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Organizes of Prairie Wires – a Canadian electronic music festival – let us know that this year’s event will be held September 19–20 in Brandon Manitoba.

Prairie Wires Modular 2025 will be the third iteration of the Festival of Electronic Sound since its inception in 2019. The festival features two days of performances, presentations and interactive activities at six free-to-attend, family friendly concerts and events spread across downtown Brandon and the BU campus.

Organized by Brandon based sound-artist and graphic designer Brendon Ehinger, this year will see PWM’s programming expanded to two full days.

“I really saw nothing like this happening. Not in Brandon. Not in Canada” said Ehinger, “I wanted to showcase the diversity of not just sounds, but genres, that the instrument (the modular synthesizer) is capable of.”

“This year’s festival will feature everything from electroacoustic chamber music to synthpunk rock, and everything in between,” he adds.

Here are some of highlights of the festival plans:

• Kerey Harper, “a brilliant electroacoustic new-music composer from St. Theresa Point First Nation”, will be headlining the opening-night concert at BU School of Music, performing with a chamber ensemble of piano, clarinet and cello. The lineup includes other artists that combine acoustic instruments with modular synthesis including Jason Tait (Weakerthans/Bahamas) who will explore live drumming with modular, and Edmonton synthesist k.burwash who will collaborate with violist Jennifer Thiessen (Wpg).
• Wiggle + Blunder Electric Afterparty (at the Dock on Princess) is another do-not-miss show. Winnipeg’s ‘queer mad scientist from the 80s’ Stiff Wiggle will share the bill with Winnipeg ex-pat and electro-indie rock darling Blunderspublik, in his first Manitoba appearance since relocating to Guelph, ON, in 2015.
• The festival wraps up on Saturday evening back at the School of Music with a multi-sensory concert spanning two performance halls. The audience is invited to move between spaces each featuring experimental music and projected visual works of two Montréal-based acts. Sound artist Jeremy Young will perform site responsive musique concrète to an undulating backdrop of digitized 8mm film works by Charles-André Coderre, and ARC, a multi-instrumental electronic post-rock trio also from Quebec, will animate the stage with a dynamic performance integrating live video synthesis that responds to the sound of their instruments.

Other events include a sonic scavenger hunt at “Mod on the Quad” Friday morning on the BU campus, and “Wandering Wires”, a guided ambient sound-trek through downtown to the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba where “Patch & Release: Modular Synthposium”, an open-house modular meetup will take place from noon to five. Visitors can interact with PWM2025 artists and get a close-up look at their synthesizers on display, and take in additional performances by the likes of Winnipeg’s probableSelves and performance artist Princess Dasha.

People of all ages are also invited to explore the interactive “Wiggleroom Interactive Synthlab”, where Stiff Wiggle will coach you through creating your own patches on physical and virtual modular synthesizers and other sound-making devices. Visitors can also enter to win a Stylophone Gen-X2 mini synth.

Prairie Wires Modular 2025: Festival of Electronic Sound takes place in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, on September 19 and 20, 2025. All PWM2025 events and venues are free-to-attend, accessible, and welcoming to people of all ages and backgrounds. Visit the event site for details.

Impact Soundworks has introduced Chro-Nyx, a new virtual instrument that they say is primarily inspired by the Roland JP-8080 synthesizer, but also by other classic hardware synths, including the Roland Jupiter 8, Access Virus, Nord Modular 2, Mono/Poly, and RADIAS.

The Impact Soundworks Chro-Nyx goes far beyond the original 7 waveforms of the original 8080, with a total of 31 oscillator types.

“Go from delicate to untamed with FM-powered modes like 2-Op and Raw. Create massive chords with a single voice using Chord and Hellchoir modes. Transform Chro-Nyx into vintage hardware with the J106, Alpha, and Hoover.

Thicken any sound with the Sub Oscillator, Jupiter-8 style Cross Modulation, and up to 10-voice unison with adjustable tune and spread.”

