Polyvera, PTNSHIFT, Serum 2: Highlights of the Week
4,3 / 5,0 | 
The Suonobuono Polyvera sounds incredible, Tim Exile is back with a hugely inspiring generative instrument, and Serum gets a massive free upgrade: here are my personal highlights of the week at GEARNEWS.
Highlights of the Week
Suonobuono Polyvera In-Depth Demo: I Can’t Wait for this Synth
To me, the Suonobuono Polyvera is one of the most interesting and promising synth projects by an independent developer right now. When the Swedish-Italian developer (known from previous projects like the nABC sidechain compressor) first previewed the synth at Roma Modulare last year, I was immediately intrigued by it. A six-voice digital/analog hybrid synth that wholeheartedly embraces the characteristic artifacts of early digital technology rather than trying to eliminate them, paired with modern features and an intuitive user interface – take my money!
It took a while, but Suonobuono has finally released an in-depth demo of the Polyvera and explained its architecture in detail, and in my opinion, it sounds nothing short of amazing.
Each of the synth’s two oscillators per voice can use a wavetable or sample as its sound source, and you can import user wavetables and even sample on the synth itself. Most interestingly, however, each oscillator also offers several types of vintage digital artifacts modeled after iconic instruments such as the Ensoniq Mirage or early AKAI samplers. This way, aliasing and other effects of low-res digital become an integral part of the sound shaping process.
The Polyvera then feeds these sounds through an analog filter with pre-filter drive and post-filter distortion. You also get a good selection of modulation sources: three LFOs, one loopable multimode modulation envelope, plus two additional envelopes for filter and amp. These can be mapped to various destinations via an 8-slot matrix. Add to that an arpeggiator, polyphonic step sequencer, binaural mode, and MPE compatibility, and you’ve got a synth that triggers my G.A.S. much more than anything that came from the big guys recently.
The Suonobuono Polyvera will cost SEK 13,189, which is about £1000 / $1300 / €1200. Depending on where you’re located, taxes and/or customs fees will be added to this price. The first batch is unfortunately already sold out (dang, I missed it!), but you can subscribe to the newsletter to be notified when a new batch is released. Deliveries are expected to begin in June 2025.
Tim Exile PTNSHIFT: Generative Performance Instrument for Ableton Push
It’s utterly brilliant news that Tim Exile is back! After the – ultimately ill-fated – Endlesss project and his battle with cancer, the expert in innovative and hugely inspiring performance tools returned in November of last year with Scapeshift, a generative instrument for NI Reaktor he developed to aid his recovery from surgery. And now, he’s taken the concept even further with PTNSHIFT, a generative performance instrument for Ableton Push.
While PTNSHIFT revolves around the same ideas as Scapeshift, it’s been optimized for Push to streamline control and create an intuitive instrument that just screams live performance. As Tim puts it:
“My previous live rigs sprawled multiple MIDI controllers. They were a nightmare to travel with and even harder to share. So in the name of portability, PTNSHIFT’s workflow is origami’d into the powerful and ubiquitous Ableton Push 2 & 3.”
The result is an instrument that lets you perform with generative patterns in ways previously unheard of. After preparing your patterns in Note Mode, you can then launch, mix, blend, and tweak them on the fly in Session Mode, all while the patterns continue to evolve generatively. While I’ll admit that I tend to gravitate more toward synths with a keyboard rather than grooveboxes and clip-based performing (I’m old!), I could absolutely see myself jamming on this thing forever.
PTNSHIFT consists of two parts: a Reaktor ensemble and a custom app for communication with the Push controller. In addition to Ableton Push 2 or 3, you’ll need the full version of Native Instruments Reaktor to run it. PTNSHIFT comes loaded with over 350 patterns created by Tim Exile.
PTNSHIFT is available on Tim’s Patreon Page for $59.
Serum 2: Everyone’s Favorite Wavetable Synth Gets a Massive Upgrade
And “massive” doesn’t even do it justice. After 11 years, Xfer Records Serum 2 dropped this week, and the new version marks such a huge leap forward that it leaves, pun intended, Massive in the dust (not that Serum hadn’t accomplished that long ago). The update introduces new warp modes and phase distortion to Serum’s wavetable oscillators. It also comes with a bunch of new oscillator types, including multisamples, granular synthesis, and spectral resynthesis. Serum was no slouch to begin with, but now it has evolved into an even more powerful multi-engine synth – fantastic stuff!
Furthermore, Serum 2 offers a redesigned effects section with more flexible routing, a powerful arpeggiator, and even a clip sequencer.
And here’s the best of all: despite this upgrade’s size, it’s free for all owners of the previous version. With so many new features, other developers would take the opportunity to switch to an entirely different numbering system (Serum X, anyone?) and make you buy the plugin all over again. Instead, Xfer Records gives you a free upgrade. That was definitely one of the highlights of the week for me.
If you haven’t bought Serum before, you can now get the new version for an introductory price of $189. On 1 June 2025, the price will increase to $249.
*This post about the Suonobuono Polyvera and other highlights of the week contains affiliate links and/or widgets. When you buy a product via our affiliate partner, we receive a small commission that helps support what we do. Don’t worry, you pay the same price. Thanks for your support!
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One response to “Polyvera, PTNSHIFT, Serum 2: Highlights of the Week”
If you have Reveal Spire, you do not need Suonobuono Polyvera.