Molten music monthly

Molten Music Monthly August 2024

Molten Music Monthly
robinv

News can be scarce in the summer but I’ve pulled together a few things to keep us cheerful in the chaos of trips to the beach, noisy kids and music festivals. We also mark the passing of Dan Clarke and Lisa Beynon, who we lost this month, and I wanted to extend my condolences to their family and friends. Both great contributors to the synth community and will be sorely missed.

 

DivKid Trace – 4-channel morphing scanner for audio and CV. Built with Vostok Instruments, the idea is that you’ve got four inputs and a single output. As you move the slider it morphs from input to input. You can then move between modulations or audio sources. It’s more than a crossfade; it’s an interpolation. You can automate it via CV for awesome transitions.

Glasgow Synth Guild Eon Procyon – Fabulously weird-looking stereo morphing filter based loosely on the Korg MS-20. It has a VCA and saturation and some interesting routing. You can spread the left and right filters against each other and run them in series if you only patch to the left side. It will morph from lowpass to highpass either together or in opposing ways.

Microrack – fabulous little modular system has smashed its kickstarter goal in just a few days and gives me a lot of hope that people are still finding modular interesting. The biggest barrier is of course the cost and this could be the solution. It’s all built on breadboard but with complete modules so you’re not having to build it yourself – no know-how required.

Analogue Solutions Maximus4V – a simple 4-voice version of the Maximus for those of us with only 10 grand to spend. It’s a beautiful thing, 2 VCOs per voice, 3 filters, 2 envelopes, VCA, noise, sub, glide and BBD echo. Each voice also has a 16-step sequencer/looper. Modulation and mixing is supplied by the Master section. It’s like an Oberheim 8-voice where you have separate independent synths for each voice. Optional keyboard with ribbon controller. They also have a new sequencer on the go with 64 analogue steps or 2x 32 steps.

Behringer confusion – I dont even know where we are with this anymore. According to Facebook we have the LM Drum, BMX, PolyOSC, modular RS-9, UB-Xa desktop, Elka STX, Wave, BCR32 controller, Mutator, Pro 16 and Minipops and that’s only the ones from Facebook in the last couple of months. Also, in very sad news, we lost Dan Clarke, who was the spunky, boy-band-looking guy fronting the Behringer synth demos. He was really nice, we worked together on a few reviews before Behringer cut all ties to magazines, and he did a great job.

Tesseract Modular Vinia 8-channel audio generator and effects processor. It can be a multi-engine instrument, FX or both. It has two sample players, all the usual MI Plaits stuff and can generate LFOs and envelopes. Then it has 20 different effects algorithms. It has audio inputs (AC) and outputs (DC coupled), CV inputs on trigger and voltage, MIDI. You can set up chains and macros for editing. It’s an immense module with a decent screen and no end of messing about.

Erica Synths Hexinverter Mutant Rimshot – the return of another Mutant drum module, this time the humble rimshot. It managers an analogue rimshot and claves sound with a fair bit of control over what’s going on. It has three filter modes and lets you bring in an external input to mix with it. The ResonantEQ that we saw at Superbooth is also on the way. It’s a 10-band analogue filter bank…. Sort of like a graphic EQ.

Waldorf Microwave 1 VSTi – The Microwave returns with it’s glassy wavetables being pulled through analogue filters for some really fierce sounds. Thankfully it’s not just a featureless box with a big red knob, they’ve decided to open up the interface a bit. You get two oscillators with all the original wavetables and more besides complete with 8-bit quantization and aliasing. You get the filters from both revisions and lots of modulation. In fact there’s a lot of detail about how detailed this software version is right down to the LFO timing code. It has 8-voice polyphony and you can stack up to 8 instruments in any way you like.

Expert Sleepers ES-10 – no way have they actually done the full 8 in 8 out ADAT thing. It’s always been a thing of mystery why the previous modules have all been hampered in some way. The ES3 is only outputs, the ES6 is inputs but only 6 with a further tow on the ES7 and so on – but this has it all. 8 in 8 out DC coupled – ADAT – best way to get CV in and out of your computer or into a digital mixer – rock and roll.

Arturia KeyLab mk3 – another futuristic controller from Arturia with deep and meaningful integration with their Analog-Lab software. This is the posher controller so it has premium keys, semi weighted, aftertouch. It has DAW integration, a nice screen, touch sensitive knobs and sliders, 12 pads, chords, scales and arp and “adaptive mapping”.

Novation Launchkey Mk4 – Full range of updated Launchkey controllers.

Moog Muse – this is the one, right? Perfect combination of Moog legacy and modern thought. *-voice, bi-timbral, stunning looks and maximum engagement. Fat, fruity, soggy in all the right places. Cool 64-step sequencer with parameter recording and probability. Vintage delay, stacked voices, old knobs and stuff.

4MS MetaModule now shipping – It’s the mega meta module that runs VCV Rack… In your rack. Comes with over 160 modules and you can make patches in VCV Rack and port them across or do it on the module itself. All the knobs and sockets can be mapped to parameters within your patch. A whole bunch of expanders have landed on Modulargrid including buttons, knobs and I/O.

AM Synths have been busy coming up with additional modules for the ARP 2500 series they did with Behringer. These include the AM1013 Fixed Filter Bank, AM1028 Sequential Volts expander for the 1027 sequencer, the AM1031 Multi Purpose Filter, and AM1035 Triple Modulator.

Blaknblu foxtrot duo – Single channel version of the Foxtrot with mono or stereo signal flow through a pair of filters. Switch between Moog Ladder, Sallen Key Korg MS20 and State Variable SEM.

Minimoog book – You can now preorder the MiniMoog book from our favourite publisher of books about synths – Bjooks.

Finale Discontinued – It’s been going forever. I had the painful experience of using it at university. The owners MakeMusic are offering a crossgrade to Steinberg Dorico. It was like the desktop publisher of notation software