WORLD OF MUSIC ; PORTABLE KEYBOARD - Latest Portable Music Keyboards, Synthesizers and Music News

Ahead of Superbooth 2025, being held May 8-10 at the FEZ-Berlin, Polish electronic music gear maker Polyend has introduced MESS, a multi-effect step sequencer.

Polyend says that MESS is designed to change how you think about effects.

MESS is a “texture box”, with all effects stack-able, in any combination, giving you a deep set of sound design options, including overdrive, filters, big crushing, fuzz, pitch-shifting, reverbs, tape style effects, granular effects and more.

The built-in sequencer expands your options, letting you create rhythmic patterns that transform your sounds. Dynamic effects can evolve over time, to add more life and interest than is possible with static effects. With built-in chance and probability controls, MESS can generate randomized glitches, stutters, repeats and more.

Features:

• With over 200 ready-to-play presets MESS provides instant creativity, and 1000 preset slots to store your own products.
• An intuitive knob-per-function interface and clear visual feedback make creating custom effects chains easy. You can quickly build sequences on the 16 step-grid pad, focusing only on the most important parameters.
• 4 Effect Tracks – Combine four effects for every preset to create your own unique multi-effect. No limits are placed on what effect each track contains.
• 125 Stereo Effects – With over 120 effects to assign to the four tracks, MESS opens the door to the unexpected.
• Effects Sequencing – Control per-track speed and length to create polyrhythmic or polymetric sequence. Use chance options to easily create complex generative effects that never sound the same twice. Reverbs bloom, delays evolve rhythmically, and modulations shift in sync with your tempo.
• Extravagant or Traditional Effects – Polyend says that MESS excels at in-your-face weirdness, while still covering all your pedalboard basics. You can use it as an avant-garde idea generator or a straightforward pedalboard replacement. Tapping the play switch to kick the sequencer into motion transforms MESS from a traditional FX processor to powerful rhythmic effects system.
• Reverbs & Delays – MESS features a extensive range of stereo reverb and delay modes. Explore lush ambient spaces, tight room simulations, and modulated plates with 7 core reverb types and dozens of sub-modes.
• Granular & Glitch – 9 modes for Granular and Glitcher engines break apart, blur or fragment any signal.
• Shapers, Drives & Filters – Shape your sound with effects from subtle saturation to natural overdrives to complete destruction, with bitcrushing and sample rate reduction.
• Pitch Shift & Spectralize – Spectral engines can warp, pitch shift and transform a large spectrum of sound. You can also used dedicated pitch-shifters with monophonic pitch tracking to re-harmonize your sound or sequence complete musical compositions from a single note.
• Slicers & Microloopers – A collection of repeater algorithms can be tightly sequenced for microlooping, repitching, arpeggiation, and tape-stop style effects. With per-step chance controls, MESS can also generate randomized loops, stutters.

An overview by David Hilowitz:

MESS is available to pre-order now for $599, with shipping planned to start at the end of June 2025.

Developer Oliver Greschke has introduced Elastic OSC, a new software synth for iOS that builds on the open source code of the Mutable Instruments Plaits Eurorack oscillator module.

Elastic OSC features 8-voice polyphony, and 24 synth engine options, based on Plaits. Where Plaits lets you control the main parameters of each synth engine using four knobs, Elastic OSC maps these an X/Y pad, for quick sound exploration.

What Greschke has to say about Elastic OSC:

“Elastic OSC is a synthesizer app based on the DSP code of the Mutable Instruments Plaits hardware oscillator module (generously made open-source by MI mastermind Émilie Gillet), one of the most beloved (and cloned) oscillator module in the Eurorack modular scene!

Like the original, Elastic OSC comes with a wide variety of possible sounds, from analog-style, FM, and additive sounds to physical modeling, percussive, to even drum sounds.

While Plaits is monophonic, Elastic OSC can also be used in 8-voice polyphonic mode. This means you can use it either as a sophisticated, experimental monophonic sound source, like the original, or as a regular polyphonic keyboard with a wide variety of great sounds. Of course, you can also combine both approaches!

You can play the app using the on-screen keyboard, or via an external keyboard / sequencer — whether it’s a DAW like AUM, Cubasis, Logic (using Elastic OSC as an AUv3 plugin), or external hardware.

The first release of Elastic OSC is for the iOS platform, available as a standalone iOS app or an AUv3 plugin. Desktop versions for Windows and Mac (Audio Unit & VST3) will come at a later time.”

Features:

• 24 different Sound Engines from MI Plaits DSP code
• 4 main parameters per synth engine (Frequency, Harmonics, Morph, Harmo)
• Recordable Modulations/Automations for almost all Parameters with a length of 1, 2 or 4 beats.
• ADSR Envelope for Amplifier
• LPG Envelope for Modulations of Timbre, FM, Harmonics
• Adjustable Velocity effect on Volume and/or LPG Modulation
• Arpeggiator with different Arp Modes, Rates, Octave Ranges and Skip Notes functionality
• Master FX:
  • 5 effects (5 different Overdrive/Distortions, Hi-Low-Filter, Chorus/Flanger, Delay, Reverb)
  • Automations for all effects parameters
  • Master Gain and switchable Limiter effect

Elastic OSC is available now for iOS, with an intro price of $9.99 through May 15th (normally $14.99).

Erica Synths x Hexinverter HexDrums taking the DNA of Hexinverter’s Mutant series of percussion modules, this is an analogue drum machine with 10 sound sources. These include two kicks, an optimised Mutant Machine, snare, clap, rimshot and hi-hats. There are also 10 sets of crash and ride cymbal samples from Erica itself.

There are individual outputs for all the drum sounds and stereo panning on the master channel. The compressor and master drive effects have their roots in the Hexinverter Mutant Glue module. A special feature is the kick drum-controlled sidechain that can be used to animate drum patterns on the beat.

To achieve full ‘drum machine’ status you need to have a sequencer, and the one in the HexDrums has 64 steps and offers per-track accent, per-step microtiming, ratchets, rolls and per-step probability. Each of the 16 banks can hold 16 patterns.

Discussing the HexDrums – which is set for release later this year – Hexinverter Électronique’s Stacy Gaudreau says:

“Our plan was always to use the Mutant Drum DNA to create a next-level desktop drum machine. We began early work on one before the pandemic. I’m so glad that the Erica Synths crew was able to carry out the vision and finish the dream!”

Find out more on the Erica Synths website.