UDO Audio DMNO

Good looks and an original approach to synthesis are quickly becoming UDO’s hallmarks, and their latest instrument, the DMNO, is no exception.

UDO’s latest flagship synthesizer combines familiar elements from classic synths (the Oberheim Two Voice, if you haven’t spotted it already) with modern upgrades like binaural FPGA oscillators and impeccable industrial design. But does it really offer anything we haven’t seen before?

UDO are still a relatively new company in the synthesizer world. They came flying out of the gate in 2020 with their Jupiter‑inspired Super 6, which has proven to be a very popular instrument. A desktop version and the dual‑engine Super Gemini followed on.

The DMNO is the first non‑Super synth from UDO. It follows their design philosophy of honouring a particular vintage synth as a starting point, then taking it much further.

In this case, UDO have borrowed the basic design from the Oberheim Two Voice. You can see the familiar layout in the two identical modules on the front panel (known as DMNO 1 and DMNO 2). You’d be forgiven for thinking that the DMNO is a two‑voice analogue synthesizer, then, but you’d be wrong.

In fact — deep breath — the DMNO is an eight‑voice, bi‑timbral, analogue hybrid comprising two four‑voice modules with a binaural (stereo to you and me) signal path. Enabling binaural mode halves the polyphony from four per DMNO to two ‘super voices’. So you get four voices in total, since half are used for the extra channel. The oscillators and effects are digital, and everything in between — filters, drive and VCA — is analogue. There is also an arpeggiator and even a built‑in stereo in/out USB audio interface.

The DMNO Effect

The DMNO comes in two colour choices, white or black. The white offers the classic Oberheim cream colour, whilst the black is more of a sleek modern dark grey. There’s a 44‑note Fatar keyboard with channel aftertouch (no poly aftertouch). The combined modulation wheel and pitch bender are the same Juno‑inspired stick combo found on the Super 6.

The build quality, you can tell just by looking, is exemplary. Zero wobble on anything, consistent ‘feel’ to all the controls, satisfying clicks on buttons and encoders. The whole package is premium.

Unlike the Supers before it, the DMNO adds a screen. UDO didn’t just throw in an OLED or LCD screen like everyone else. This is a rather beautiful electroluminescent vacuum fluorescent display (VFD for short), and it looks rather sexy. Fret not, because this doesn’t mean there is endless menu‑diving. UDO have retained their commitment to hands‑on, old‑school sound‑design programming wherever possible.

The screen updates to show more info on the parameter you’re editing, and often shows related parameters too. One thing I particularly appreciated is the marker that shows you the currently saved value of that parameter, so that you always know what the parameter was set to when you last loaded a preset. It makes it much easier to deal with the fact that the front panel doesn’t always match the current state of things. For the true purists, there’s a Manual mode that uses the current state of every front‑panel control, like an old‑school, no‑preset synthesizer.

Voice Count

If you are wondering how two four‑voice units stack together to make one synth, UDO’s response would be ‘any way you like’. Play mode means you can spend the DMNO’s eight voices in different ways: a four‑note unison stack with four oscillators per voice, two four‑voice bi‑timbral synths sharing the keyboard, a serial four‑voice with both modules cascaded into each other, or a generative instrument where voices and notes can be randomised.

Within each DMNO module, the voices can be configured to work in poly, mono, mono legato and unison modes. The unison modes have some handy shortcuts for octave stacking, fifths, and even a major chord (but strangely no corresponding minor).

A sound created for a single unit is called a Patch, whilst the two together (plus performance section, arp, mixer and effects) is a Performance. There are 128 rewritable preset slots for each, and the factory patches do an excellent job of showcasing the synth. The factory presets are adorned with convincing overdriven organs, deep supersaws, brassy polysynths, heat‑warped pads, sciency arpeggios, magnificent strings and juicy basses. I would have liked to see more preset slots, purely because this synth is so versatile.

Also available in black, the DMNO measures 780 x 380 x 115mm and weighs in at 8.5kg.

Oscillators

Each DMNO module has two FPGA‑based DDS oscillators per voice. Inherited from the Super 6, they produce a clean, alias‑free signal. UDO’s Super Waveform core brings six sister oscillators that can be dynamically phase‑shifted and detuned across the stereo field. It’s the same trick that gives the Super 6 and Super Gemini their stereo signature, and it works just as well here.

Waveform‑wise, you get the standard set — sine, sawtooth, square, pulse, triangle and white noise — plus a library of 32 user‑configurable single‑cycle waveforms, six of which can be loaded into Osc 1’s front‑panel slots and three into Osc 2’s at any one time. Osc 2 also offers three non‑keyboard‑tracked waveforms, drones, sync and cross‑mod tricks. A switch between the two handles hard sync in either direction (something you don’t often see!).

