Vogon Replay Polyphonic Synthesizer With Multi-Mode Arpeggiator


Vongon, a Californian manufacturer best known for making effects pedals like the Polyphrase and Paragraphs, has announced the release of its first synth.

Replay is a six-voice polyphonic analogue synthesizer and a little window into synth heaven.

Lush pads, tiny plinks, snappy arpeggios, warbling melodies, resonant filters with midi connectivity and a sleek web interface!

Replay is said to be inspired by the Roland Juno and Korg Polysix. The most striking feature of this synth is its minimalist design. Bedecked in a beige aluminium housing with an all-beige keyboard.

Replay is equipped with a six-voice virtual analogue sound engine offering four oscillator waveforms and seven LFO waveforms that Vongon says is capable of producing everything from “rich pads and vibrant leads to snappy arpeggios and deep sub-bass tones”. There’s a multi-mode arpeggiator on board.

The instrument’s 2½-octave keyboard uses Cherry MX keys typically found in mechanical computer keyboards. The top panel hosts a set of 22 controls comprised of a number of Rogan knobs, faders and switches; the synth can also be controlled via a web interface where you can manage presets, access deeper parameter levels and update the firmware.

As for connectivity, you’ll find balanced line-level 1/4″ audio ins and outs along with 3.5mm and USB MIDI.

Features:

  • Six-voice virtual analog synthesizer with multi-mode arpeggiator
  • Straightforward main panel with additional options available via alt functions or web-based interface
  • Single oscillator per voice with ramp, square, sine, and triangle waveforms
  • Noise amount control – may be switched to external in via alt functions
  • Pulse width modulation with LFO and manual control
  • LFO with selectable waveforms and clocking options
  • 4-pole low-pass filter with envelope, keyboard, and LFO modulation controls
  • VCA with modulation source and level control
  • ADSR envelope generator with exponential release
  • Multimode arpeggiator: Up/Down, Order, and Random modes
  • Arpeggiator range: 1-3 octaves
  • Up to 31 preset slots (one per key)
  • Cherry MX mechanical keys
  • 1/4″ TRS line level output
  • 1/4″ TRS line level input
  • 5mm TRS MIDI in/out, compatible with type A or B adapters
  • USB connectivity for MIDI, connecting to the web interface, or alternative power supply”

Replay sleek and stripped-back design has its charms and it does sound great.  Replay is available now price at $899. Find out more on Vongon website.

Behringer Plans to “turn the synth world upside down” with a Desktop version of its UB-Xa

Looks like Behringer plans to “turn the synth world upside down” with a desktop version of its Oberheim-inspired UB-Xa. Downsized UB-Xa D ditches the 61-note keyboard.

Three months on from the keyboard version of the Behringer UB-Xa going on sale, Behringer says that it’s planning to “turn the synth world upside down” with the release of a desktop model.

Quite what this means we’re not sure – the only thing turned on its head so far is a photo of the new instrument – but for those who want a more compact and affordable emulation of the Oberheim OB-Xa synth, the release of the UB-Xa D (D standing for Desktop) could be welcome news.

Of course, this being Behringer, putting a date on that release is pretty much impossible – the company is known for teasing products on Facebook well ahead of their actual launches – but, given that the synth engine for this one is already in place, hopefully that it won’t be too long to be releases.


Although the UB-Xa D loses the UB-Xa’s 61-note aftertouch keyboard, we’re assuming that the majority of the synth’s other features, like VCOs and VCFs that are “heavily based” on the originals, 16 voices, 512 program memories, MIDI support and eight vintage modes – will remain. Given that the keyboard version costs $1,199, we’d expect the price to be less than $1,000, but this is still to be confirmed.

 

Body Synths Metal Fetishist Patchable Percussive Synthesizer, With Randomness & Character


Superbooth 2024 is fast approaching, and in just over two months a lot of new releases are expected.

The new synth company Body Synths will also have a booth there. Apparently, what they will show is not a secret but already known. It will be the Metal Fetishist.

The Metal Fetishist is a new digital percussive Synthesizer with a small patch matrix on the edge.

Metal Fetishist is a beat-making platform designed for rythm discovery and percussive sound design. The unapologetically digital sound engine consists of a single two-wave oscillator with pitch modulation, a white noise source, and a resonant multimode filter (LP/HP).

For extra spice and crunch, it has a built-in digital distortion section with both downsampling and overdrive. The word digital sets the menu-diving bells ringing. Not here. The developer designed it so that it can be tweaked and patched in the analog way aka knob per function.

Randomness – The sounds can be played manually with the big red trigger button. Alternatively, you can explore the more exciting built-in sequencer. This is, however, not a traditional one. It uses two randomness generators that output CV and triggers linked to the random step mod and random skips section.

At every trigger step of the sequence, the random step mod section creates a new modulation signal that can modify the pitch, noise, or filter cutoff. The modulation amount is fully adjustable.

With the random skips, you can control whether the current step of the sequencer will trigger. All this is tweakable on the fly with the skipping amount at every sequence step. There is one more important knob.

By default, the sequencers run in random mode. STEPS, however, is capable of locking the previously generated random step values into repeatable sequences. Lengths of 2, 4, 8, 10, 16, or 32 are available.

On the top left, Metal Fetishist has a little Eurorack-compatible 8-socket patch bay with various outputs (trigger, clock, step mod), and CV inputs (noise, cutoff, pitch, clock, and trigger).

According to Body Synths, you can create simple kicks, harsh noise, fuzzy drones, digital glitches, and plucky microtonal melodies with it.

Take a look at the sounds in the embedded videos below:


First Impression – The simple concepts can continue to fascinate. You don’t have to have tons of features to have fun. The demos sound very tempting.

Body Synths Metal Fetishist will be available in Spring 2024. Price TBA. The developer will also showcase it in May at Superbooth 2024.

Find out more info. on the Body Synths website.