under $10,000) – NEXT
PPG Wave (1981)
With starting prices in the high six figures for a Synclavier or Fairlight, buying a digital synth was a costly proposition at the dawn of the ’80s. That changed when Wolfgang Palm of Palm Products GmbH (PPG) began shipping the 8-note polyphonic Wave. It was built around a new technology that Wolfgang invented called wavetable synthesis. Its $10,000 sticker price was apparently the sweet spot many were waiting for, because Waves started flying out the door as quickly as PPG could make them. It didn’t hurt that its knobs and display more closely resembled those of analog synths than their earlier digital synth, the Wavecomputer 360.
In the Wave’s initial release, each voice has an 8-bit wavetable oscillator, an analog 4-pole filter, and a single modulation wheel. Its sequencer records not only notes, but also any real-time changes to the oscillator and filter. The Wave 2.2 followed in 1982 with more wavetables, two oscillators per voice, and two mod wheels. PPG sold the final version, the MIDI-compatible and 8-part multitimbral Wave 2.3, from 1984 until ceasing operations in 1987. Not long after that, however, Waldorf adopted the Wave’s technology, and wavetable synthesis remains popular today.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Vintage Synths (Under $10,000) – NEXT
Rhodes Chroma (1982)
The Chroma began as a design and development project at ARP Instruments in 1979. When ARP went bust and liquidated their assets in 1981, they sold the design to CBS Instruments, which at that point already owned Fender and Rhodes. CBS promptly hired everyone who had been working on it. The following year, the Rhodes Chroma rose from the ashes. It weighs 71 pounds, in part because of 61 weighted, wooden keys that respond to velocity. (A polyphonic aftertouch kit was available as an option.) Instead of wheels, two programmable bipolar levers typically handle pitch bend and modulation.
The Chroma is a 16-voice instrument that’s also 16-part multitimbral, with eight 2-voice synth boards connected to a central microprocessor that handles all control signals. Each voice has an analog oscillator, waveshaper, highpass or lowpass filter, and amplifier. It also has two digital envelopes and a digital LFO called a sweep generator. The Chroma’s proprietary, pre-MIDI computer port originally connected to an Apple II running a patch librarian and 8-channel sequencer or to another Chroma or keyboard-less Chroma Expander for 32-voice operation. A third-party MIDI retrofit is available.
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