Back in 1986, Italy's Elka took a bold swing at the FM synth craze with this desktop module, packing an unusual 4-operator engine—powered by Yamaha's sanded YM2203 chip—into a rare 18-voice polyphonic beast that layered two detunable 9-voice engines for thick, evolving tones.
Housed in a compact 37 x 3 x 9cm metal chassis weighing just 6kg, it sports a non-backlit LCD display flanked by preset banks, selectors, and performance registration buttons on the left, with sliders for volume and edits to the right. Dive into sound design via 8 algorithms routing those sinewave operators, tweakable with 4 FM envelope generators (ADSR style), a dedicated pitch EG, and a single LFO offering sawtooth, sine, random, or square waves for vibrato with delay. An analog BBD chorus (using MN3009 chips) adds lush depth to the stereo output, while 8-part multitimbrality, 96 patches (64 ROM plus 16 performances, expandable via cartridge), portamento, fine tuning, and even an Arabian scale mode make it versatile for MIDI rigs—though editing lacks a dedicated librarian.
Vintage players appreciate its DX7-inspired sounds with an Italian twist, praising the polyphony and layering for dreamy pads, but note the fiddly interface and dim screen in low light as quirks of its era.
