Nice intro . Well if a Polivoks , a MS 20 , a wasp , and a CS01 got some time on Dr. Frankenstein’s table we know how that would turn out now . Brutal and dirty sounding it’s nice to see another standalone synth in that “ other “ space .
I must have watched every video on this, being a massive MS-20 acolyte. This is the best of them, gets the balance between "sounds you want to hear", "love for the sounds" and "what this machine does to get those sounds" absolutely *bang-on*. Knocked it out of the park.
That filter alone is worth the price of admission, but cannot take the plunge before a full-size keybed. This feels a product of passion so I suspect of variants being in the works… fab synth 🤙
Very helpful video. I’ve had mine a few weeks but not had a lot of time with it and still away from home for a few more days. Something to occupy my evenings next week.
I haven't heard about this, and it's hardware, and I saw polivoks namechecked in the comments... I'm going to have to watch later but can people stop feeding my GAS?!?!?
I had a Future Retro XS which could get pretty wild. The Malevolent, however… it’s on another level! The filter reminds me of the euro rack wasp filter when the level and resonance is cranked up.
This is reminding me of the Electrocomp EML-101, especially with the uncontrollable filter. The EML-101 would go from thick to wild-hair screaming with just a small movement.
How would you rate it against the Korg MS20 and Novation Bass Station II and Moog Minataur? If I did not already have a Virus that gets me all this and more this would be a fun bass synth.
you really got that thing hummin. :D many struggled to get it there and hated on it like mad ^^. that synth has some great hard sounding percussion sounds. definitely not the usual butter cookie stuff you hear from other synths
Starsky, your Scouse accent when you say 'deeerty' is killing me in the best of ways. Haha. I want one of these things. They're so foul. A modern MS-20!
Haha… I like it too. Slightly accentuate the deeeertiness for the full scouse effect. There’s some words that just sound so much better in a Liverpudlian accent!
@@StarskyCarr I'm not so sure about that, but you're biased! Haha. I'm Canadian, but well versed with the regional accents of the UK and England thanks to a previous life as a full time DJ/producer in the electronic dance music scene. I can't say Scouse is my favourite accent, but to each their own. 😁 I shouldn't be one to talk because when I am around English people I start to affect a pseudo English accent and sound ridiculous. ...Sort of like Madonna did when she was living in London and married to Guy Richie. My best mate is from Ipswich, Suffolk and has a proper farmer accent and has only ever known me to sound this way around him, but when girlfriends see me go from a Canadian accent to this pseudo English one, they're always baffled! Haha.
Have done some amateur synth design myself, and the summing control voltages, particularly on filters, is problematic which is why they have the knobs with extra travel that "does nothing" I would imagine. The VCF CV has a fixed range of influence (the audible frequency range) so when you sum CVs either they all have to be able to go beyond that range when summed or not have full control range on their own. Let's say 0-5V covers the full audible range; if CV1 can do 0-5V, adding CV2 to it just takes it up into bat hearing frequencies when positive and would need to be -5V to +5V to be able to modulate down to 0V, but then there's a long tail of nothing when they're both -5V, so there has to be some compromise. You can get a bounded control paradigm by multiplying CVs, so instead, say, of Cutoff+ Envelope you have controls for Minimum and Maximum and the Envelope CV modulates between the two (effectively, final CV = Min+ ((Max-Min) x EG) (where EG is normalised to 0...1 arithmetically) which is easy digitally but for a pure analogue design is awkward, requiring 4 quadrant multipliers, which was absolutely impractical in the analogue synth's 70s-early 80s heyday. It does also mean though you get something quite intuitive as when Min is set higher than Max you get an inverted envelope or mod waveform. Which is nice. Just waffling here, sorry.
Its all good... I came across similar with the inputs to the Taiga envelopes...everything is so dynamic that initially it can be confusing, but once you realise the CV input could have all sorts of signal levels it makes more sense.