From the front panel, the oscillators can be modulated in basic ways: envelope 1 or LFO 1 can be assigned to waveshape (either as pulse‑width modulation or as a crossfade between adjacent shapes) and pitch. If you want more, you can employ the seven‑slot modulation matrix. Variable cross‑modulation is also possible here. You can set the cross‑mod to work both ways, so the two oscillators modulate each other recursively, which sounds rather wonderful.

Each DMNO module has a simple mixer that lets you balance the two oscillators (and overdrive them nicely when the knob is pushed past its central point). DMNO 1 adds an External audio input, and DMNO 2 adds audio coming from DMNO 1 when the two are set to work in series.

Filters

The filter section is a dual‑core analogue OTA design, with each voice carrying two filter cores that can be configured in stereo, parallel or series. The default is stereo, which gives the binaural signal path its per‑voice width; the parallel and series options turn binaural off, freeing the two cores for more conventional layering or stacking instead.

You can pick from low‑pass, high‑pass, band‑pass and all‑pass shapes, plus a delicious‑sounding four‑pole phase‑shifter, with selectable slopes from one to four poles depending on the type. You can also pick combinations: a single‑pole low‑pass alongside a three‑pole high‑pass for a band‑pass with sloped edges, two band‑passes stacked for a vocal‑formant filter, and so on. There are 20‑odd combinations across the three routings.

Resonance has two flavours: one that compensates for the low‑frequency loss you’d otherwise hear as you push the resonance up, and one that lets the bottom drop out in the classic vintage manner. All filter types are capable of self‑oscillation, and keyboard tracking can turn that self‑oscillation into a playable pitched tone. The Delta Cutoff control spreads the two filter peaks apart within each voice, opening up parallel or stereo separation.

Modulation is handled by a dedicated cutoff control with three sources to choose from: Env 1, LFO 1 or Osc 2 — the last of which gives you audio‑rate FM straight from the front panel.

Modulation

There are three envelopes per voice. Env 1 is a five‑stage HADSR routed by default to oscillator pitch and filter cutoff. Env 2 is a four‑stage ADSR feeding the VCA. Env 3 lives in the voice menu rather than on the panel, and is reachable through the modulation matrix. Env 1 and Env 3 both offer normal, inverted and loop modes.

The VCA’s modulation source is switchable. By default, it’s driven by Env 2, but a three‑position switch lets you swap Env 2 for Env 3, or set it to hold open while an external audio signal modulates the level. Handy for side‑chaining the DMNO from a drum machine, or similar.

LFO 1 sits on each synth module’s front panel and runs per voice. With binaural on, each Super Voice gets an LFO offset for left and right channels. It covers sub‑Hz up to 10kHz, so it is more than capable of audio‑rate modulation. There are eight waveforms plus two user slots to pick from. Two high‑frequency modes turn it into either a free‑running drone source, or a keyboard‑tracked third sine‑wave oscillator that sums into either osc channel. It can be free‑running, key‑reset, or one‑shot, and clock sync is, of course, available.

LFO 2 lives in the Performance section to the left of the keyboard and feeds the pitch, VCA and filter from a separate pair of sliders. Its trigger is the bender’s vertical travel (which passes for a mod wheel) with options for aftertouch or always‑on, which puts it under the fingers for hand‑on vibrato; a rate‑mod fader lets that same pressure or aftertouch increase the LFO speed as you push harder. The waveform set is slimmer than LFO 1’s — triangle, sawtooth, sample & hold, square, ramp and noise — and routing LFO 2 through the modulation matrix makes it polyphonic, with each voice getting its own copy.

The Performance section also includes portamento controls to set glide time. A second spring‑loaded toggle handles octave shifts for the keyboard, and Shift turns that same toggle into a global transpose of ±12 semitones.

A three‑position module‑selection switch governs which module the performance controls affect — DMNO 1, DMNO 2 or both. That means the two modules can be played with completely different expressive behaviour.

The modulation matrix opens up routings beyond what the front‑panel switches can reach. Each module has its own matrix of seven freely assignable slots, with 10 sources to pick from (the two LFOs, two envelopes, velocity, channel aftertouch, expression pedal, oscillator 2, the envelope follower, and note number) and 15 destinations including filter cutoff, Delta cutoff, envelope 1’s attack and decay times, oscillator mix levels and cross‑mod, oscillator 1’s waveform, delay time, and the VCA level itself. Modulation amounts are bipolar, so a negative value flips the source’s effect.

Two predefined routings sit alongside the freely assignable slots, pre‑wired and ready to dial in: bender position controls oscillator pitch (with depth adjustable up to ±12 semitones) and filter cutoff, and velocity controls both the VCA and filter envelope depths. You can adjust the amounts on these without using a valuable mod slot.

