EDP Gnat

Back in 1981, this little beast hit the scene as the ultra-affordable sibling to the cult-favorite Wasp, retailing for just £99 and packing a punch that had players scrambling to get their hands on one—proof that great synth tones don't need a big price tag.

It's a hybrid monophonic wonder with a single DCO oscillator offering waveforms like ramp, square, noise, and a unique "enhance" mode that tricks the ear into hearing dual-oscillator thickness, all fed through a 12dB/oct lowpass filter with resonance, frequency cutoff, and versatile control options including LFO or envelope modulation. The controls are pure hands-on simplicity: glide/portamento, octave switches from 32' to 2', speedy LFO with sine/ramp/saw/square/random waves for pitch or filter wobble, and a single AD envelope shaping the filter contour from ramp to sawtooth. Housed in a super-compact black plastic body with a built-in speaker and battery power for total portability, it rocks a 25-key flat touch-sensitive membrane keyboard that's infamously unplayable but endlessly charming, plus a 1/4" audio out and EDP's proprietary digital link for syncing with Wasps or other gear like the Spider sequencer.

Players loved its raw, Minimoog-like bass growls and versatile leads straight out of the box, especially when plugged into a proper amp, though the fiddly keyboard and lack of volume knob drew some gripes—still, its no-frills attitude made it a punk-rock staple in the early '80s synth world.