Absolutely- it’s semi modular which means the standard connections are patched internally like any synth, but with these you can override the internal connections with patch cables to change the routingZ
i love that they purposely designed glitchy and 'misbehaving' circuits 😂🔥im curious: can the aux in of the mixer used to feedback vcos/fm warp them or crank the hp filter into itself that way ? 🤔 btw whats wth the unnamed knob off to the side near the vco2 1oct/cv pitch knob ? thats the kinda stuff my 14 year old me in 1996 would have loved.. i used a djmixer for no-input-miying, feedibg vack electric noise and a mic bleed into it, and warped with a magnetic gadgetni held to it. and then it went thruge bandpass filter section of my ghettoblaster distorting it for rec 😂😂😂 cheers and thx starsk👍👍
Great review! Thanks for the "hidden little tricks", I had no idea about half of them! The user manual is not overly info-rich. My unit behaves the same way! I think the darker tone balances the mad filter scream. :) Do you know the midi implications of this synth? I am currently trying to make mad techno with VCV and Malevolent, and use the velocity to control the filter. The velocity seems to be note on, not continuous. So the VCV LFO can not control it if you hold a note. You have to re-trigger like hell. It is acting more like a Sample & Hold. Also, do you know by any chance how to change the midi channel? (not that I have to...) :D Only if you know from the top of your head, otherwise I shall contact PWM. I know you are not here for my convenience. Thanks in advance anyway! :)
You'd need aftertouch to control anything continuously, I thin the velocity will send an instantaneous signal. No idea about the MIDI channel sorry :) Glad the vid was useful.
I don’t like synths which don’t have a master tune knob like on a model d…it’s disaster because some synths have to be calibrated under the hood or don’t have that option at all or have to be patched with a kb cv what is time consuming and not always easy.
I'm looking forward to this hitting the market. I heard someone claim that analog synths/drum machines don't mesh well with digital synths/drum machines, which sounds weird to me. I get that the audio is created different, but it's ultimately wave forms. I've only heard one person claim this, but I'm new to hardware synths and analog gear. It's like claiming a softsynth, won't mesh with a guitar in my limited opinion. The person was mostly talking about digital/analog drum machines mixing with digital/analog synths. My MPC Live II sounds fine with my Minilogue XD. I couldn't find any info online about it. This was the video --> 'Top 5 Drum Machines Under $500 | Alamo Music Center' ruclips.net/video/zmbqvRuikPY/видео.html . In case anyone wanted to see what I'm talking about. I put a time marker for the part in the video that he's talking about it.
Although I do really appreciate your channel. I never understand why you can't just demo the synth on it's own. It's always running into another synth or drum machine. It makes you think that this is what you are going to get if you purchase but when you get it none of the sounds are there.
I can’t win.. haha. Most people ask to hear it in a mix to understand how it fits with other instruments etc. there’s plenty of stuff in there with it on its own as well though. The modular mix is just the vcos with one running through a different filter and the long arp at the end is just the malevolent - as well as all the bits in between. I play the raw tones, the PWM on each oscillator, the filter raw, the filter with an osc or 2 . So not sure what I’ve missed tbh. I’ve just added some extra bits to what you’d get on a run of the mill simple synth only demo. It’s all there just got extra bits demoing how it can sound in ‘real life’ as it were. Unless you just watched the intro 🤷♂️ I’m stumped tbh.
@@StarskyCarr No no no. You are doing a great job. I was just saying that for an example, if that was a drum machine connected you can't expect to get those drum sounds out of it. There are a lot of other channels demoing synths and they have it running through all kinds of stuff. It don't really make a good example of what the synth sounds like. I was going to go back and delete the comment after I watched the entire video but I thought I'd leave it for the algorithm, haa.
![KSI - Thick Of It (feat. Trippie Redd) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/At8v_Yc044Y/mqdefault.jpg)
Nice intro . Well if a Polivoks , a MS 20 , a wasp , and a CS01 got some time on Dr. Frankenstein’s table we know how that would turn out now . Brutal and dirty sounding it’s nice to see another standalone synth in that “ other “ space .
I think that's the exact blend! Well described!