When it comes to filters, Chro-Nyx starts with the 8080’s signature filter design, slopes, and types (LPF, BPF, HPF), then adds dual filters (and a third post-FX filter) that can be run split, in series, or parallel. Plus, each has Virus-style Filter FM, as well as five filter types like “Classic”, “Lush”, and “Acid”, each with their own distinct character and response.

Features:

• Up to 10-voice unison for the entire signal path (minus FX) with adjustable stereo spread, detune, phase, and phase randomness
• Voice spread…
• Three engine modes to balance CPU performance with circuit model accuracy
• Multiple legato modes for retriggering pitch, filter, amp or any combination, plus portamento/gliss
• Analog drift adjustment
• Oscillators:
  • Dual oscillators with 31 modes including all classic JP8080 waveforms (supersaw!)
  • External audio input on oscillator 2
  • Sub oscillator with 7 waveforms
  • Oscillator cross-modulation, ring modulation, and xyz
  • Adjustable phase and phase reset
  • Noise oscillator with white and pink modes, transient ‘snap’ layer, option to route noise to Osc 1 for ‘chaos’ modulation
• Filters:
  • Dual filters with highpass, bandpass, and lowpass modes; 12db/oct and 24db/oct slopes
  • Five filter models: Modern, Classic, Acid, Lush, Chro-MP
  • Serial, parallel, and split topologies
  • Custom drive section with 18 waveshaper & distortion modes
  • Filter FM from VCO1 to filter 1, noise FM to filter 2
• Modulation:
  • Dual LFOs with four waveforms
  • LFO BPM sync from 1/64 to 64/1 speeds; free running speeds from ultra-slow to audio rate
  • 16-slot mod matrix with two destinations per source per slot
  • Math modulators: add, subtract, multiply, quantize, smooth, curve, detune, merge
  • MIDI modulation sources: constant, velocity, key, aftertouch, modwheel, pitchbend, expression, MIDI CCs
  • LFOs and all three envelopes usable as mod sources for anything
  • Eight macro knobs
  • Two per-step mod sources in the step sequencer
• Sequencer & Arpeggiator:
  • (Up to) 16 step arp/sequencer with variable length, velocity, pitch per step
  • Trance gate with multiple blending controls, ADSR, and tail control – can be overlayed on top of the regular sequencer
  • Can be synced to DAW playback
  • 1/16 to 4/1 speeds; separate speeds for arpeggiator and sequencer modes
  • Adjustable shuffle and overall gate length
• Effects:
  • Adjustable bass/treble tonal control, plus sub boost with adjustable intensity/tone
  • Delay line with 5 stereo modes and internal modulation
  • Dual FX slots that can be run in serial or parallel with adjustable phase and reset
  • Modulation FX: JP, Alpha, and Juno 106-style choruses, Ensemble, Flanger, Modulator, Phaser, Phaser Jet, Rotary cab, Twisting
  • Distortion FX: Asymmetric Drive, Cross Drive, Distortion, Overdrive, Bitcrushing
  • Spatial FX: Delay Pong, two Reverb modules, gated Reverb, sidechained Reverb (three speeds), two Shimmer modules
  • Other FX: Compressor, Parametric EQ, Multiband Compressor, Alpha HP filter, Formant filter
  • Pre and Post-FX EQs with lo cut, hi cut, lo shelf, high shelf, and two parametric bands
  • FX Filter with HPF, BPF, LPF, Notch modes, 12db/oct and 24db/oct slopes, all waveshaper modes from the main Filter section
  • Twelve band vocoder

Chro-Nyx is available now for the free Reaktor Player (VST/AU/AAX), with an intro price of $79 (normally $99).

Minuit has introduced Solstice, a new software synth for Mac + Windows that they say is designed to “Turn any sample into an explorable landscape.”

Here’s what they have to say about it:

“Solstice makes any sample into a unique, playable map, revealing hidden textures within your sounds. Made with ambient, experimental, and aleatoric music in mind, but versatile enough for any genre.

Solstice generates a unique map for each sample, clustering frames by timbre similarity. Click anywhere to play, drag to morph between timbres, or let it drift into patterns you didn’t know were there.”

Solstice is priced at €85. As of this post, it is available now as a 30-day demo. Minuit says that they are working to get their webshop up and running.