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Montréal-based synth maker Hexinverter Électronique has announced that it will be closing in 2023, because global supply chain issues have made it impossible for them to manufacture and sell enough modules to keep up with demand.

Here’s their announcement:

“I think we can all agree that it’s been a weird couple of years on Earth for just about everyone. There has been a great reshuffling of many people’s lives, their professions – and the resources we rely on in our modern world to get things built.

The manufacturing world has been very hard hit as a result. Small scale electronics, especially so. It has been incredibly difficult to keep up with demand for our modules, with products falling out of stock for months (and now years) at a time.

Unfortunately, the post-pandemic manufacturing climate was the final nail in the coffin for us at Hexinverter. Today we are announcing our intent to close down operations within the next year. I do not have an exact “end date” to share just yet, but I can tell you that it will probably be sometime in 2023.

We are now shipping out a number of modules that have been out of stock for ages, including the Mutant Brain! Be sure to hit up your local dealer or the direct shop if you’ve been waiting on some fresh Mutants for your rack, as these are the final runs of these products that will be built. Once they’re gone, they’re gone! We will begin the long process of closing up shop sometime in the new year once supplies are entirely diminished.

The past decade has been a wild ride for Hexinverter and everyone involved. It blows my mind when I look back at everything we’ve done! Our early days, with all of the DIY projects and later, going all in on riding the eurorack modular wave. Of course we can’t forget all of the cats and squeaky chickens.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for being a patron and believing in our vision! The people we’ve met and relationships we’ve made along the way have been the best part of this entire experience, and I can’t thank you enough for being part of our journey.

I’m not sure any of us back in the day saw the Eurorack industry growing into what it is today, and I could not be more proud of the little, rubber-chicken-shaped corner we have managed to carve out in its history.

It’s been a tonne of fun, and I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have had the privilege of being a part of, and the opportunity to contribute to the world of modular synthesis.

So long and thanks for all the chickens!

– Stacy Gaudreau

Hexinverter Électronique”

Unfortunately, this means that some of Hexinverter’s designs, like the Mindphaser, will not be put back into production. The company notes that “parts have been unobtanium for them since the first run was in progress.”

Other modules will be shipping to dealers until supplies are sold out. They say that stock is limited to double digits of their modules. See the Hexinverter Electronique Facebook page for updates on their status.

Spitfire Audio releases Mercury, a new virtual instrument created in close collaboration with Hollywood instrument-builder Chas Smith, who is known for transforming disused metal into instruments frequently used by film composers.

The company describes Smith’s instruments as “Hollywood’s secret weapon”. They have been used to create the unearthly soundscapes of Hans Zimmer’s Dune and Interstellar, featured in James Newton Howard’s The Hunger Games score, and to score the terrors of Charlie Clouser’s soundtrack for the Saw film franchise.

Spitfire Audio sampled 14 Smith’s acoustic instruments, then incorporated them into Solar, Spitfire Audio’s new eDNA-powered synthesiser, to deliver 600+ organic and synthesized textures, tones, and pads.

Getting those 14 unique, handmade instruments into Mercury meant sampling the unusual instruments, including:

• Bertolia — inspired by Italian-born American artist, sound art sculptor, and modern furniture designer Harry Bertolia, Inconel rods with aluminium resonators on a turbine blade are all tuned to 14 tone scales;
• Dado — machined steel plates that can spin over pickups;
• Towers — nine titanium rods, tuned to be ‘friendly’ with each other, with titanium plates on each end;
• Lockhead — titanium parts welded into a structure and a titanium sheet acting as a resonator;
• Mantis — titanium parts welded into a structure that can rotate;
• Copper Box — rods, plates, and a folded horn resonator, whereby each rod is 36 inches long and the helix of rods continues under the resonator plates;
• Paraboloid — a titanium sheet with added rods;
• The Pez Eater — tuned steel rods and pickups;
• Sceptre — saw blades, plates, and things that can rotate; AD — springs welded to saw blades over pickups;
• Bass Steel Guitar — machined from aluminum; and
• Que Lastas — stainless steel sheet with rods and bass piano strings.

An in-depth walkthrough:

Mercury is available now as an AAX-, AU-, VST2-, and VST3-compatible, NKS (NATIVE KONTROL STANDARD®)-ready plug-in that loads directly into a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) for a time-limited promo price of £99.00 (inc. VAT)/$99.00 /€99.00 (inc. VAT) until September 15, 2022 — thereafter to its RRP (Recommended Retail Price) of £149.00 (inc. VAT)/$149.00/€149.00 (inc. VAT)

Prague synth shop and workshop space Noise Kitchen has announced via Facebook that they will be closing: This next post comes from heavy hearts: sadly, we will be closing our doors before the beginning of November of this year.

Of course, we’re naturally heartbroken that the project we’ve all deeply loved building must be cut short. In an era when the darkness really does seem to be all around us, we hope to have provided some light and love with Noise Kitchen, and certainly we have felt it ourselves in the community around us — both in Prague, Brno, around the world, and here online.

However, not all bad news is all bad news — Noise Kitchen (as you know it) is going to die, that is certain, but Noise Kitchen as a community, as a platform and as a collective of individuals, will not.

The precise shape of what we can grow to be is uncertain, but each of us is filled with a fire and a passion to develop the project beyond anything we’ve achieved to date. Until we are equipped to properly disclose those details we will keep some secrets and continue planning.

What does remain certain is that we will remain open until the end of October. We are still shipping orders and remaining open as per regular hours for customers. We still have exciting modules, or incredible music on vinyl and tape, and in some ways more than ever we need to sell them.

In any event, we will still keep something of the connection with our parent company, Bastl Instruments, to whom we’re utterly indebted for their faith and trust from the start. There’ll be a new Bastl e-shop in due course.

So, the shop closes and we’re very sad, but the spirit — which was always the heart of what we did anyway — lives on, and who knows? In time, we might see it grow even beyond the bounds of what it had been before.

Until then, come and say hi, pick up some gear and a couple of 12”s, and share a drink with us. We’ll be keeping you posted about any developments with the closing of the store, but also much more fun stuff like sale events and the inevitable farewell party.

And, finally, THANK YOU, to anyone who ever passed through, or said a kind word, or bought something from our shop. We’d never have gotten here without you.

Love,

All of us at NK”

Noise Kitchen closing will be a loss to the international electronic music community. Electronic music gear stores are few and far between, and often act as catalysts to drive and support regional electronic music scenes. See the Noise Kitchen Facebook page for updates on the store’s status.