Aries was an innovative company located in Massachusetts that sold modular synthesizers in either kit form or pre-assembled through the late 1970's. Aries modules sound very much like Moog equipment (the voltage controlled filters are clearly a patent infringement) and use a similar patching system, except that mini jacks are used to make connections rather than the standard 1/4" leads.

As a result, Aries equipment is quite compact (by standards) and a fraction of the price of a second hand Moog or Emu system. With the exception of the Aries III, most of the systems were housed in rather bland plywood cases, and designed to be used for serious academic or studio work. (Aries assumed that its customers were serious bad-ass synthesists who would not care about cosmetics.)

The Aries marketing department appears to have had something of an attitude problem, and its promotional literature shows a clear distain for the pre-set and portable synthesizer market.

The Aries manual is prefaced with comments that "you bought one of our systems, so you're obviously not an idiot and we won't insult your intelligence by explaining basic functions to you". Potential customers were assured in a mildly threatening tone that modular synthesizers were the ONLY choice of a real musician.