The EuroRack came in to existence in the 1990’s when Doepfer released their A-100 Analog Modular System. The mechanical specifications for the A-100 drew heavily from the industry standard Eurocard 19” racking system.

Since then, the EuroRack market has exploded with numerous companies releasing products including cases and power solutions. Many of these companies followed the A-100 specification ensuring an expanding range of fully compatible products that any EuroRack user could use.

Unfortunately, however, some companies decided to deviate from this ‘norm’ and so we now have a platform that has differing panel widths, differing panel mount details and differing power connections to name just a few. These inconsistencies mean that the EuroRack user can no longer just ‘add a product to their system’ without first investigating whether that product will fit in to their housing or can be connected to their power system without first requiring special adaptors or even a separate enclosure.

EuroRack has also developed a strong arm of Do-It-Yourself solutions, which although promoting the development of new ideas and opening EuroRack to an even wider market, has also seen some of the resultant ‘products’ filter in to the mainstream EuroRack market further contaminating EuroRack with non-compliant or even incompatible solutions.

A classic example of this is the introduction to EuroRack of the 1U format. Within months of the first release we were presented with two different 1U format solutions both incompatible with each other, using different mounting methods and different power connections.

EuroSynth sets about to define a set of specifications that define a Professional 3U Modular System ensuring that musicians, audio engineers, in fact anyone looking for a ‘professional' system, has access to a guaranteed, high-quality line of products ensuring conformity across the whole spectrum of the modular system.

The EuroSynth Specification, defines optimum signal levels that allow signals to be used anywhere within the system without the need for extensive up/down attenuation. It rationalizes the power system to help maintain a clean, consistent and reliable power platform. It specifies mechanical details such as panel dimensions and mounting point locations that ensure that all modules will fit in to a system without requiring padding or modification.

At the same time, EuroSynth respects the presence of the Doepfer A-100 EuroRack and attempts to maintain a high level of compatability that allows EuroSynth products to be used in EuroRack systems and EuroRack products in EuroSynth systems (*).

(*) The use of non-EuroSynth products in a EuroSynth system may compromise the level of conformance with the specification but should not impact on the general operation of the system.