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At Knobcon 2022, modular maker STG Soundlabs shared a sneak preview of its 2 new lines of MU modules:

muSonics – these modules appear to be modern takes on classic Moog modular designs. STG was showing an updated take on the Moog 902 VCA, and it sounds like additional modules are planned for this line.

MooSonics – this line of modules is designed to offer inexpensive, DIY ‘bread and butter’ modules, while also having a little fun with the MU format. The modules shown include Multiples, Attenuators and Vanilla Mixer.

Details on the new modules are still to be announced at the STG website.

The latest Axis of Wold offers a review of the Cre8audio West Pest synthesizer.

Created in partnership with Pittsburgh Modular Synthesizers, West Pest is a semi-modular monophonic desktop synthesizer, integrating imaginative sound-shaping tools with traditionally “west coast” concepts.

West Pest has at its core 8 patchable modules (Oscillator, wave contour, dynamics controller, LFO, multi-mod tool, MIDI to CV converter, step sequencer, and button keyboard), with 18 Eurorack compatible patch points. West Pest is patched internally to create a flexible full synth voice. Using the patch points, though, lets you reroute internal signal flow, as well as use with external Eurorack format modules and synthesizers.

Video Summary:

“This video is a rather personal review of West Pest by @Cre8audio. A synthesizer in the west coast style for a surprisingly low price, just $249. What does it has to offer? And how true is it to the west coast synthesis pioneered by Don Buchla?”

Topics covered:

Intro 0:00

Overview 3:22

Making a Track 8:43

Arpeggiator 20:56

Together with Eurorack 24:58

Multifunction Capability 30:09

Final Words 35:00

Share your thoughts on the West Pest in the comment!

The video, via Waveformer, captures a single-synth Berlin School-style synth jam, featuring the Korg Wavestate Digital Synthesizer .

What they shared about the technical details:

The performance has four layers that are used as four individual parts/tracks – two independent melodic arpeggiators, one bass layer and one pad layer. During the jam, I play with the arpeggiators and do live sound design. The complete jam was recorded in one go with no post-processing except some light compression.”

Wavestate performance mod knobs:

Knob 1: Layer A (arp melody 1) Octave

Knob 2: Layer B (bass) Octave

Knob 3: Layer C (pad) Octave

Knob 4: Layer D (arp melody 2) Octave

Knob 5: Layer A (arp melody 1) Amp Level

Knob 6: Layer B (bass) Amp Level

Knob 7: Layer C (pad) Amp Level

Knob 8: Layer D (arp melody 2) Amp Level

ModWheel controls the decimator effect for Layer A, and makes layer B and D softer.

Joystick X controls Reverb Effect Level.

Joystick Y controls Layer C (pad) Bandpass Filter Cutoff Frequency.

The audio is recorded to SD card on a Zoom R-16 recorder and normalized in Audacity. Video is recorded on a Canon EOS M50 mk2 with the included EF-M 15-45mm lens. Audio and video is synchronized in DaVinci Resolve 18 (free version).