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La Voix du Luthier – creator of acoustic resonators for electronic musicians – has introduced La Voile (the sail in English, due to the shape of the back soundboard).

Acoustic resonators are an alternative to using speakers to amplify electronic instruments. They are in the tradition of the diffuseurs of French instrument designer Maurice Martenot. Instead of being designed to reproduce sound accurately or ‘flat’, they’re designed to resonate, to become part of your electronic instrument and part of your sounds.

La Voix du Luthier has previously released two acoustic resonators, the Onde and the Pyramide.

What they shared about La Voile:

“Based on our experience with the Onde and the Pyramid, we designed a new resonator, where we integrated the principle of “floating soundboards” that is not often used but that you can find in some old music box, for example.

Its principle is to have 2 suspended spruce soundboards and therefore no soundbox. The result is a gain in sound precision but, as compared to the Onde and Pyramid, a little less bass and sound level.

To compensate this we have added an optional preamplifier, with input Gain and Low, Mid, High frequency controls (it applies only on the line input, not on the Bluetooth). The curved soundboard has no equivalent and results from our own research and experiments: it is designed to be very complimentary to the front circular soundboard.

The name La Voile (the sail), comes from this very unique soundboard. The enclosure has been designed to remind the shape of traditional guitar amplifiers and to make it highly portable (and as for the Onde and Pyramid, it can be battery-powered), but it is 100% built of wood (poplar) with an elegant clear finish. The embedded electronic amplifier is exactly the same as for the Single Body Pyramid. These design choices allow a simpler building process, and therefore a significantly lower price, while still keeping a high quality level.”

La Voile is available to pre-order at an introductory price of € 557 (tax and shipping excluded) or € 667 with the preamplifier option. The intro pricing is limited to the first production batch of 40 orders. Deliver is expected to be in March 2023.

Connection panel details

• Power Supply input (also used to charge the batteries), no external PSU.
• On/Off switch.
• Bluetooth LED (Bluetooth is available in addition of the audio input on the two 6.35 mm jack).
• Two 6.35 mm input Audio jack (unbalanced) for a stereo input (Left and Right driving separately the 2 soundboards). One input can be used as “mono” to send the same signal to both soundboards.
• 2 volume potentiometers (one for each soundboard).

Main characteristics of the Voile

• 60 cm high, 58.5 cm width, 20 cm depth, 5.3 kg weight.
• 2*30W Class D amplifier driving 2 carefully selected wideband transducers.
• Built following the traditional stringed instrument maker’s know-how, integrating two sonically complementary soundboards.
• Separated volume control for each soundboard.
• Line level stereo in (2×6.35 mm TS jack).
• Bluetooth Audio (and APTX). Line level input and Bluetooth can be mixed together.
• Battery-powered option, with initial tests showing up to one full day of use between charges.

Possible options

• Preamplifier, with input Gain and Low, Mid, High frequency controls (applies only on the line input, not on the bluetooth). Recommended if you want a deeper bass level.

Global supply chain issues have claimed another victim in the Eurorack world, Synthwerks, LLC.

The company has announced via Facebook and on its website that it is no longer in business.

Synthwerks’ James Husted shared this statement:

“After 11 years or so of doing this, and with many mixed emotions, I am announcing  Synthwerks , LLC is leaving the Eurorack Module business. We have been selling niche modules in a niche business, and it is time to move on. Controllers and stand alone utility modules seem to be the last thing people buy for their rigs. Their rigs have to get big enough to want to control them remotely (tired of reaching through the spaghetti), or they are now playing out live, and need lights for their rig. Their money always usually gets spent on the newest sexy modules, and I don’t blame them.

With the latest disruptions in the parts supply chain, many parts now are not in stock at the vendors we use, or have minimum quantities that are beyond the finances and sales flow of small companies. Synthwerks  being one.”

*Note: Synthwerks, LLC was a Seattle-based company that focused on Eurorack modules and should not be confused with the German company Synth-Werk, which makes clones of classic Moog modular systems.

PSP Audioware believed it has made “the ultimate creative semi-modular delay machine”.

The PSP 285 draws on the company’s rich plugin heritage. Based on the company’s much-loved PSP 84 and PSP 85 processors, this is a creative delay playground with a semi-modular architecture. It enables you to explore the countless possibilities offered when you combine variable sample rate delay lines, and can produce everything from simple slapbacks and echoes to complex rhythmic wildness.

You can enjoy up to 10 seconds of delay time per channel (pre and main), and there’s also a modulation section with tempo-synced LFO and envelope follower. A dedicated filter section (17 types are on offer) and close to 400 presets are also supplied.

PSP 285 runs on PC and Mac in VST/AU/AAX formats and is available now for the introductory price of $99. This applies until 14 Jan, after which the price will increase to $149.

Find out more and download a 30-day demo on the PSP Audioware website.