synth

The nostalgic 80s sound of vaporwave, the nocturnal funk-pop of Nite Jewel, the blissful Balearic songs of the Mood Hut label and the kind of balladry heard between bouts of dimension-crossing depravity at a Twin Peaks bar combine on the second album by US singer and producer JJ Weihl, AKA Discovery Zone.Discovery Zone: Quantum Web album artThe period detail is expertly rendered, from Fairlight-style ersatz choral vocals to the same upward-zooming synth sound used by Alice Coltrane on her meditation tapes to evoke an…

Korg launched its Nu:Tekt line of DIY kits in 2019 with the NTS-1. It was basically just the programmable digital oscillator from the Prologue and Minilogue XD in a cheap dedicated box. Over the years it's gotten a few more members, including an oscilloscope and headphone amps. For NAMM 2024 the company is updating the originator with the NTS-1 mk2 and adding the NTS-3 Kaoss Pad to the mix.The NTS-1 mk2 is the same size and shape as the original, and still comes as a solderless DIY kit. There's still a single monophonic…

Korg has already made several announcements ahead of NAMM 2024, and now the company’s back with a The Opsix mk II still offers an approachable entryway into the world of FM synthesis, and it’s even based on the original’s “Altered FM” digital sound engine. However, this is anything but a minor refresh.The big news is a massive boost in polyphony. The original had 32 voices, which is still plenty, but the mk II offers 64 voices of pure polyphonal goodness. This should allow for some truly complex and multi-layered sounds,…

Arturia just launched a for its MiniFreak hybrid hardware synthesizer. Firmware version 2.0 brings a host of improvements and new features for avid fans of The biggest news here is a brand-new wavetable sound engine, boasting 32 wavetables and 64 patches. However, the engine’s only available on one of the oscillators, which does slightly decrease sound design options. Still, more engines are never a bad thing.There’s also a new Super Unison effect, which is basically a souped-up chorus that increases stereo width by…

The name Moog is basically synonymous with bass. The company has pumped out countless synths over the years from the iconic Minimoog Model D, to foot-operated Taurus, to the modern-classic Sub Phatty that deliver incredible low-end. Now its plumbing those depths even further, but in plug-in form, with the Mariana, which obviously gets its name from the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on Earth.The architecture of Mariana is different from almost any other Moog out there, in physical or virtual form. It's a dual-layer…

During the course of the 1980s the pioneering French keyboardist and synth innovator Wally Badarou played on a string of chart-topping singles and albums for artists as varied as Grace Jones, Talking Heads, Robert Palmer, Level 42, Mick Jagger, Herbie Hancock, Jimmy Cliff, Gwen Guthrie, Julio Iglesias and more besides. Despite being in close proximity to such storied musicians, he says that only once during his illustrious career did he know that a song had hit written indelibly all over it: Foreigner’s I Want to Know…

Roland just unveiled its latest software plugin instrument. Galaxias, not to be confused with the Galaga-esque arcade game Galaxia, offers access to 20,000 sounds, leading Roland to call it “one big super instrument.” It runs as a standalone application on both macOS and Windows, in addition to operating as a VST3 or AU plugin.This looks a lot like as Galaxias provides access to sounds across Roland’s entire history. There are presets sourced from nearly every Roland instrument you can think of, from the iconic Jupiter 8…

It was almost exactly three years ago that we were celebrating the relatively quick arrival of Ableton Live 11. Today, the company is unveiling Live 12, the next version of its popular digital audio workstation (DAW). In terms of release cycles, this is the shortest time between versions in recent memory, and it brings with it some exciting new features. The less fun news is that you won’t actually be able to get your hands on Live 12 until early next year, but there’s plenty to get excited about in the meantime.Usually,…

Sonicware is back with another quirky standalone synthesizer in its fairly crowded Liven line. The Liven Texture Lab was in Berlin and features a near-identical layout to some of the other Liven products, with that iconic case and button configuration, but that’s where the similarities end. At its heart, Texture Lab is a granular synthesizer, which is when a waveform is sliced and sliced (and sliced) into extremely small pieces, which are called grains. The engine manipulates these grains in various ways to create unique…

Last year during Superbooth Roland unveiled the Aira Compact series – its first true competitors to Korg’s wildly successful Volca line. Now the company is back for Superbooth 2023 with a new addition to the family, the S-1 Tweak Synth. Like the T-8 and J-6, the S-1 uses Roland’s Analog Circuit Behavior (ACB) technology to recreate the sound of an iconic instrument from its past, the SH-101. While the core of the S-1 is ultimately quite familiar, in true Roland fashion there’s a lot of modern features packed in as well.…