Gleeman Pentaphonic

Only about 30 of these were ever built back in 1982, making it one of the rarest polyphonic analog synths from the brothers Gleeman, who crafted it to rival giants like the Prophet-5 in a ridiculously portable package.

At its heart, each of its five voices packs three DCOs for rock-solid tuning and thick analog warmth, feeding into a 4-pole lowpass resonant filter, dual ADSR envelopes for filter and VCA, plus an LFO and switchable slow/fast chorusing. The 3-octave keyboard sits atop a compact black case— just 18 pounds, 6x13x25 inches—with a built-in 5-watt amp and 4-inch speaker for instant plug-and-play. Hands-on fun comes from the X/Y joystick for pitch bend and mod or filter control, footpedal inputs for modulation depth and cutoff, CV/gate, expression pedal ports, and a 300-note polyphonic sequencer perfect for real-time looping you can jam over. Some units sport an optional Presetter module adding 100 patch memories and extra waveforms.

Owners and players cherish its huge, juicy sound from such a lightweight beast—Moog Cookbook and others have squeezed cosmic tones from it—but good luck finding one; restored examples from the Audities Foundation pop up occasionally, fetching serious collector prices.