Intellijel Cascadia

Intellijel Cascadia semi-modular and fully intense space synth

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Cor, flippin’ heck! A monster of a modular/semi-modular selection of intertwined modular modules crammed into one case with every utility and modular trick you can think of.

Cascadia

This is one heck of a slab of synthesizer in an oddly disappointing grey. Why the most exciting thing of the week has to look like an electrical fuse board that should be hidden in a cupboard is beyond me. Let’s just say the look is complex and understated. You’ve got two analogue oscillators, lots of FM, waveform mixing, sub-oscillators, noise generators and an effects loop.

There’s a bonkers filter with loads of modes, too much modulation and individual outputs cascading into an analogue West coast wave folder before being overdriven through the main outputs.

The two envelopes are different and interesting. One is an ADSR with a Hold feature, the other is a function generator with all sorts of things going on. Through the middle is a row of utilities that turns this semi-modular synth into a sonic playground of East meets West modular experimentation.

Intellijel Cascadia
Intellijel Cascadia

This really is a complete modular synthesizer that would cost a fortune to put together in Eurorack modules. It’s a bit like an ARP 2600 in the way that it hangs together but then demands to be patched. It seems to be available now for $2,149.

Divkid and Mylar Melodies have done some rather nice videos on it. I wish it looked more stunning and less utility, but it sounds amazingly deep, complicated and interesting.