Just visible in the rain and drizzle are all sorts of fabulous synths, modular and music technology to keep us cheery. Below the video are my summary notes and relevant links.
Molten Bypass and Bypass DIY – bypassable Eurorack effects and modulation bypass/router.
- Perfect Circuit: https://tinyurl.com/perfectcircuit-moltenbypass
- Elevator Sound: https://www.elevatorsound.com/product/befaco-x-molten-modular-molten-bypass-eurorack-module/
- Buy the kit from Thonk: https://www.thonk.co.uk/shop/molten-bypass/
- Official Page: https://www.befaco.org/molten-bypass/
Divkid Divskip – Extremely functional 4-channel trigger and gate machine with dual outputs and a fantastically visual interface. Made with Making Sound Machines.
- Official page: https://divkidvideo.com/divskip/
- Buy from Perfect Circuit: https://tinyurl.com/perfectcircuit-divskip
- Kit from Thonk: https://www.thonk.co.uk/shop/divskip/
Sound Machines t-series – includes a formant filter, thru-zero VCO, spectral processor and quadstrip – 4 channel lightstrip. Each contains a lightstrip for modulating up to 4 parameters. Up to 20s recording.
- Official page: https://www.sound-machines.it/product/t-quadstrip/
- Buy from Perfect Circuit: https://tinyurl.com/perfectcircuit-soundmachines
Klevgrand revolv – convolution reverb that takes you to amazing places – 72 locations, with the finest interface and tease video ever made. Breathtaking.
- Official Page: https://klevgrand.com/products/revolv
Softube Model 77 – It’s a flippin’ CS-80 done in Softubes gloriousl vintage style. It’s modelled on three different synths and so includes the CS-50 and CS-60 as well as the CS-80. It has presets from each and runs as a dual-layer synth with a simplified interface. It will also split into 7 modules for Softube Modular and some effects for Amp Room.
- Official Page: https://www.softube.com/products/model-77-dual-layer-synth
Goodhertz DC19 – This is quite lovely. It’s a sweet and funky looking delay plugin that leans into ideas of control and automation. There’s nothing exactly innovative about that but the interface really sells you on the idea of interaction and participation.
- Official page: https://goodhertz.com/dc19/
GS-Music Bree6 – 6 voice analog synth with 4-pole filter, 2 envelopes, 1 LFO, chorus and delay, ARP and SEQ. It’s like a slightly cut down version of their E7 synth that uses 2 oscillators per voice – this is 1 oscillator. It has some nice stereo features on the voices which pans each voice differently. Nice looking, nice size, around $1300.
- Official page: https://www.gsmusic.com/
Roland AIRA P-6 and Juno-D – The P6 is a roving recorder, a simple sampler where you have 6 pads, a looper, some controls and an opportunity to go to town in the most straighforward way possible. It has an onboard mic, bunch of effects and is a great way to get jamming. It has a Granular function which is a bit of thing all to itself for smearing and pulling soundscapes from sounds.
- AIRA P-6 : https://www.roland.com/global/products/p-6/
- Buy from Perfect Circuit: https://tinyurl.com/perfectcircuit-rolandp6
- Buy from Thomann: https://thmn.to/thoprod/600028?offid=1&affid=1460
The new Juno-D series is of course a crushing disappointment because we all prick our ears up at the mention of Juno and then realise it’s Roland and they have much deeper feelings about the purpose of the Juno than our superficial love of analog synthesis with knobs and faders. The Juno was always designed as a gigging keyboard and the Juno-D fulfills that brief. It’s packed full of sounds using the ZENCore technology. It’s easy to play, easy to find sounds, has an 8-track sequencer which kind of reflects the Roland D-20 of the late 80s making it a self contained writing station. It’s an awesome gateway into infinite sounds for people who want less trouble and fuss in their lives and the rest of us need to get over it.
