Catalyst Audio Brings Soviet Vacuum Tube Synthesis To Eurorack
Catalyst Audio shared this preview of its new line of vacuum tube based Eurorack synthesizer modules, created in collaboration with Electroserf.
The MiG modules utilize cold war era Soviet vacuum tubes, originally fabricated for use in Mikoyan-Guyverich (MiG) fighter jets.
The Mig series was designed from the ground up around the 1j24b vacuum tube, and these tubes are utilized for the core functionality of each module, with additional analog circuitry utilized for buffering and processing as needed.
The line currently includes the Mig VCO, Mig VCF, Mig VCA, Mig Mix, and Mig Thruster, each using NOS former Soviet vacuum tubes in a fully analog design:
- Mig VCO is an analog vacuum tube waveform generator with 1V/oct tracking. It uses three former Soviet 1j24b pentode tubes dating from 1960–1981 and offers simultaneous waveform outputs, adjustable internal feedback pathways, and what Catalyst describes as “unique waveforms.”
- Mig VCF is a voltage-controlled filter built around three NOS vacuum tubes, with one tube handling filter input level, one controlling and saturating the filter core, and a third tube behind the panel handling the resonance path.
- Mig VCA is the series’ voltage-controlled amplifier, but Catalyst also describes it as a “general destructive sound source,” positioning it as a gain stage intended to reshape material rather than simply control level transparently. The feature set includes true vacuum tube gain control, internal feedback pathways, and CV control over most functions, with the company explicitly noting that incoming audio is likely to be altered significantly by the module’s behavior.
- Mig Mix is a vacuum tube mixer that treats summing as a gain-staging and interaction stage rather than a clean utility function. Catalyst describes the module as using true vacuum tube gain control, with audio signals sharing limited tube headroom so that they compress, distort, and interact with each other rather than simply adding linearly.
- Mig Thruster is the most unconventional module in the range, described as an analog vacuum tube noise source built around a tube oscillator intentionally designed to be unstable enough that its harmonic output collapses into chaotic noise. Catalyst says the module includes internal feedback pathways and CV control of major parameters, and frames it as capable of a broad range of sounds rather than a single fixed noise flavor.
Details on the Catalyst Audio Mig Series modules pricing and availability are to come at their site.
