The one I acquired had previously belonged to the Steve Miller Band and was for sale locally in the early 1980s. Inside the anvil case, it barely fit into the back of my Datsun 510 station wagon. Barely made it up the hill of Boundary Road. 16-oscillators, stereo output beast with an early (quite limited) Programmer or patch recall. The sound could go from delicate and intimate to Saturn Booster powerful. Each of the 8 S.E.M. units had two oscillators, an LFO, LP-HP-BP-Notch

Without a doubt the Minimoog is one of the greatest keyboards ever made. When released in 1971, this portable, playable synth defined what new electronic instruments could be. Musicians agreed and added them to their growing keyboard arsenals. The genius was that logical, left-to-right layout that lent a fun sense of play to making new sounds that you thought up or stumbled onto. It made sense and the brilliant panel layout sneakily taught you synthesizer basics. I got min

The ARP Omni II was a reasonably flexible polyphonic synth with the familiar String Ensemble sounds. Essential for playing in bands while covering a diverse array of songs. And now I had a more impressive looking Keyboard Rig that served as much more of a passport to bands of note around town. I also started to develop much more independent hand playing. I started using my ears a lot more in context of hearing all the parts being played. My hands would then slide into place

This synth covered a lot of sounds on a limited budget. There were not many options when shopping for my first analog synth. Minimoogs were still being produced and still expensive in the shops. This ARP featured one oscillator but a dividing circuit that allowed octave tones which proved quite useful.

Playing Hammond organ in a small rock band

Analog synthesizers were still out of reach to teenagers in the late 1970s

Limitations always serve as inspiration. Cordovox Electronic Piano Quickly expanding to multi-keyboards and this was the second keyboard I acquired and gave me percussive piano sounds to go with the organ sounds of the Farfisa. As a basic electronic piano, it allowed mixing of brighter 'Harpsichord' sound with the mellower 'Piano sound.' It was reasonably light and inexpensive at around $200 in 1976. When running through the sleek, two-channel Yamaha TA-20 amp the cool part

"my passport into high-school garage bands"

in my laboratory I was learning by making all kinds of mistakes