An ARP 2600 or Odyssey too! they can be very nasty and aggressive ☠️🤖👽🎛️🎹
The pulse width mod on the triangle wave sounded so amazing im still remembering it days later
Wow! I love how it can go from a tame little fuzzy little bunny rabbit to a screaming banshee on LSD with the twist of a knob.
I'm blown away by the sound of this beast. Great demo!
I was really hoping this could do nice drum / perc sounds, and you've demonstrated that nicely - thanks :)
best demo of this synth! now I started to like it
Its nuts .. in a good way.
I must have watched every video on this, being a massive MS-20 acolyte. This is the best of them, gets the balance between "sounds you want to hear", "love for the sounds" and "what this machine does to get those sounds" absolutely *bang-on*. Knocked it out of the park.
That filter alone is worth the price of admission, but cannot take the plunge before a full-size keybed.
This feels a product of passion so I suspect of variants being in the works… fab synth 🤙
Most exciting synth i've heard for years, he'll complete my prologue beautifully
Very malevolent indeed... in the good sense !
Wonderful review about that great sounding little analog synth !
Reminds me of the Polivoks. Hope PWM will enjoy some success with this.
ive been looking for a nice entry point into modular. i think this is it. thank you for sharing
Brilliant Demo.
Cheers.
@7:42 that snare had me doing the ugly face 🤣 awesome video !
Loved the intro!
Thanks so much for the jams and the review!
reminds me of both polyvoks, ms20, and 2600 at times. VERY interesting lil synth
Very helpful video. I’ve had mine a few weeks but not had a lot of time with it and still away from home for a few more days. Something to occupy my evenings next week.
I hope this is useful - not exactly a walkthrough as it’s all pretty self evident, but maybe gives you a flavour.
Great one!!
what a little beast ..thx great review
I haven't heard about this, and it's hardware, and I saw polivoks namechecked in the comments... I'm going to have to watch later but can people stop feeding my GAS?!?!?
I had a Future Retro XS which could get pretty wild. The Malevolent, however… it’s on another level! The filter reminds me of the euro rack wasp filter when the level and resonance is cranked up.
This litle synth souns and look's intresting 😮 it look's like you can hawe fun time to play whit it 👍nice demo too😅
Interesting synth. Nice to hear something with a bit of character. Reminded me a bit of Polivoks.
This is reminding me of the Electrocomp EML-101, especially with the uncontrollable filter. The EML-101 would go from thick to wild-hair screaming with just a small movement.
That's actually a really good comparison.
How would you rate it against the Korg MS20 and Novation Bass Station II and Moog Minataur? If I did not already have a Virus that gets me all this and more this would be a fun bass synth.
The filter sounds not unlike my doepfer wasp at times! Lovely 😍
Bloody great!
you really got that thing hummin. :D many struggled to get it there and hated on it like mad ^^. that synth has some great hard sounding percussion sounds. definitely not the usual butter cookie stuff you hear from other synths
Not a stretch to imagine painstaking future algorithmic efforts to model the quirks of this unassuming little machine...
Amazing intro, amazing review, amazing guy, amazing channel. Shall I go on?
Nice work !!
Please do 😂
Hahahaha
29:26 Philip Glass would be proud
Loved the Blair Witch type intro.
19:24 Elephants be like, "What's happening, Bruv?"
Your acting was unexpectedly good. Talent. 😁
I’m not sure the onlookers would agree 😀
I'd buy this in a rackmount. Same price, even.
Dude that song! so good There is palpable fear and trepidation when you're tweaking this lol that's gotta be worth something
Haha… the FEAR!
That thing looks like it was made out of an old Commodore 64 case. RETRO!
It would be perfect if it has a sequencer
That intro reminded me of Cabaret Voltaire 🎶
Starsky, your Scouse accent when you say 'deeerty' is killing me in the best of ways. Haha.
I want one of these things. They're so foul. A modern MS-20!
Haha… I like it too. Slightly accentuate the deeeertiness for the full scouse effect. There’s some words that just sound so much better in a Liverpudlian accent!
