Developer Momo Müller has introduced a third-party MIDI patch editor for the Moog Messenger synthesizer.
The Messenger Editor gives you direct access from your DAW to the Moog Messenger parameters, allowing you to integrate it into the DAW project.
Features:
Complex sound changes can be made easily and quickly.
Change Messenger Sounds directly from Editor.
The Controllers can be automated.
X-Y modulation of all parameters.
You can randomize patch parameters of the Moog Messenger to produce new sounds
Each area has its own random function.
You can use your Moog Messenger as a sound module in your DAW.
A Editor sound bank with 30 new sounds is included.
The Editor are available for:
PC: As VST2 and Standalone for 32bit and VST2, VST3 and Standalone for 64bit Windows.
MAC: As VST2, VST3, AU and Standalone, compatible with MAC Intel and Silicon.
The Messenger Editor is available now for € 6.90/ $ 7.
Today, Bastl Instruments has introduced the Kastle 2 Alchemist – a compact, patchable, hybrid-synthesis monophonic synthesizer.
The Kastle 2 Alchemist is the spiritual successor to the original Kastle Synth, which was introduced in the fall of 2016 and later updated to Kastle 1.5 in 2017. It also inherits DNA from the Kastle Arp from 2023.
The Alchemist offers a range of Bastl-brewed Synth Modes – Filter, FM, Supersaw, Hypersine, and GlitchNoise – which can be combined with its internal effects and a versatile Pattern Generator. Rhythms and scales are fully customizable via the web-based app, and expanded MIDI USB compatibility adds even more flexibility.
The Kastle 2 Alchemist is the third firmware release for the Kastle 2 hardware platform, joining the FX Wizard multi-effects processor and the Wave Bard stereo sample player. The firmware is fully cross-compatible across all devices in the Kastle 2 Series – meaning the Alchemist firmware can be loaded onto previous Kastle 2 units and Citadel modules, and vice versa.
Here’s a no-talk, all sounds demo of the Alchemist:
The Kastle 2 Alchemist is available now for €160 ex. VAT
The muSonics Lyle is an ‘American format’ monster synth, that offers a modern, modular take on the classic Oberheim Four Voice synthesizer.
It’s a fully-modular system, following the modern dotcom MU standard, with internal normalization. It builds on the company’s previously introduced Vanilla Synth, a monophonic MU format synth, inspired by classic Oberheim designs. The Four Voice essentially combines four Vanilla Synth voices in a single case, with additional models to handle polyphonic control.
Lyle Mays
We got a preview of the synth at Knobcon 2025, where it was still being called ‘The Four Voice’. Now it’s officially named Lyle – after the late Lyle Mays.
Mays, right, used the Oberheim Four Voice in his work with Pat Metheny, on seminal albums like As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls. If you don’t know the album, go check out the title track right now, and consider the fact that the epic ambient electronic jazz classic was recorded 45 years ago.
Mays wasn’t just an amazing musician, but it sounds like he was a amazing guy, too. When he found out that synth designer Tom Oberheim didn’t have a Four Voice, Mays gave Oberheim his, even though the rare synthesizer was, by then, worth a small fortune.
Like the Oberheim Four Voice that it takes inspiration from, the muSonics Lyle is built from four completely independent synth voices.
This means that each voice has its own dedicated set of controls, and that creating a polyphonic patch requires adjusting the setting on each of the voices. This is more work than tweaking a computer-controlled poly design, but the result is that each voice has subtle variations, creating a very rich and interesting sound.
Here’s what muSonics has to say about Lyle:
“Lyle is a four voice Vanilla Synthesizer with a polyphonic envelope generator system, four voice mixer, MIDI allocation, and utility modules. It is the first polyphonic modular synthesizer with master control of time and timbre since the Oberheim Four Voice, whose circuits it is based on.
Anyone can throw four voices in a box and call it a polyphonic synthesiser, so what makes Lyle so special?
The Polyphonic Envelopes network has its own set of 8 envelope generators, bringing the system total to 16. Its EGs are normaled to the filters, oscillators, and output amplifiers of the system. The Vanilla Envelopes are still available and can be patched to interrupt the Polyphonic Envelopes.
The Polyphonic Envelopes control module is the only one of 7 in the network which is on the front panel. It gives you attack, decay, and sustain control for the VCF and VCA EGs, amount controls to route the VCF EG to the VCF and VCO modulation inputs, and an offset control for the VCF EG to the VCF modulation input (think global filter cutoff.)
There have been a few stabs at aggregate polyphony since Tom Oberheim built Lyle Mays and Pete Namlook their favourite synthesizer, but no one has done this.
Another nice feature of this instrument is the Vanilla Stereo Mixer, which not only gives you level and pan for each voice but also an additioinal gain stage to overdrive if you wish, bringing the total number of manageable gain stages (and potential distortions) to four per voice.
The instrument can be operated without any patch cables on the front panel. MIDI control and audio output happens on the back of the instrument. Patch points are for timbre authoring beyond the default patch, similar to an ARP 2600.”
Lyle is comprised of the following MU-format modules:
4 Control Distributor
4 Vanilla Modulation
4 Vanilla Oscillators
4 Vanilla Filter
8 Vanilla Envelope
4 Vanilla Mixer
Vanilla Stereo Mixer
Polyphonic Envelopes (8 additional envelopes)
Japanese Modulation
Transistor Logic
Active Multiples
Active Attenuators
4 MIDI Interfaces plus polyphonic MIDI allocator
Here are a few examples of Lyle in action:
The muSonics Lyle synthesizer is available now for $16,000. There’s currently a lead time of about six months. Visit the muSonics site for details.
