Roland AI, Light Reft Monolit MIDI Computer, Genki Katla Is a REALLY Expensive Synthesizer, More: Synth Journal
All the best of the rest of this week’s synthesizer news.
4,0 / 5,0 | 
We’ve got a little bit of everything this week: Roland AI, Eurorack, a MIDI computer from Japan, new experimental weirdness from Herbs and Stones, and a shockingly expensive synth from Iceland.
Synth Journal
Roland AI: Tone Explorer
Are you sick of hearing about AI yet? I go back and forth. This week I’m back to intrigued as it seems like big companies like Google are finding ways to do interesting things with it, not just try to part me from my cash.
The latest company to roll out the artificial intelligence is Roland. What does Roland AI look like? It’s called Tone Explorer and it’s a “technology preview” from the company’s own AI department, Roland Future Design Lab. The new feature is part of Galaxias, the company’s Roland plugin host VST, and can help you find the right sound to go with a MIDI part when connected to Zenology Pro.
If you have a Roland Cloud Ultimate subscription, you can try out Roland AI now. If you’re not a Cloud subscriber, you can sign up for a three-month preview (link below).
- Roland AI home page
- Preview signup page
Make Noise Spectraphon Firmware Update
Make Noise has released new firmware for Spectraphon, the company’s dual digital oscillator module. We first wrote about it during Superbooth 2023.
The update (technically firmware version sp76) adds linear array modulation, a new ramp LFO shape on sub/CV outputs, and an increase to eight seconds for the minimum clock rate on the CV output LFO.
Head to the Make Noise site (link below) to get your update.
- Make Noise Spectrophon firmware download page
- Make Noise Spectraphon product page
Genki Katla
Oh, so many questions. Katla is a new boutique synthesizer from the Icelandic company Genki (which coincidentally means “lively” in Japanese). There’s no audio demo on the site. The video and audio links appear to be broken. However, there’s lots of exciting explanation on the site, like, “KATLA’s digilog sound engine mimics the crackling of lava, rumble of seismic activity, and eerie silence of the glacier above” and “Like nature itself, KATLA will not be contained or mastered, only experienced.” Now I really want to hear it.
Katla is apparently inspired by a volcano in Iceland with the same name. Katla also means “kettle” in Icelandic. While we may not know how it sounds, we do know how it looks: gorgeous. Yes, those are basalt side panels. It’s also got four oscillators, a sub, two envelopes, an analog filter with highpass and lowpass sections plus an LFO, stereo image processor, drive, a spring reverb, and a “Katla” section.
The catch? Katla costs €4990! Genki is taking orders now with the next batch shipping in Q3 2025. Wild that people have bought it without even hearing it!
- Genki home page
Light Reft Monolit MIDI Computer
Monolit is a MIDI computer from Japanese company Light Reft. Like Black Corporation, Light Reft seems to be based in Japan but not run by Japanese nationals. Kind of a unique situation, that.
Monolit is a boutique device so it’s not cheap ($750). However, it is beautifully made and lovely to look at. It works with hardware and DAWs, has customizable presets – each one offering eight banks, with eight sliders and eight buttons per bank – and an intuitive interface. According to the site, “you can record MIDI automation, set delay times for slider movements, send notes and LFOs, and adjust various parameters directly within the device.”
Light Reft is accepting pre-orders now for new devices expected to ship in November or December this year.
- Light Reft home page
The Oscillator Company Extend-o-Matic
Extend-o-Matic is a hybrid polyphonic synth/digital electric piano/chord player now on Kickstarter. It’s kind of an unusual instrument and with its black livery and white print, it reminds me of a late-‘80s digital synth like the Kawai K1.
The synth engine is subtractive digital, with “warm, vintage-style sounds ideal for lush pads, vibrant leads and deep basses.” I’m guessing virtual analog then. The piano engine, on the other hand, emulates a number of (unnamed) popular classic electric pianos. It’s got effects and a 12dB and 24dB/Oct resonant filter but the real selling point is the chord bank. “The instrument’s 12 assignable chord buttons make it easier to play complex extended chords which typically demand substantial muscle memory to play in succession,” the campaign page says.
The Oscillator Company Extend-o-Matic is a unique-looking device with pledges starting at $979.
- The Oscillator Company Extend-o-Matic Kickstarter page
Herbs and Stones Mousse
Our last entry for this week is a new experimental synth from Herbs and Stones called Mousse. Noise musicians, ambient heads, experimental musos – this is for you.
There’s not much information yet, just what was included in the description on the YouTube video (above). According to the company, Mousse is a “dual desktop modular groovebox.” It has two complex modulation sources, two sequencers, two envelope generators and two hybrid voices.
No pricing information yet but it looks like lots of weird, wild fun.
- Herbs and Stones home page
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5 responses to “Roland AI, Light Reft Monolit MIDI Computer, Genki Katla Is a REALLY Expensive Synthesizer, More: Synth Journal”
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No offence, but I read “looks good” in one form or another at some points in this article. I know art lies in the art of the beholder, but we are talking about boxes with knobs and faders here. Exactly zero of any electronic instrument ever fit the description of being beautiful, imho. Less ugly maybe, but I wouldn’t hold my breath seeing a synth or controller ate the Guggenheim any time soon. Jyst my 2c,
Hmmm Roland AI teminds me a LOT of XLN XO…
Will Roland AI write the missing firmware updates for myriad devices? Gotta laugh, AI is about as useful as polystyrene tyre. If no tunes had ever been made, recorded, mixed and mastered by other methods, then it might have a point. But in the time taken for them all to realise that, they could learned how to do it properly five times over. The joke around here is that they only need AI ‘cos they’ve got no real intelligence of their own. Carry on Roland, AI it to death, cloud VST it to death, you’re doing a great job of making yourselves dinosaur-looking.
I stopped the car in a strange town. ‘Excuse me’, I asked a pedestrian, ‘are you local, I’m looking for the High Street’. About 30 years old, he replied, ‘yes I’m local but I’ve never heard of the High Street’. I enquired ‘then how do you find the shops?’. ‘Oh’, he said, ‘I have a personal pedestrian satnav that guides me everywhere’. I smiled and said, ‘oh ok, thanks anyway, and by the way, you’re supposed to put your pants and underpants BEFORE you leave the house on a morning’
It’s the 1st of January 2039. All music is now made, mixed, mastered, packaged, released and marketed by Enola, the AI music machine. Musicians, mixing, mastering, recording engineers are a thing of the past, along with DAW and plugin makers, synth and instrument manufacturers, record labels and music venues. Somewhere in Northern England, there are rumoured to be the very last people on Planet Earth who make their own music, using the archaic techniques of playing or sequencing sounds and recording them. Number one this week is an Enola remix of the Electronicas’ Birdie Song, AI’d to the style of Stevie Wonder, which has 4.3 billion downloads already, most of them directly to subscibers of Musk’s Replacement Brain chip implantees. Behold! Wot I have done! I’ve made a better world for everyone!