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

LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER -in his latest video, host Sam Battle discusses his experience building The Cloney Project, an unofficial DIY replica of the classic EMS VCS 3 synthesizer.

Battle shows the process of building his Cloney, shares some audio demos and discusses some of the problems that he still has to fix on his build.

The Cloney is a full-size clone of the original VCS 3 design, which was originally introduced in 1969. The developer is discussing another round of kits on the project Facebook page, with the cost expected to be around $2,500.

The original VCS 3 is technically still available from Electronic Music Studios (EMS), which says it’s “the world’s longest established synthesizer manufacturer.” The official VCS 3 is priced at £5950. EMS is a very small manufacturer, though, and has a backlog of years. One buyer has related waiting a full decade to get their VCS 3.

Other alternatives include the Erica Synths Syntrx, which is a modern design, inspired by the VCS 3. It’s a more capable synth than the original, with improved synthesis capabilities and patch memory. Jean-Michel Jarre – a long-time user of the original VCS 3 – has called the Syntrx II “an instant classic.”

And Behringer is working on an unofficial copy of the VCS 3. There’s no telling when it will actually be available, though. Behringer originally announced plans for their VCS 3 copy eight years ago.

Watch the video, and share your thoughts on the The Cloney Project in the comments!

Developer Christian Halten shared this interview with Simone Fabbri of Frap Tools about the creation of their new keyboard synthesizer, Magnolia, described as a ‘West Coast Polysynth’.

The Magnolia is one of the most interesting new synths introduced at Superbooth 2025. Frap Tools showcased two pre-production Magnolia synthesizer keyboards at the event.

Magnolia is an 8-voice analog through-zero FM synthesizer. Options include waveshapers, wavefolders, and analog linear through-zero FM – features associated with the “West Coast” synthesis world – in addition to analog oscillators and filters.

Frap Tools expects to release the Magnolia synthesizer at the end of summer 2025.

They note that the release version “may have a more refined interface, it will feature digital effects, and some of the features currently under evaluation may disappear.”

Universal Audio is renowned for its well-regarded software emulations of vintage studio gear.

Today, Universal Audio is giving the $199 PolyMAX synth plugin away for free – but not for long.

Launched back in 2022, Universal Audio’s PolyMAX synth isn’t based on a single instrument, but instead draws broader inspiration from the “golden age of polysynthesis”, an era that brought us iconic synths like the Jupiter-8, OB-X and Prophet-5. Until now, PolyMAX has been priced at $199, but Universal Audio must be in a particularly generous mood, as they’re giving it away for free until June 30.

Universal Audio says that PolyMAX delivers the “organic, subtle beauty and musicality of classic analogue polyphonic synthesizers”, cherrypicking features, circuits and sounds from the developers’ favourite vintage instruments and “mixing, matching and modelling” these to create a “modern synth with retro roots”.

PolyMAX has a classic subtractive architecture: its dual analogue-modelled oscillators are equipped with continuously variable waveforms spanning triangle, sawtooth, square and pulse waves, and it has linear FM and osc sync, along with a noise oscillator.

PolyMAX’s resonant filter has low-pass, high-pass, band-pass and notch modes, giving you a choice between 4-pole and 2-pole slopes, while its mod envelope and tempo-syncable LFO can be used to modulate pitch, filter cutoff, FM amount and sync amount.

The synth features a healthy selection of effects: two effects slots provide a choice of phaser, flanger and chorus, along with delay and two types of reverb, including the “Hall B” algorithm from UA’s Lexicon 224 emulation. There’s also a multimode arpeggiator onboard.

It’s a solid, straightforward poly with a pleasantly intuitive interface that makes designing basic patches quick and relatively easy. If there’s space in your digital studio for another vintage-inspired subtractive synth, this one’s worth a download.

Find out more on the Universal Audio website.