In the late 1970s, a Dutch magazine began selling DIY kits for readers to build their own modular synthesizers. This was the Elektor Formant, and it remained a relatively obscure entry in the synthesizer history books — until Erica Synths brought it back.
The history of DIY synths is spotty at best. Things get even murkier when you start digging into DIY modular. Unlike professionally made instruments, the very nature of “do it yourself” means that relatively few top-quality instruments remain. Built by hobbyists with varying degrees of skill, some abandoned or disposed of due to failure or just the unsentimental passing of time, many end up half-remembered or just plain forgotten.
But some make a comeback.
The Elektor Formant, a self-contained analog modular synthesizer system sold as a DIY kit in the late 1970s, has recently gotten a new lease on life thanks to a number of dedicated and curious folk, including Look Mum No Computer, Harald Antes, and Erica Synths’ Ģirts Ozoliņš.
