Synthesizers

The Arturia PolyBrute is a powerful 6-voice polyphonic analog synthesizer with powerful morphing capabilities and multi-axis performance controls for next-generation musical expression. The PolyBrute is designed for music producers, sound designers, performing musicians, or anyone looking to explore sound in perpetual motion.

The morph function allows a sound to exist in two states (A and B) within a single preset, with seamless morphing between them. In fact, you can copy any A or B component of a preset to what you are currently editing, making for fast and easy sonic transformations. Coupled with the Morphee three-dimensional performance touchpad, and you've got intricate morphing expression right at your fingertips. Manipulate any facet of PolyBrute's sound, from delicate morphing to extreme dynamic shifts, across the X, Y, and Z axis in an instant.

The PolyBrute's architecture starts with two Brute waveshaping oscillators capable of a wide pallet of timbral versatility. Both oscillators generate three basic waveforms (sawtooth, triangle, and square with pulse-width control), which can be mixed creating unusual and harmonically rich tones. Anything can be created from airy pads to snarling bass riffs. VCO2 also includes a sine wave sub-oscillator that runs an octave below the fundamental pitch. There are various FM capabilities as well as hard- and soft-sync options creating even more dynamically diverse tones. Additionally, a noise generator can be added to the mix and features a knob for dialing any color from red noise with its darker rumble to white noise with its crisp, multispectral character.

The filter section sports a continuously variable 12 dB Steiner Parker filter with low-pass, high-pass, and bandpass, and a classic 24 dB low-pass ladder filter with gain compensation, which prevents the reduction of lower frequencies that accompany higher resonance levels. Filter 1 includes the famous Arturia Brute Factor feedback filter for warming up the low end and producing monster growls, while the distortion circuit of Filter 2 controls the ladder filter's feed into the VCA.

The FANTOM-7 76-Note Workstation Keyboard from Roland is the latest addition to their workstation line up. It is designed as a kind of creative hub made for rapid production and expressive performance. Built to inspire on-board production to deliver authentic acoustic and electronic sounds, it is equipped with an expandable sound engine that delivers depth, control, and tools for deep computer integration with the ability to combine and shape them in exciting new ways. It can be used for live stage, theater, and recording applications.

FANTOM runs multiple synthesis technologies simultaneously for both modern and classic sounds. You can also sample your own sounds and trigger the internal memory with up to 2 GB worth of loops and one-shots from the pad matrix. FANTOM has plenty of knobs and sliders for intuitive control. There are levers, wheels, pedals, and aftertouch; with FANTOM, you can use any or all of them.

The powerful and deep AIRA SYSTEM-8 from Roland delivers a vast pallet of sounds inspired by over four decades of legendary Roland synths. The cutting-edge Analog Circuit Behavior (ACB) engine provides an eight-voice, 3-oscillator synth with multiple filters, effects, versatile LFOs, and a wide array of high-resolution controllers to control it all.

The SYSTEM-8 supports up to three Plug-Out synthesizers and ships with the classic Juno-106 and Jupiter-8 synthesizers. The 49-key velocity-sensitive keyboard can be split and layered for never-before heard sounds. The keyboard offers MIDI/audio connections via USB. Other features include an integrated vocoder, advanced polyphonic sequencer (TR-Rec style), arpeggiator, CV/Gate outputs, and polyphonic chord memory. The SYSTEM-8 ships with a power adapter.