Cherry Audio Yellowjacket: A British Classic Reimagined
We check out what the buzz is all about
4,9 / 5,0 | 
Cherry Audio take on a very British synth with their new Yellowjacket, an homage and reimagining of a much-loved piece of Anglo eccentricity.
The 1970s were a golden age of analogue synthesis, and everyone and their mother were trying to jump on the bandwagon with their own interpretation of what a great synth could be. Moog were the prestige brand, with the Japanese picking up their game with ever-increasing size and functionality.
A Bit of History
The British, on the other hand, were doing, as they are wont to do, their own thing. Companies like EMS were producing things like the Synthi A and the Synthi 100, two hugely different yet complex instruments.
But in true “back of a cigarette packet” and “built in the shed at the bottom of the garden” fashion, EDP had other ideas. Adrian Wagner and Chris Huggett had dreams of a much smaller nature. They wanted something to look and sound cool, yet be affordable to the person in the street.
And so the Wasp was born, with a little financial clout from Rod Argent’s keyboard store. Eschewing the wood and metal used by the Americans and Japanese, EDP used a moulded plastic shell and touch-sensitive keys to keep costs down.
Huggett designed the single circuit board that contained dual digitally controlled VCOs with a 12db/Oct VCF, an LFO called a Control Oscillator and two envelope generators, one for the VCA, the other for the LFO. There were glide and pitch bend knobs and a built in speaker that definitely had the character of its namesake.
Initially unsuccessful, people soon came to realise Huggett’s genius and the original Wasp’s are lauded and sought after today. Its somewhat poor build quality means that not a huge amount have survived, but Cherry Audio have seen to it that we no longer need to worry. Enter the Yellowjacket!
The Cherry Audio Yellowjacket
It will come as no surprise that Cherry Audio have taken the Wasp and expanded it hugely with Yellowjacket. All the original features have been modelled so that, if you wish, you can wallow in authentic nostalgia.
However, it is the expansions within Yellowjacket that will make this an instrument you come back to, time and again, for so much more than the distinctive Wasp sound. First up, you can play chords on this thing! It has mono, unison and three poly modes (4, 8, and 16 voice) with additional control panels for the unison, poly and cycle voice modes.
There are, of course, effects which include phasers, flangers, reverb and echo as well as a Wasp speaker effect with Hiss and Hum controls. Yellowjacket also introduces a new dynamic arpeggiator with Humanise and Chance probability features. There’s also support for polyphonic aftertouch!
And if you own a Windows touch-screen device, you can even play the original touch-sensitive keyboard via the screen on devices such as the Surface Pro. All other modern plugin features are also catered for such as full DAW sync and Yellowjacket is available as both a plugin and standalone instrument.
Cherry Audio Yellowjacket is available now for $49, and a 100 preset expansion pack by James Dyson, entitled Hive Mind, is also available at launch for an extra $9.99.
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