@@StarskyCarr I'm not so sure about that, but you're biased! Haha.
I'm Canadian, but well versed with the regional accents of the UK and England thanks to a previous life as a full time DJ/producer in the electronic dance music scene. I can't say Scouse is my favourite accent, but to each their own. 😁
I shouldn't be one to talk because when I am around English people I start to affect a pseudo English accent and sound ridiculous. ...Sort of like Madonna did when she was living in London and married to Guy Richie. My best mate is from Ipswich, Suffolk and has a proper farmer accent and has only ever known me to sound this way around him, but when girlfriends see me go from a Canadian accent to this pseudo English one, they're always baffled! Haha.
@@JayKaufman SCOUSE IS BEST 😂😂 it too can baffle people.
13:59 That's a good point. A good selling point. The thing has Character.
Yes. Maybe it can replace my BassStation 2.
Compatible to the Mini Moog with regards sound? Mini Moog reissue just announced by Moog $5K
Have done some amateur synth design myself, and the summing control voltages, particularly on filters, is problematic which is why they have the knobs with extra travel that "does nothing" I would imagine. The VCF CV has a fixed range of influence (the audible frequency range) so when you sum CVs either they all have to be able to go beyond that range when summed or not have full control range on their own. Let's say 0-5V covers the full audible range; if CV1 can do 0-5V, adding CV2 to it just takes it up into bat hearing frequencies when positive and would need to be -5V to +5V to be able to modulate down to 0V, but then there's a long tail of nothing when they're both -5V, so there has to be some compromise.
You can get a bounded control paradigm by multiplying CVs, so instead, say, of Cutoff+ Envelope you have controls for Minimum and Maximum and the Envelope CV modulates between the two (effectively, final CV = Min+ ((Max-Min) x EG) (where EG is normalised to 0...1 arithmetically) which is easy digitally but for a pure analogue design is awkward, requiring 4 quadrant multipliers, which was absolutely impractical in the analogue synth's 70s-early 80s heyday. It does also mean though you get something quite intuitive as when Min is set higher than Max you get an inverted envelope or mod waveform. Which is nice.
Just waffling here, sorry.
Its all good... I came across similar with the inputs to the Taiga envelopes...everything is so dynamic that initially it can be confusing, but once you realise the CV input could have all sorts of signal levels it makes more sense.
@@StarskyCarr I've always found the summing a bit clunky in terms of UI, and that's going back to my Jen SX1000 I got when I was 17!
Is it possable to use this synth without the modular wires just like a regular analog synth?
Absolutely- it’s semi modular which means the standard connections are patched internally like any synth, but with these you can override the internal connections with patch cables to change the routingZ
Very nice, I'm torn between this and an MS20. Would this play nice with a Korg SQ1 sequencer?
Are You from Chester sound like it looks a great synth wonder what would happen if it went trough a Sherman fb2
It would open a fissure in time and space.. and no not Chester … how dare you 😂😂
Really good video!
Thanks! and thanks for joining me on Patreon, much appreciated :)
So, this or the MS20 mini? I was looking at the MS20, but now I’m not too sure! I absolutely love how dirty this gets!
a difficult decision. Ive got both so not hard for me :). If you're thinking of hooking up to other eurorack I'd go with this.
Sounds really nice. Shame about the mini keys.
Agreed, an instant pass for me
Dig it
i love that they purposely designed glitchy and 'misbehaving' circuits 😂🔥im curious: can the aux in of the mixer used to feedback vcos/fm warp them or crank the hp filter into itself that way ? 🤔
btw whats wth the unnamed knob off to the side near the vco2 1oct/cv pitch knob ?
thats the kinda stuff my 14 year old me in 1996 would have loved.. i used a djmixer for no-input-miying, feedibg vack electric noise and a mic bleed into it, and warped with a magnetic gadgetni held to it. and then it went thruge bandpass filter section of my ghettoblaster distorting it for rec 😂😂😂
cheers and thx starsk👍👍
Can this be sequenced with an sq1? If so how?
