Kiviak Instruments Texturer, Win a $20k Eurorack Rig, ALM/Busy Circuits MCO (mk II), a Synth for Squirrels?!: Synth Journal
The best of the rest of this week’s synth news.
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Kiviak Instruments Texturer is the granular effects engine from the WoFi Sampler turned into a plugin. That plus much more in this week’s Synth Journal!
Synth Journal
Kiviak Instruments Texturer
WoFi Sampler is the cute hardware sampler from Kiviak Instruments that everyone wants but not everyone can afford. If you’ve been intrigued by the feature set but can’t swing the finances right now, the developer has you covered with the Kiviak Instruments Texturer.
A granular processor, Kiviak Instruments Texturer lets you create granular clouds of texture and chaos in your DAW. A standard plugin, it offers size, density, chaos, and width control over the grains, plus pitch shifting. There’s even a randomization function if you’re feeling lucky.
Kiviak Instruments Texturer is available now from the company website for a reasonable €49 and comes in VST and AU formats.
- Kiviak Instruments Texturer product page
ALM/Busy Circuits MCO (mk II)
Analog is so 2010s. These days it’s all about digital, whether that be FM, wavetable, additive, or what have you. ALM/Busy Circuits’ latest release is MCO (mk II), a digital VCO and voice module inspired by 90s/00s digital synths.
There are seven different synth modes. DigiWave is a wavetable oscillator, ToneSum gives you additive synthesis, BC8000 takes inspiration from the Roland JP-8000 (hello, supersaw), Sylon is a vocoder, Virtana is a dual-oscillator VA synth voice, Oomph is an FM-based kick and bass engine while SID Guts does C64-style SID chip sounds.
All synthesis voices support up to four-voice chords and dual outputs and there are built-in envelopes and LFOs. Costs $289. It’s also available in VCV Rack.
- ALM/Busy Circuits MCO (mk II) product page
Ocean Swift Synthesis Wavetable Creator and Compatibility Converter
Lots of synthesizers – both hard and soft – let you import your own wavetables. But hands up, how many of you out there are actually making your own wavetables and not just downloading them off the internet? Ocean Swift Synthesis is here to get more hands up in the air with Wavetable Creator, an app that allows you to create custom wavetables and import them into a huge variety of synths, including Serum, UVI Falcon, Waldorf Blofeld, and many others. Normally sells for €40 but it’s on sale now for €25.
The company also offers Wavetable Compatibility Converter, a utility that lets you convert proprietary wavetable files to use them in other synths. Costs €10.
Both of these applications seem very useful. Be careful though as neither supports Intel Macs.
- Ocean Swift Synthesis home page
Love Hultén SQRL-01
Love Hultén is at it again. The latest work of art from the genius artist is SQRL-01, a “synth axe” that contains some well-known instruments plus a, well, just watch the video first.
On the music-generation side, SQRL-01 features a Critter & Guitari Pocket Piano, a Walrus Audio Fundamental Reverb pedal, and a built-in speaker.
On the nut side, it has what Love calls an “over-engineered drawbridge nut dispenser,” which you can see in the video above is for distributing treats to squirrels. As a fan of rodents myself I love this, and it may just be my favorite Love Hultén creation yet. It also sounds amazing.
- Love Hultén home page
Ciat-Lonbarde Clicker
Ciat-Lonbarde is a special instrument manufacturer that designs self-contained analog synths housed in wood. The company’s latest is Clicker. A collaboration with Jan St. Werner of Mouse On Mars, the Clicker (as the name suggests) specializes in short bursts of sound. “I want to create the sound of that moment when a string is activated – not the tone of the vibrating string itself,” St. Werner says on the product page (link below).
The Clicker is a dual-voice synth with two trigger inputs, two manual trigger buttons, two AD envelope generators, two ringlers (like ring modulators), and a cross modulation section. It has two modes: click mode for short sounds and music mode for melodic sounds. It also features two CV inputs, a trigger input, and three CV outs on each side.
This won’t be for everybody but if you’ve read this far, you already know if it’s for you or not. Sells for €332 + VAT.
- Ciat-Lonbarde Clicker product page
Bob Moog Foundation Raffle
The Bob Moog Foundation has announced its winter fundraising raffle and the prize is a real doozy. A massive Eurorack system worth $20,000, it features 52 modules from 30 different manufacturers in a custom-designed 16U walnut cabinet. The system was inspired by Bob’s original vision, according to the foundation.
The winner will also receive a copy of Patch & Tweak: Exploring Modular Synthesissigned by the author, Chris Meyer, and Bjooks publisher Kim Bjorn, as well as free access to all Learning Modular online courses, and a gift pack of T-shirts and other items from Luigi’s Modular Supply.
The raffle started on December 2 and ends Friday, December 20, 2024 at 11:59 pm (EST). Tickets for the raffle are $20 each, six for $100, 14 for $200, and 40 for $500 and it’s open internationally.
- Bob Moog Foundation raffle page
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