Fifty Years of Industry-Defining Instruments

Rossum Electro-Music is the culmination of Dave Rossum's 50 years of designing industry-defining instruments and transformative technologies.

Starting with his co-founding of E-mu Systems, Dave provided the technological leadership behind what many consider the premier professional modular synthesizer system. The E-mu Modular System combined superlative analog design, innovative use of digital technology, and unparalleled physical construction and reliability.

Reflecting Dave's belief that analog and digital technologies each have their optimum roles, the system featured rock-stable analog oscillators, exquisite-sounding filters, the first digital polyphonic synthesizer keyboard, the first modular digital sequencer, and the first microprocessor-based polyphonic keyboard/sequencer. It became an instrument of choice for recording studios, educational institutions, and artists as diverse as Frank Zappa, Leon Russell, and Hans Zimmer.

Dave and E-mu then turned to affordable professional digital sampling with the Emulator keyboards and racks. The Emulator II established sampling as the leading music technology of its time, becoming a fixture in professional studios and appearing on innumerable hit records and film soundtracks. It was followed by the Emax samplers, the legendary SP-12 and SP-1200 sampling drum machines, the Proteus sound modules, and the Morpheus Z-Plane Synthesizer.

Dave also developed and licensed technology that enabled many iconic synthesizers: the Oberheim 4-Voice, the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, and, through his design of many of the SSM music ICs, instruments from Korg, Kawai, and more.

Today, Dave and Rossum Electro-Music build on that history to bring a new level of creativity, innovation, and quality to the electronic musicians, producers, and sound designers of the 21st century.