Molten Music Monthly July 2025

Molten Music Monthly
robinv

It’s been ten years since I first heaved a Molten Music Monthly into the world. I’ve done it every month since and through thick and thin there’s nothing I enjoy more. The summer is always a bit slow but I’ve pulled together some nice bits and bobs to mull over while applying sun cream or hiding in our synth caves.

This Monthly is sponsored by DF Audio who make fabulous modular and synth-friendly desktop patch bays: https://dfaudio.com.au/

Also available as a podcast – https://moltenmusictech.podbean.com/

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10 years of Molten Music Monthly

It is 10 years since I posted my first Molten Monthly back in July 2015. It was about 10 minutes long and featured the forthcoming Windows 10, Studio One 3, the Launchpad Pro, Harrison Mixbus, Chime Sharp and a film review of Whiplash. I shot it outside because I didn’t have any decent lights and while I may look a bit tired and worn now, I do still have the same shirt. Since then I’ve missed about 3 months, cranking out 117 episodes, and I seem unable to come up with a better theme tune. Do I imagine doing them for another ten years? Probably yes. They get consistent viewing figures when everything else appears to be thinning out and people seem to like them…. So, why not. I’m still waiting for the BBC to say hey, why don’t you do this for us?

Sponsored by DF Audio

DF Audio are all about patch bays which are the sort of devices you don’t know you need until you’ve got one and it changes your life. Patch bays are all about simplifying your cabling situation. They transfer connections from different places into a simpler box where you can make sensible decisions and changes without having to reach behind your synths. The lovely thing about the DF Audio patchbays is that they are desktop, rather than rack units, and use the sensible sort of connections that are actually helpful to a desktop hardware musician.

The Minibay is probably the most versatile. It lets you wire in your synths, effects and a mixer and then patch your gear to different places all on the top with regular eurorack patch cables. It helps you to easily swap or stack effects, reroute to different destinations and record things without having to constantly rummage around the back of your gear. Total time saver, totally brilliant and if i was more organised I’d be using them all the time.

https://dfaudio.com.au/

Oberheim TEO-5 and Sequential Take 5 desktop – these two are a slightly odd couple in that they are almost identical synths that somehow manage to retain their own character and intention when they could so easily melt into one. But thankfully, Sequential and Oberheim have stuck to their guns, and imposed themselves as distinct. And so we have the TEO-5 Oberheim 5-voice analogue synth with interesting modulations and that SEM filter and the Take-5 Sequential 5-voice analogue synth based loosely on the Prophet-5 but with a modern control system and they are all wrapped up in effects and an arp/sequencer. Both are now available as desktop modules, without the keyboard. Nothing much is lost other than the keys and mod/pitch wheels and as well as saving space it saves you around £200. I’d love for these to pop under £1000 but we’re not there yet.

https://oberheim.com/products/teo-5/

https://sequential.com/hybrid-analog/take-5-compact-polysynth/

Starsky Carr Comparison – https://youtu.be/rSHJHkb1C6I

Shaktmat Bishop’s Miscellany Mk2 – This is a fascinating module that I’ve been working with for a while and hope to have a review of very soon. It’s a CV/gate recorder, processor and regenerator engine. The basic idea is that you record notes in and it plays them back, all in a looping real time sort of way. You can then apply processes to the sequence and have it generate stuff around it – so you suddenly through it into an arpeggiation or ratchets at the touch of a button. It’s great fun, perfect for improvisation but also can store sequences and so you can build a bit of a set around it – and there are two channels so you can run two things at once. I’m finding that it takes a bit of time and practice to figure out the best way to capture stuff but i’m confident this is going to be a game changer for my live performances.

https://shakmat.com/products/bishop-miscellany-mk2

Arcane Devices Caress of Stars – This is an intriguing sequencer built into the 1U space. You have the usual 16 buttons for steps and LEDs to show you what’s happening but you also have a touchstrip that runs along the top. This is how you enter the step values and generate your sequences. There are four channels (I think) and each can be CV, gate or combined. I really like how you can throw in sequences just by tapping about on the touch-strip. They are working towards a kickstarter launch at the end of August and so all the details are still coming together. I hope to have one in soon I can give it a bit of a go and get to the bottom of it.

https://arcane.audio

X Audio Systems XTRIKE – It’s a weird impact-driven wavetable synthesizer. You make sound by slapping the big single pad on the front. The general idea seems to be that you map velocity to pitch, filter, or anything else and then generate notes and tones by how hard you tap on it. It has an interesting bending device which is like a seesaw. It’s packed full of effects and leans heavily into percussive ideas. It has quantisation to scales and microscales so it becomes quite easy to find notes as you tap away. It has a sequencer and an internal audio looper to capture what you’re doing. X Audio Systems use words such as “ground breaking” and “redefining music production” which certainly displays their confidence. I don’t about that but the XTRIKE is certainly interesting. It’s still in prototype and will be launching on Indiegogo soon.

https://xaudiosystems.com/

Error Instruments Kharper – Out of the minds of Error and TiNRS comes a 4-string electronic harp. Inside they’ve packed a number of different karplus strong algorithms to produce a wide range of sounds tempered by the chaotic interaction of your fingers. You can trigger the sounds or strum them via CV, or MIDI or just get your fingers in there. You can also use it as a controller for other things. It’s blissfully weird, capable of extreme beauty and terrible noises. This is wonderful. It seems to be capable of gentle sounds before being pushed down the stairs.

