Isla Instruments Caladan: Hybrid expandable polyphonic dream synth
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Isla Instruments Caladan · Source: Isla Instruments
Isla Instruments Caladan · Source: Isla Instruments
Isla Instruments has announced that the Caladan hybrid super-synth inspired by the FutureSonus Parva is now available for preorder.
Caladan update
The full specs have arrived and you can put money down on owning one of your very own. It mixes together ideas from the Futuresonus Parva synth and Isla’s own S2400 desktop sampler. Caladan is an 8-part multi-timbral hybrid synthesizer. It has an internal synthesizer engine that can utilise Soundfonts, SFZ multisample formats and VST plugins.
But that’s just the beginning. From there you can expand it with physical voice cards that slide into one of the 8 slots. The current roster of cards includes FM with analogue filters, SEM/OB-X, analogue percussion, Minimoog, SH-101, String machine and TB-303.
The synth supports MPE, can host controllers and has a bunch of CV and Gate inputs. It has lots of output busses, main and sub-mix outputs and is very solidly built. The display combines with RGB LED rings around the encoders to keep you informed of what’s going on.
Isla Instruments are hoping to ship by July 2024, so there’s still some way to go. You can preorder now for £949 for the Caladan base unit and 2 Parva voice cards.
- Isla Instruments website.
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Caladan
Originally posted 29th June 2023
I think the basic idea is to pack every sort of synthesizer into one box. Or at least a choice of synthesizers via add-in voice cards. It has a digital front panel that runs everything and a matrix format that has a display for each row of controls. The sound engine starts with polyphonic SoundFont support, and then you can fill the 8 expansion slots with a whole range of different ideas. You can choose from OPL3, SID, SEM, SH-101, Minimoog, Pro-1 or whatever cool analogue or digital voice cards Isla Instruments comes up with.
It looks very much like the FutureSonus Parva on which it is based, although if I’m honest, I prefer the bright white look of the original to the dark and moody Caladan. I’m not entirely sure what happened to the Parva. From what I can gather, it was a great idea that sort of ran out of steam a few years ago. Caladan follows the same layout and design concepts, hopefully bringing it to a wider audience.
Caladan and Parva · Source: Isla and Futuresonus
The Parva was an analogue, 3-oscillator, 8-voice synthesizer with digital controls. Isla Instruments appears to be smashing open the concept with the exchangeable voice cards.
There’s a video from April where Isla Instruments is trying out a new control interface. They talk about how it could be used for a future hybrid synthesizer project called Caladan. It’s interesting how that’s now turned into the evolution of the Parva.
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I think there’s going to be a lot more information to come on this development. The post on Facebook says that this is in regards to ordering the first fabrications of prototypes, so there’s still a fair way to go.
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4 responses to “Isla Instruments Caladan: Hybrid expandable polyphonic dream synth”
If there’s still a fair way to go, it wouldn’t surprise me if Behringer manages to release a Parva clone just around the time Caladan gets released… 😉
Was a Parva Kickstarter contributor, and it’s a serious shame they never worked out all the bugs. My unit unfortunately had some minor hardware issues (other folks had serious issues with the voice cards), and the OS upgrades ended before some major issues were fixed.
Loved the design, and the programmability of the thing was great (ample LFOs and envelopes and modulation options)!
So here’s hoping this is a bit more of an expanded Parva concept than just visually…minus the bugs and problems though.
Interesting to read. What are the bugs which were never fixed?
I’m asking, because I might have the chance to buy a used Parva.
The Caladan is a bit “too much of a synth” to me, on one hand because of its footprint, OTOH because it combines so many different synth engines, that I can’t really imagine how to eventually use them all (or choose from).
The Patva was not a good synth! I backed it on KS and once delivered, except for a brief period, Brad Ferguson abandoned the bug riddled mess.