MFB Tanzbar drum machine, courtesy of schneidersladen.de
A synth manufacturer based in Berlin. MFB was founded in 1979 by recording engineer Manfred Fricke. The company's first product, the MFB-501 drum machine , became one of the best selling drum machines in what was then West Germany. Several digital drum machines and sequencer models followed. Then, in 1986, the company began design work on a monophonic analog synth , but this occurred just as the market for analog synthesizers had started to decline, and the project was shelved. MFB then turned to the video hardware market, not returning to music until 2001, which the long-delayed analog synth project was finally introduced, along with a new drum machine model.
Subsequent to this, MFB entered the modular synth market, building modules in the Eurorack format. As of 2017, modules and drum machines make up the bulk of MFB's product line. The Tanzbar drum machine is one of the company's leading products, and several of the Eurorack modules are based on circuits from the Tanzbar.