https://www.errorinstruments.com/a-99118347/new-on-error-eurorack-and-more-welcom/kharper-eurorack/#description

Rob Papen WirePluck – Rob has been making fantastic sounding synths for decades. I also respect how he dogedly sticks to his vintage, last millennium stylings. Anyhow, the latest offering is the WirePluck which, as I’m sure you can imagine, is a stringy, wirey, plucking sort of machine. It actually uses four synthesis methods combined in three layers, selecting from a modelling of the strike, karplus strong physical modelling of the string, FM for the pluck and a subtractive voice for a bit of padding. You then have effects and lots of way to manipulate. It sounds really convincing and takes you in surprising directions.

https://www.robpapen.com/WirePluck.html

Signs Modular csf – Signs Modular appear to be a new modular outfit from Japan who tested the water with a couple of cool utility modules and then WHAM, here’s a CS-80 filter. They are not big on descriptions but the csf is a dual channel multi mode filter based on the Yamaha CS-80. It seems to have global controls and offsets for some twin peak action. I’m loving panel design and the lack of labels. No videos at present but maybe one to watch.

https://signsmodular.com/csf.html

WORNG Quiver – WORNG make some fabulous modules that are full of depth and surprises. The Quiver looks like a labyrinth of possibility that might make you recoil from its mysteries, but if you hang in there and spend time you might uncover four LFOs, wave fodling, full wave rectifier, noise, comparator, sample and hold and a vector space modulation cube. It’s a powehouse of analogue modulation giving 18 possible outcomes that could massively expand the potential of your rack.

https://www.worngelectronics.com

Pittsburgh Modular Local Florist 2, Double Helix and Crow 3 – Series 9 of Pittsburgh’s exploration into the lesser travelled parts of modular brings up three new modules, two are reworkings of previous experiments and one completely new one. The Local Florist 2 is an update on the best named analog BBD-based delay and modulation module with flanging, chorus, delay, reverb, karplus strong and robot space sounds – all throwing themselves all at once on your unsuspecting signal. Crow 3 is a fat, overdriven version of the PGH “all sweetspot” filter – flippin’ awesome. And the new thing, is actually an old thing and it’s the Double Helix wavetable processor. It’s lo-fi, mostly stable, has 32 wavetables with 16 waves and 16 effects. It’s deliberately crappy in all the best ways and Pittsburgh only ever made a handful almost a decade ago. But inspired by our friend Paulee Bow’s interest Pittsburgh have decided maybe it could be worth revisitng.

https://pittsburghmodular.com/modules

B:art Instruments b:efuddle – Not come across these people before but they have a bunch of new modules out. The one that caught my eye is the B-efuddle. It’s called a dual analogue effects module which is a little misleading if you were expecting delay, chorus and such like. Instead what you have is two channels of wavefolding, slew limiting and ring modulation. So it will shape your signals, generate harmonics and complex modulation – much more interesting than a chorus! It’s exactly the sort of thing I should challenge myself into using – i tend to play it far too safe and need to get weird with it.

https://bartinstruments.com/products/b-efuddle

Schlappi Boundary Layer – This is a triple cycling slew generator of modular mayhem, which sounds very exciting. It looks a lot like a three channel AR or Rise/Fall envelope to me but that’s just the basis of this modulation monster. It does the rise/fall and it cycles like we find on the Make Noise Maths, but then you have CV shaping, portamento, end of cycle blips and they can all be tied together in combinations to do everything from complex modulations to audio rate drones. This is the only bit of maths I ever used and here you have three channels of it and a lot of bonus super powers. Nice.

https://schlappiengineering.com/products/boundary-layer

Gig performer Essentials – I’ve always liked Gig Performer and I reviewed an earlier version when I was big into performing live with my Surface Pro.  It’s a VST Host, set list manager and controller where you can load up all manner of synths and effects and patch them together, layer and split them across your keyboard and build custom control interfaces that were particularly good with a touch screen. Now they’ve released Gig Performer Essentials which does pretty much everything I thought the full version could do. So load your synths, create your layers, build a set list, customise the controls and you’re off. Bloody brilliant I think and only £55 – a quarter of the full version.

https://gigperformer.com/

Molten Synth Picnic Popup – Further to last months bit about doing some sort of popup synth event I am still kicking it down the road. The basic idea is that in the absense of music shops people need places they can access synths and modular. I believe that an open, one a month event that gives people the chance to play on some synths could be a fabulous thing. It’s not as complex or full-on as a show like Synth East, this is just a few tables with synths and a bit of modular for people to touch and get interesting in. I’ve found a couple of perfect venues in Norwich and I aiming to give it a go in October or something like that. It will hopefully be funded by affiliates and sponsors – i will provide a portal for people to buy stuff through – and I’m also looking into renting our modular systems. It may never happen – it might be too much for me to do by myself but i find that the only way to make things happen is to talk about them and act as if it’s a piece of cake.

https://synthpicnic.com

Coming soon

Reviews coming up include the Donner L1, Ohm Bohm kick drum extravagansa, Shakmat modules, Archaea Loki, Bio Power Joystick, Noh Modular Pianist, and Bio Power Joystick. I’d also like to confirm that Synth East is booked in for the weekend of the 20th to 22nd February 2026. More details after the summer.