Polyfusion Series 2000 (1976-1982)

Polyfusion was founded in 1975 by ex-Moog employees, Alan Pearce and Ron Folkman who decided to design a system of their own.

The serie 2000 modular came in 1976, it's a very well designed and built instrument, a kind of unbreakable machine (I have never ever seen one faulty). The first modules were using the same format and the knobs as in Moog systems. The sound is close to Moog’s one but the quality and stability of the electronic set it in another range, perhaps the most reliable modular at that time, and may be even today.
It's easily tunable and remains in tune.

The sequencer is available both in stand alone or standard module format. An 8 voices cv-gate polyhonic keyboard is also available. Available format : Main cabinet, Half cabinet. Tier cabinet, Half tier cabinet. Around 150 systems have been made from 1976 to 1982 .

(Thanks to Francois Marcaud)

Yamaha CS-80 (1976)

A very old and very huge classic synthesizer. Considered Japans first great synthesizer. It had some pretty amazing features for its time such as eight voice polyphony, patch memory storage and polyphonic aftertouch. It can generate great analog strings, brass, drones and pads with that instantly recognizable classic polysynth sound. No synth sounds greater. Some examples of its extremely fat sound can be heard in "Blade Runner" and "Mutiny on the Bounty" by Vangelis as well as "Dune" by Toto. The thing that really made this synth sound so powerful was its "natural" detuning....thus its brass and string sounds were unparalleled not only for authenticity, but for pure width! Unfortunately for the CS-80, it was released the same year as the more programmable and cheaper Prophet 5. 

With two analog oscillators per voice, the CS-80 has the potential for some really thick sounds. A great VCF filter with independent hi pass and low pass resonant filters, a powerful ring modulator and plenty of modulation controls further enhance the CS-80's sonic potential. There are 22 preset sounds (6 user) selected from bright and ugly colored buttons above the keyboard. The keyboard is weighted and has a full 61 keys with performance controllers for vibrato, pitch, brightness and volume. Surprisingly there's also a long ribbon controller for the pitch-bending, located above the keyboard. There is no MIDI or CV/Gate control. The only way to MIDI it is via a rather complex retrofit receive-only kit from Kenton.