- Juno-D: https://www.roland.com/global/promos/juno-d_series/
- Buy from Perfect Circuit: https://tinyurl.com/perfectcircuit-rolandjunod
- Buy from Thomann: https://thmn.to/thoprod/600079?offid=1&affid=1460
Michigan Synth Works MSW-830 – A new expanded version of the MSW-810 which was based on the Roland CMU-810 that no one remembers, but it was a mashup of the SH-101 and MC-202 microcomposer. The 830 takes it to another level. You’ve now got 3 oscillators with FM and sync, mixer and sub, noise and external. Same filter but lots of modulation options – 3 envelopes and 2 LFOs and a digital modulator for chaos etc. Other than the rather tepid colour it looks fantastic.
- Official page: https://michigansynthworks.com/
Phonicbloom Siluria – Polyphopnic digital synth and effects processor, Interesting touch interface and a strange array of knobs. Wavrtable, supersaw, supersquare, sine and karplus-strong modelling. Very droney, weird and fascinating.
- Official page: https://phonicbloom.com/siluria/
Syntesla – Slightly improbable eurorack company that made steampunk style synths has been working on Eurorack modules that look flippin amazing. Apparently they are launching in 2 months.
- Official page: https://syntesla.com/
Native Instruments Komplete 15 / Kontakt 8 / Guitar Rig 7 – ridiculous update to the most ridiculous of all software bundles, the NI Komplete. Comes with Kontakt 8 which they’ve made easier (hopefully) added chords and phrases tools and includes a new Conflux wavetable instrument. Massive X has had an update and so has Guitar Rig. It now comes bundled with Ozone for mastering duties. There’s a massive sound library of fabulous things with acoustic instruments, electric pianos, percussion, weird soundscapes and cinematic toy instruments. The full collectors edition is 1.1TB.
- Official page: https://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/komplete/komplete-15/
- Buy from Thomann: https://thmn.to/thoprod/600736?offid=1&affid=1460
The Oscillator Company Extend-o-Matic – Keyboard that combines electric piano and a subtractive synth. It’s focus is to provide a chord engine for easy playing of jazz and stuff. There’s a button and page system for sound editing which is not very inspiring. I definitely think the focus is the chord management – it’s like having that MIDI Pack chord thingy in a keyboard. It’s going to soon be on Kickstarter for $979 – it feels like they would be better off with a chord-focused MIDI controller with no sounds for $200. At the very least then need a more interesting demo!
- Kickstarter page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/oscillatorco/extend-o-matic-chord-synth-electric-piano
Suonobuono Polyvera – Hybrid wavetable and sampler based synthesizer with 6 voices and an analog filter. Digital effects, arp and sequencer, 3 envelopes, 3 LFOs, MPE and binaural. Gone for a vintage sampling vibe with 80s digital sounds.
- Official page: https://suonobuono.net/polyvera/
Wirehead Instruments Basilisk – Hybrid little beast box with two digital oscillators with pulse and sawtooth pumping into an MS-20 style analog filter with saturation/drive. Simple AD envelopes, LFO and a 16-step generative sequencer with parameter lock modulation. Fabulous display matrix that shows all sorts of things.
- Official Page: https://wireheadinstruments.com/basilisk
Biopower Audio HI FIVE – Groovy little controllers that get wired into a Eurorack module that squirts CV all over your rack. Looks like it’s a 5-channel deal, easily selectable for some great modulation opportunities that are not screwed into your rack… Unless you want them to be. It’s quite neat, fun and nicely effective.
Official page: https://www.biopoweraudio.com/hifive
And finally Future Music stops doing print after 32 years. It will all be folded into the massive Music Radar website. Apparently Computer Music and others will be following. I’ve worked with them a few times over the years, particularly with Andy Jones, Ronan Macdonald, Ben Rogerson and I wish them all the best going forward. Print media is hard in the current climate as I well know writing for Sound On Sound and working with Electronic Sound on Synth East. I think it’s vital to support proper magazines when we can. While reading from websites can be convenient it’s such a poor experience compared to leafing through something that lets you read, lets you gaze and navigate with ease and uninterrupted.
