Mayer Electronic Music Instruments has introduced the MD900, a multitimbral polyphonic desktop synthesizer.
The MD900 offers polyphony of 16 voices, shared by the 4 multi-timbral parts. Each of the 4 parts have their own effect stack (with flanger, chorus, vibrato, reverb, delay and other options).
The heart of the voice are the two aliasing-free oscillators (OSC1,OSC2). The oscillators have two different modes: Wavetable- or Algorithm-oscillator. Each of them can run in 4 instances with detuning capabilities and spread in the stereo channels in a different way. The Noise is a sample based oscillator which can be restarted with the Note-On, run free with fix pitch or follow the Note-On pitch.
All oscillator outputs are stereo. These stereo outputs will feed in the mixer section. The output of the mixer has two paths which are the input for both stereo multimode filters (A/B). Both filter outputs feed the amps (A/B) and final these stereo outputs feed the effect stack.
Features:
The overall audio path is stereo. The oscillator, mixer filter, amps and effects are all in stereo.
Four independent arpeggiator und step sequenzer assigned to each of the four synth parts. The trigger sequencer may trigger the built in transient sample player (Drum Kit .wav) or send triggers to MIDI-Out (USB-DIN or USB-MIDI)
The housing is made of aluminum with real walnut wood on the front and back.
All components are industrial grade. Precision potentiometers with aluminum covered knobs.
Four independent arpeggiators
Step sequencer assigned to each of the four synth parts.
The trigger sequencer may trigger the built-in transient sample player (Drum Kit .wav) or send triggers to MIDI-Out (USB-DIN or USB-MIDI)
The MD900 XVA engine is also patch compatible with the new M800-R2 Eurorack synthesizer.
The Mayer M800-R2 is an extended Virtual Analog [XVA] eurorack polyphonic synthesizer module.
It’s essentially a Euro format version of the MD900, and patches can be shared between the two.
Developer Ryan Challinor has officially released Bespoke, a free open source software modular synthesizer for Linux, macOS & Windows.
Unlike software modulars like Cherry Audio’s Voltage Modular and VCV Rack, Bespoke does not use a skeuomorphic interface designed to look like a hardware Eurorack modular.
Instead, it is designed to let you create completely ‘bespoke’ patches. This freedom means that the developer was able to do some creative things with the user interface, like animating patch cables with the signals that they carry.
Official walkthrough video:
“Bespoke’s core design is to break everything into separate modules that can be patched together in a custom layout, much like a hardware modular. Bespoke is designed to be highly customizable, with the idea that any of the custom layouts that you create will be ‘bespoke’ to you as well,” notes Challinor. “In a way, Bespoke is like if I smashed Ableton to bits with a baseball bat, and asked you to put it back together.”
Bespoke is available now as a free download for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It is open source, licensed with GPLv3. While it is freeware, if you try it and like it, consider donating to the developer via his website to help support future development.
Expressive E & AAS have introduced Imagine, a new physical modeling synthesizer designed for expressive control.
The Imagine offers hundreds of physically modeled instrument layers. Each preset combines two of these instrument layers to create expressive acoustic timbres.
Official walkthrough video:
Features:
A typical instruments – Imagine offers hundreds of instrument layers, “meticulously modeled” to bring their very own character.
Playful sound design – Each instrument has its very own character that can be easily adjusted with great flexibility.
Vivid textures, morphing acoustic – Combine the layers of instruments and modulate their characteristics in real time.
Enhance and articulate – Imagine offers a complete tool set of effects ideal for enhancing your sounds. Everything is designed for real-time manipulation to easily create fluid articulations, breaks, drops, or to dynamically modify reverbs and delays.
Multi-stage envelope generators – For further expressive possibilities, Imagine contains MSEGs that pack a huge collection of modulations for your sounds.
Intelligent modulation system – Behind the scenes, everything is optimized to provide you the best expressive experience possible: no dead zones; sensitivity curves and ranges are continuously scaled.
Optimized macros – Significant optimization work has been carried out to allow you to modulate the sound of your instruments in real time, resulting in a unique expressive perspective.