Artium Instruments The Doppler: Quirky FM Synth for your Desktop
4,1 / 5,0 | 
Artium Instruments The Doppler is a tiny polyphonic FM synth for your desktop that looks like loads of fun. The Kickstarter campaign is off to a good start.
Artium Instruments The Doppler
A year after the equally lovable The Swarm, Artium Instruments has launched another fun little desktop synth on Kickstarter. The Doppler is an 8-voice polyphonic FM synth with two operators and a single algorithm. The architecture may be simple, but The Doppler has a couple of cool tricks up its sleeve.
The frequency of the modulator sine wave is quantized in semitones and can be dialed in using the Octave and Semitone rotary switches. Interestingly, the modulator can modulate the frequency and/or the phase of the carrier wave, or both at the same time. Noise is also available as an additional modulation source. Thanks to a feedback loop, the carrier can also modulate itself. While there are only two operators, this means that the synth can produce a much wider range of sounds than you might expect.
The ADSR envelope also has a couple of twists. By default, it only affects the carrier wave. However, you can also assign it to affect the amount of frequency modulation applied to the carrier by flicking the Env Mod switch. There’s also a Mod Trail control that lengthens the attack time, but only on the modulator wave, which can yield cool swell-in effects.
In addition to this, The Doppler offers two built-in effects: a delay with a tap tempo button and a stereo reverb. The latter is identical to The Swarm’s reverb, but offers more controls. Thanks to a stereo input, you can also use the effects to process external audio. Very cool!
In addition to a stereo output, The Doppler offers two USB-C ports, one of which supplies power to the synth. The other is a USB host to which you can directly connect a MIDI controller of your choice.
Price and Availability
You can now order The Doppler on Kickstarter. At the time of writing, early bird pricing was still available at $349. The regular price will be $379. You can also get The Doppler bundled with The Swarm for $624. After only a day, the campaign has already reached nearly half of the funding goal, so I think we can expect it to make it across the finish line. Artium Instruments expects to begin shipping in July 2025.
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