Skip to main content
Vintage synths & drum machines
Vintage Synthesizers

Shop by era

Pre-MIDI classics

These synths shipped without MIDI, the standard connection that lets instruments talk to each other and to a computer. MIDI was standardized in 1983, so anything older connected some other way, like CV and gate on the Prophet-5 or Roland's DIN sync on the TR-808. This is where the founding classics live, from the 1970 Minimoog to the 1977 CS-80 and the 1978 Prophet-5. Many have since had MIDI added. Kenton sells retrofits for the Polysix and the Memorymoog, and later Prophet-5 revisions can take one too. A retrofit is a plus when it was fitted well, so ask who installed it and check in the video that it plays from a MIDI keyboard. Without one, plan on a MIDI-to-CV interface or play it by hand.

27 models