Analogue Solutions Announces Nyborg-12 Monosynth Module
Developed by UK-based Analogue Solutions, Nyborg-12 couples the monophonic synthesizer with their SEM 12dB/octave multimode filter. The filter’s design is inspired from Tom Oberheim’s original 1974 SEM (Synthesizer Expander Module) synth.
As Analogue Solutions expresses, their sound’s difference lies in the ‘real analogue voice and modulation circuits’ that other synth manufacturers simply substitute with digital. Apart from the Nyborg-12’s MIDI to CV feature, users won’t find anything digital within this all-analogue synthesizer.
Double your pleasure with Nyborg-12’s pure analog construction.
The fully featured Nyborg-12 synth module from Analogue Solutions is available now for about $770 MSRP by today’s exchange rates. Here are more details from AS:
Nyborg-12 is absolutely analogue through and through, hand built (by humans) using real transistors and op-amps. Unlike other so-called analogue synths you’ll find no CPU-stabilised and quantised circuits, DCOs (Digitally-Controlled Oscillators), digital LFOs (Low Frequency Oscillators), or digital EGs (Envelope Generators) hiding here, thank you very much! Instead its circuitry is based on tried-and-tested, distinctive-sounding designs dating back to the mid-Seventies, so Nyborg-12 sounds suitably vintage in character. Cast aside those bland-sounding digital synths and DSP-based soft synths and dial in Nyborg-12 whenever fat basses, screaming leads, bleeps, zaps, and all manner of other sounds and effects associated with subtractive synthesis are the musical (and not-so-musical) order of the day (or night)!
Speaking of dials, Nyborg-12 boasts an abundance of high-quality, smooth potentiometers, fully sealed against dust intrusion, together with high-quality knobs with spun aluminium caps — all as appealing to look at as they are to turn! Two super-stable VCOs (Voltage-Controlled Oscillators) — each providing a whole host of options and MODULATION sources — are available to start turning the most adventurous analogue musical dreams into reality. Thereafter, Nyborg-12 continues to follow the traditional, well-trodden analogue synthesiser signal path with its distinctive-sounding 2-Pole 12dB/Octave MULTIMODE FILTER; AUDIO MIXER (VCO 1, VCO 2, NOISE/SUB); LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) with triangle and square wave modulation signals and MODE switch to route CV2 (velocity control voltage) or S+H (Sample and Hold) signals to that 2-Pole 12dB/Octave MULTIMODE FILTER or those VCOs; VCA (Voltage-Controlled Amplifier), controllable from EG2 or GATE with BYPASS option (allowing Nyborg-12 to be used as an external effects processor) and CYCLE setting (so the envelope is constantly re-triggered by the LFO, allowing for hands-off sound effects); and ENVELOPE 1 (VCF) and ENVELOPE 2 (VCA). As such, it should feel familiar to anyone with a modicum of subtractive synthesis skills… so much so, in fact, that reading of its accompanying user manual may only be necessary for finer operational detail: “Do not use a carwash or jet wash to clean this synth.” Surely as good advice as you’re going to get from anyone anywhere!
And speaking of communicating with the outside world, with an intentionally easy yet effective MIDI implementation — CUTOFF control of
Nyborg-12’s all-important 2-Pole 12dB/Octave MULTIMODE FILTER is available via MIDI velocity or a MIDI controller — and external CV (Control Voltage) sockets for PITCH1 (VCO), PITCH2 (VCO), CUTOFF (filter), GATE (to trigger the EGs), and EXT (for feeding an external CV to various circuits), DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) integration or working with an analogue step sequencer (such as Analogue Solutions’ own Oberkorn) is a breeze. Better still, simultaneous MIDI and CV operation is possible, so users could, for example, use an Oberkorn to play a little melody then transpose that step sequence using a MIDI keyboard controller (or MIDI sequencer). Child’s play? Perhaps.
Note Nyborg-12 can be user configured in various ways to save space to suit. Shipping as a vertically-orientated standalone monosynth module (much like its bigger brother, the Telemark), it is possible to rotate Nyborg-12’s front panel so that it can be used horizontally as a desktop device. Optional wooden side panels can be screwed to a single Nyborg-12 (from its inside so no ugly screws are visible) or to two Nyborg-12s that have been bolted together. It is also possible to rack-mount two Nyborg-12s that have been bolted together using the optional matching rack ears. Either way, Nyborg-12’s modified software allows two Nyborg-12s to be poly-chained together to play as a single two-voice polysynth. Four-voice polyphony is also available upon request for those looking to really push the boat out and purchase four Nyborg-12s, though one Nyborg-12 is still a very versatile, super-sounding, space-saving standalone monosynth module in itself. One that will serve any adventurous analogue renaissance man, woman, or child well for many years to come.