In the beginning of the 70’s, Ruben and Serge Fernandez are interested in electronics and manufacture small synth modules. They were students in Toulouse (south of France) and are discovering the synthesizers world. They created their first modular in 1976, and was called Modular 11 Serie. Klaus Schulze lended them a Ems Synthi to complete their knowledge about synth electronics and finally create their company called Rsf in 1977. Three hundreds modulars are sold. The Kobol, a programmable monophonic synth inspired by the Minimoog, is released in 1978. It’s a success, and more than 200 are manufactured. Kate Bush, Jean-Michel Jarre, Vince Clarke, Vangelis et also Peter Gabriel are using these synthesizers known for their sound, reliability and design.
But the brand has to answer to a demand around a polyphonic Kobol. It was a real challenge for them and the technical and financial problems are growing up. In spite of the Blackbox commercial success (module that transforms a monophonic synth in a pseudo-polyphonic one), Rsf had a bankrupt in 1982. The company is sold to Aria, another french southern manufacturer and Ruben Fernandez went on elaborating the Polykobol II in 1983. Unfortunately, it’s a failure. The keyboard and the sequencer are not reliable, the public price very high. At the same time, Yamaha issued the Dx7. Rsf succeeded to maintain a financial balance with the Dd14 and Dd30 (digital drum boxes). In spite of these relative successes, Aria gave it up with Rsf. In 1987.
Ruben Fernadez is now an informatician engineer, and his brother Serge is a leader in audiovisual and museographic high-end systems with the RSF name.