It must be said that the Wasp doesn't have one of the best reliability track records and finding one that still works these days is becoming a very rare thing. Rhythm, a couple of FX pedals and a hat full of money doing a roaring trade. I can remember buskers around Covent Garden in the early 80's with a Wasp, a Boss Dr. In a blindfold test you would be hard pressed to pick out the sound of the Wasp as coming from anything other than a decent Korg, Roland or dare I say it a Moog from the same period.Īlong with the Roland SH101 the Wasp must also be one of a very few 'genuine' synthesisers that runs off batteries. The VCF sounds very distinctive and is superb when filtering a sawtooth wave especially if modulated by the LFO random output and Envelope Generator. The heart of any (analogue) synth has to be the coupling of decent VCOs and a VCF and the system in the Wasp is very impressive with a full bottom end and a glass shattering, shearing top end that really doesn't equate with it's looks. The Wasp deserves some exposure now as sonically it outshines the Roland BassLine in many ways. The Wasp is capable of producing some classic Acid, Techno and bass sounds and is often overlooked in favour of the Roland BassLine, which is the current darling of the dance track. Pro musicians regarded it as no more than a toy but many more saw it as a godsend and anyway who cares what it looked like, it sounded bloody great! Admittedly the Wasp can sound as waspish as you like when it is played through the awful internal speaker but put it through a few effects and an amplifier and it transforms into an awesomely capable sounding beast that can really move speaker cones. Advertised as being 'One of the biggest advances in synthesiser design-an ultra low cost, high performance instrument unmatched by synthesisers several times the price', it quickly gained cult status.

Containing a single PCB with a hybrid digital VCO and analogue VCF design by Chris Huggett and Adrian Wagner it was released in 1978 for £199 by UK company EDP and was distributed by Rod Argent's Keyboards.

It looks so cheap and cheerful that you would almost think it was disposable. The Wasp has to be one of the most unusual looking synths ever made, with its shiny black ABS plastic casing with bright yellow knobs and legends and the infamous flat, yellow and black keyboard. An edited version of this text also appears in

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