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
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 consists of a
sequencer (with knobs & numeric keys), tiny synthesizer (without filter), and manual switches.[4]
The ElectroComp 400Sequencer & 401 Synthesizer - another portable synthesizer with sophisticated sequencer. 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 slimmed-down 101 with only 2 VCO's and sliders instead of patch points. 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.