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Erica Synths has unveiled yet another promising-looking percussion synth, Perkons. Perkons – named after an ancient Baltic god of thunder – is a four voice drum machine combining digital sound generation with analogue filters and effects.

Erica Synths Perkons percussion synth promises to “strike your ears like the skies breaking apart”

The four-voice beatmaker combines the best of digital and analogue.

Each of the instrument’s four voices features a digital oscillator switchable between three modes and shaped by a pair of parameter controls. Sounds then pass through an analogue filter, switchable between low-, high- and band-pass modes, and equipped with a drive control for added heft.

In addition, Perkons features an analogue bucket brigade delay and optical compressor. There’s also a global LFO with morphable waveshapes, which can be routed to any of the voices’ eight sound-shaping parameters.

The sequencer is where Perkons looks especially interesting – there are four tracks for independently programming each voice, each equipped with probability, multipliers and dividers, ratchets and play direction controls. Shuffle and last step parameters look set to add further rhythmic variety.

Around the back Perkons has individual outputs, trigger inputs, and send and return ports for each voice. There are also MIDI in and out ports, plus an additional global send and return. As with the LXR-02, the instrument also features a SD card port used to store and share up-to 64 kits and patterns.

Perkons HD-01 is due to arrive before the end of 2021, priced at €1650/$1999 excluding tax.

Erica Synths are in Booth W325.

Malevolent is the first product from a new British company known as PWM, and promises the flexibility of modular in a playable 32-note keyboard synth.

PWM boss Paul Whittington clearly has high hopes for Malevolent, which promises to deliver ‘best in class’ value.

“We can’t wait for you to see and hear Malevolent, our new unique-sounding keyboard instrument that lives both in the Modular Analogue world and your studio,” says Whittington.

This is a ‘pure analogue’ instrument that’s fully repatchable and supports the Eurorack standard. However, it also promises a logical synth layout that features independent module sections with ‘normalised’ interconnects, making it immediately playable.

Features include two VCOs, two ADSR envelopes, a multimode 2-pole voltage controlled filter, a voltage controlled amplifier with overdrive control and a mixer section with AUX and noise controls.

In addition, you will also find an analogue LFO, plus additional digital performance LFO via the joystick. There is USB-MIDI to CV conversion within the Keys module, along with analogue clock in and out.

Malevolent has a provisional price of £500/€580. Find out more on the PWM website.

Moog Music  announced Moog Sound Studio: Mother-32 & DFAM and Subharmonicon, an all-in-one Euro system that is designed to make its family of 60HP semi-modular analog synthesizers more accessible and approachable than ever.

Moog new Sound Studio is a monster semi-modular synth playground.

The newest Moog Sound Studio package includes the full lineup of Moog’s Mother ecosystem instruments:

• Mother-32 is a versatile performance and production synthesizer with a step sequencer and 64 slots of sequence memory. Its classic Moog voice delivers “raw analog sound, deep Moog bass, and soaring synth leads.”
• DFAM is designed to offer an inspiring approach to drum synthesis and rhythmic pattern creation with rich analog rhythms and percussive patterns.
• Subharmonicon offers a unique combination of six-tone subharmonic chord shapes and polyrhythmic sequences.

Both of the previous (and still available) Sound Studios contain the DFAM percussion synth, but force you to choose between the Mother-32 and the Subharmonicon.

By bringing them all together, Moog is taking away that difficult decision, and offering users even more patch design potential. As well as the synths, the new bundle contains a custom dust cover, dedicated audio mixer and power distribution hub, the rack kit, audio cables, patch cables, cable organizer, synth exploration card game, creative learning tools, artwork, and more.

Find out more on the Moog website. The new Moog Sound Studio bundle costs $1,999