Great review! Thanks for the "hidden little tricks", I had no idea about half of them! The user manual is not overly info-rich. My unit behaves the same way! I think the darker tone balances the mad filter scream. :) Do you know the midi implications of this synth? I am currently trying to make mad techno with VCV and Malevolent, and use the velocity to control the filter. The velocity seems to be note on, not continuous. So the VCV LFO can not control it if you hold a note. You have to re-trigger like hell. It is acting more like a Sample & Hold. Also, do you know by any chance how to change the midi channel? (not that I have to...) :D Only if you know from the top of your head, otherwise I shall contact PWM. I know you are not here for my convenience. Thanks in advance anyway! :)
You'd need aftertouch to control anything continuously, I thin the velocity will send an instantaneous signal. No idea about the MIDI channel sorry :) Glad the vid was useful.
I don’t like synths which don’t have a master tune knob like on a model d…it’s disaster because some synths have to be calibrated under the hood or don’t have that option at all or have to be patched with a kb cv what is time consuming and not always easy.
Intro-Where’s the nose snot?
They call it the snory cam . Would be hilarious especially if he did a retro review of the PI squared midi synth 😂
Haha… I did think about it
Dendy sound
Are these full sized keys?
No they’re mini keys.
voodoo ray
MS20 cousin
Sounds really great
I'm looking forward to this hitting the market. I heard someone claim that analog synths/drum machines don't mesh well with digital synths/drum machines, which sounds weird to me. I get that the audio is created different, but it's ultimately wave forms. I've only heard one person claim this, but I'm new to hardware synths and analog gear. It's like claiming a softsynth, won't mesh with a guitar in my limited opinion. The person was mostly talking about digital/analog drum machines mixing with digital/analog synths. My MPC Live II sounds fine with my Minilogue XD. I couldn't find any info online about it. This was the video --> 'Top 5 Drum Machines Under $500 | Alamo Music Center' ruclips.net/video/zmbqvRuikPY/видео.html . In case anyone wanted to see what I'm talking about. I put a time marker for the part in the video that he's talking about it.
I really don’t get this synth.. you can make any synth sound bad, this one excels in this.
Although I do really appreciate your channel. I never understand why you can't just demo the synth on it's own. It's always running into another synth or drum machine. It makes you think that this is what you are going to get if you purchase but when you get it none of the sounds are there.
I can’t win.. haha. Most people ask to hear it in a mix to understand how it fits with other instruments etc. there’s plenty of stuff in there with it on its own as well though. The modular mix is just the vcos with one running through a different filter and the long arp at the end is just the malevolent - as well as all the bits in between. I play the raw tones, the PWM on each oscillator, the filter raw, the filter with an osc or 2 . So not sure what I’ve missed tbh. I’ve just added some extra bits to what you’d get on a run of the mill simple synth only demo. It’s all there just got extra bits demoing how it can sound in ‘real life’ as it were. Unless you just watched the intro 🤷♂️ I’m stumped tbh.
@@StarskyCarr No no no. You are doing a great job. I was just saying that for an example, if that was a drum machine connected you can't expect to get those drum sounds out of it. There are a lot of other channels demoing synths and they have it running through all kinds of stuff. It don't really make a good example of what the synth sounds like. I was going to go back and delete the comment after I watched the entire video but I thought I'd leave it for the algorithm, haa.
@@w1zard0f0h haha… no worries. I was just a bit confused!!
It's so weak sounding. Not what you want from a mono analog. A CS 10 sounds better. Or get a Boog. I hate it, sounds so digital.
Odd… it’s anything but digital. It’s about as raucously analog as you can get. Almost too analog! 😮
It's another subtractive synth guys, whatever.
A worthy and necessary contribution to the discourse. Let us now jog over to a motoring forum and post 'Four wheels. Yawn.'
haha... what were you expecting?
29:06
just seen the mantis , looks bloody awesome
How do you change the midi channel?
I’ve no idea! I have 3 midi interfaces and can handle 20 synths simultaneously all on channel 1 😂