Overview

The MCS70 was designed and built by the Italian engineer Mario Maggi in 1977. It is a monophonic analog synthesizer with an architecture composed by three Voltage Controlled Oscillators (VCO), one noise generator (white or pink), two voltage controlled filters (VCF), one voltage controlled amplifier (VCA), two ADSR envelope generators and one Low-Frequency Oscillator (LFO).

Among its singular features were the introduction of a "chopped" triangle wave with a unique timbral characteristic impossible to obtain in synths with conventional VCOs, very long envelope transition times (from 1ms to 50s) and the capacity to store the programmed sounds in memory (MCS means "Memory Controlled Synthesizer"). This last feature is common nowadays but at the time it was a great innovation.

Only one MCS70 was ever built. The production of this synth was made impracticable by the introduction of the polyphonic synthesizers in the market, like the Sequential Circuits

Sequential Circuits

Sequential Circuits Inc. was a California-based synthesizer company that was founded in the early 1970s by Dave Smith and sold to Yamaha Corporation in 1987. The company, throughout its lifespan, pioneered many groundbreaking technologies and design principles that are often taken for granted in...

 Prophet 5. The prototype was the only synth used in the production of the electronic music album "Automat

Automat (album)

Automat is an album of instrumental electronic music composed by the Italian musicians Romano Musumarra and Claudio Gizzi. It was produced in 1977 and released in 1978 by EMI Italy, through its Harvest label....

" by Romano Musumarra and Claudio Gizzi, released in 1978. Shortly after it was bought by Patrizio Fariselli from the Italian progressive rock band Area

Area (band)

Area - International POPular Group, most commonly known as Area or AreA, is an Italian progressive rock, jazz fusion, electronic, experimental groupb) “It was the mid-1970s and live events roused enthusiasm as never before; they fulfilled the need to be together and the illusion of continuing as a...

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