As modulation matrices go, this isn’t too sophisticated. There is no way to modulate the amount of any given matrix slot by a third modulation source, for example. And the limit of seven slots might leave a more adventurous sound designer short. However, the DMNO has so many hard‑wired modulation routings elsewhere that these limitations seem acceptable. And don’t forget, there are two DMNOs, so you get 14 slots in a Performance, even if they are isolated from each other.

Effects

The mixer section gives each DMNO module its own level, pan and effect send control, plus a master volume that’s deliberately not saved with patches. Each DMNO runs through its own chain of insert effects: a drive stage, a lush multi‑mode chorus and a three‑band EQ with a parametric mid. That signal can then be sent to the shared send effects.

The sends are a clock‑sync’ed delay (with divisions from 1/32 to 1/1, including triplets and dotted notes) and a reverb with fairly standard size, damping, low‑cut, pre‑delay and width controls. A connected footswitch can freeze the delay buffer for sound‑on‑sound looping during performance.

The effects sound good, but they’re basic. I would have liked to see an option to organise the send effects in series (either delay into reverb or vice versa), but that does not seem possible. And another slight oddity is that the sends are pre‑fader (or pre‑knob in this case). So if you send a DMNO to the reverb, then reduce its volume to zero, you still hear it in the reverb return. There may be an underlying technical reason for the current implementation, especially given the complexity of the routing options; however, post‑fader effects sends are far more common and useful in synthesizer land.

Arpeggiator

Each module has its own arpeggiator, so the two can run at different rates or note divisions for polymetric patterns. The standard playback modes are present, with an octave range from one to four and clock divisions from a whole note down to 32nd notes. Swing is available, but only in four strengths. Tempo can be derived from either the internal clock or MIDI Clock.

The front‑panel button that accesses the arpeggiator is labelled ‘ARP/SEQ’. At the time of writing there is no sequencer, but UDO say it’s planned for a future update, hopefully later this year. They also say that the promised MPE compatibility will be along soon as well, potentially in the same update.

In Use

It’s difficult to summarise exactly what the DMNO is. It’s a polysynth, yet it often doesn’t feel like one. It’s partly analogue, but it goes beyond that. It feels like a traditional synth — until you use it. The core concept of having two DMNO modules that are mostly independent, yet can play together in a variety of ways, makes it modular without being classically so. In summary, then, it’s a chameleon.

One minute it can be doing disgustingly huge basses and leads in Dual mode with Unison enabled, and Super Waveform detune (if I’m not wrong, you can end up with over 100 oscillators this way). Next, it might be a generative instrument using Random and Chaos Play Modes, scattering notes between modules. Or perhaps you put the DMNOs in series for FM‑style complex cross‑modulation tones and stacked dual filtering. Or assign each DMNO a separate MIDI channel, forming two completely independent four‑voice synthesizers with their own stereo outputs. You can start to see just how flexible (and just a little bit daunting) the DMNO can be.

At the beginning of the review, I mentioned its glaring resemblance to the Oberheim Two Voice. But you may have noticed, dear reader, that I didn’t make any comparisons during the body of the review. That’s because, to my ears, the DMNO doesn’t have the character that might instantly scream Oberheim SEM to you. The recognisable squelchy filter isn’t there, for a start, and there are so many other differences that comparing the two becomes meaningless. Aside from the front‑panel layout, the DMNO is very much its own thing.

I had the most fun with the DMNO while experimenting. “I wonder what happens if...” was a refrain that often popped into my head. You might create a nice sound on DMNO 1, load a factory patch into DMNO 2, and try out the different Play modes to see how they interact with each other. There are plenty of handy tools to help you with this kind of experimentation, too, like the ability to copy, paste and swap DMNOs.

All of this flexibility and ‘what if’ mentality is great, but it does come at a cost. If you walk up to the DMNO and require a simple Juno bass sound, there can be some head‑scratching involved. There’s no way to tell from the front panel which polyphony mode you’re in or what your gain staging is. So there’s often basic housekeeping to be done before you know where you are. To be fair, that’s a problem that many modern ‘knobby’ synthesizers have — the front panel doesn’t match the current sound. It’s more noticeable here because of the high level of flexibility.

UDO have taken some risks with such an adventurous design, and they’ve paid off.

UDO’s Super 6 had a simple premise... what if we took the classic Roland Juno approach to hands‑on, simple synthesis and dragged it into the modern world? The DMNO is, in some ways, an extension of that. The binaural heart has transferred over without much modification, but it’s presented in a very different way that encourages experimentation and rewards you with the kind of flexibility you can only get from two or three synthesizers combined. It’s a bold and interesting approach. UDO have taken some risks with such an adventurous design, and they’ve paid off.