Synthesizers

Musician, sound designer, educator and all‑round electronic sound sorceress, Lisa Bella Donna has built a reputation for herself as one of the most eminent synthesists anywhere.

As part of Japan, Richard Barbieri soon became the thinking person’s synthesist, famous for his rich and textural electronic backings that beautifully complemented the work of other band members to forge what is still a unique sound to this day.

The MiniFreak V is every bit as good as its hardware counterpart.

Arturia’s colourful soft synth goes from strength to strength.

Expressive E’s Osmose is a synthesizer like no other.

Cnōc and Cruïnn promise to bring something new to your modular system with their own distinct brands of Instruō ingenuity.

Klevgrand introduce a new take on wavetable synthesis.

Vector Wave is an extraordinarily playful multi‑levelled cluster oscillator with multiple modes, nuances, vector synthesis and FM algorithms.

Can Dreamtonics really deliver a session singer in software?

S‑CAT’s bespoke Bass‑Synth does exactly what it says on the tin...

The follow‑up to Pamela’s Workout sets the gold standard for clock division and rhythmic trigger generation all over again.

As the man behind the phenomenally successful British developer ALM/Busy Circuits, Matthew Allum speaks all things modular.

Slice records audio and plays it back as a loop. Being clockable means that in‑time stutter, ratchet and glitch effects are yours to command.

Graham Massey talks about his early days with the formation of 808 State and improvising with electronic instruments, through to current collaborations and favourite creative tools.

Californian start‑up Groove Synthesis haven’t just recreated the PPG Wave, they’ve made it even better.

Bastl’s Softpop SP2 reins in the chaos but is still a far from conventional synth.

Cherry Audio recreate that rarest of beasts, the Elka Synthex.

Now in its third decade, MetaSynth is still a synthesizer like no other, and its companion sequencer Xx follows the same path...

Comprised of an 18dB/octave three‑pole multi‑mode filter, a VCA, two different West Coast‑style wavefolders and a rectifier, at its mildest end the FIL4 very much does what it says on the tin: it sculpts timbre.

Based in The Hague, Netherlands, Jan Willem Hagenbeek is best known in the modular world as Ginkosynthese...

Back in November 2020 Don Lewis discussed his time programming the Yamaha DX7’s factory sounds. In the wake of Don’s passing, we decided to publish this excerpt and put on record his important contribution to this iconic synth.