I think the guy from Modal is quite proud of what their little box can do. It's nice to see. Nick gets to play with so much cool gear it's probably hard to impress him at times.
Premium digital volca?... SOLD. Bigs ups to Modal for being "geniuses of obviousness" and making a face cover for it. THANK YOU SO MUCH. I'm pretty excited about this.
A tech host needs to be pushy of the reps to keep the details coming or else they will just blather on, not even forming words. It's an old trick and a good one.
I agree that it's much better when Nick has had a chance to play around with a synth and give his own opinion and insights, in his own way. But I guess it's not always possible to do this and this isn't quite the finished product anyway. Either way, there are a growing number who appreciate your shirts, Nick!
It looks really pretty, but there seem to be some odd design choices here. 8 oscillators per voice, but only 4 voices... would have been nice to have more poly! Lots of mod routing, but just two LFOs. And why have that much bass rolloff on a virtual filter? I wonder if you can feed a sine sub-octave or fundamental past the VCF? Micromonsta is similar money, but seems more flexible.
albedo0point39 totaly, 8 osc per voice with only 4 voices is overkill and under kill all in the same box. What an oxymoron of a synth. Its not bad though.
Amazing price and great sounds! I see this selling incredibly well.Thank god for the proper midi. The included cover is super cool. Like stated this would totally get thrown in the backpack and that’s completely unique for me.That panel layout doesn’t make sense to me, though. I’m trying to justify it like it will make you think different or something, but I would honestly just put an overlay on it so that the knob labels would be properly oriented. Thanks for sharing, I’ve been really curious about this one!
O.M.G. Think Im in love! Thanks Nick - instabuy! Must add, form factor is PERFECT for me and an actual synth that can replace my mpk mini2 on a cluttered desk space!
For me, the second half of the review is where it's at. The regular synth stuff is fine but that delay and distortion (and the LFO tracking and FM) would make this a very cool sound design tool.
This sounds excellent! One of my favorite features on the 008 is a "Constant" mode for the filter- Compensating for the low end loss when the resonance is cranked up. It would be excellent for Modal to model that on the Skulpt. Either way- for ~$300 it's going to be a great little piece.
I can't wait for this. Modal's oscillators sound so damn good. This will add a nice little touch to my small-synth station (Digitone and OP-1). Love stuff like this. Great price, too!
Object Audio really, I was ready to part with £1600 for a 001 in my local store and it was horrific, operating system kept crashing and it was sent away for repair and never returned!
Sounds nice and I love the form factor, but the filter doesn’t have as much flavor as I’d like. Price point is solid too. Still, I already have a Micromonsta so I think I might pass this up, even if I’d love a synth that sounds this good to carry around with me.
I have never understood the role of in-phase unison mode, surely only useful if every oscillator is detuned. Detuning 32 oscillators will give a big spread of fundamentals that will sound a mess , please explain this to me
James Reeno a point well , if the unison mode is in phase all that happens is the volume increases. If the wave shapes are different the effect is the same as you can achieve with mixing the waves so what is the point? The 1st time I saw unison was in a Jupiter 6 in 1988 and it was like mono mode . I wondered then what for is this mode? If the addition was not volume limited you may achieve some sort of over drive but the volume is limited , so why? I suspect it is like a cigarette lighter in a modern car , present because it always has been present. I know people use a cigarette lighter socket as a power point but unison mode is even less useful than a cigarette lighter socket !
Weird Music, I didn’t note any evidence of detuning in unison mode so perhaps a useless feature. Actually how do you know unison mode is working? Other than a change in loudness? I can achieve the same thing in mono mode by turning up the volume knob
I was guessing about right on the price. I was thinking it’d be nice if it hit a $200-$250 price point, but guessed it’d more likely be $350 - $400 max. Glad they aren’t overcharging for it. It certainly provides a very reasonable alternative to something like Behringer neutron. Of course apples to oranges, digital vs analog ...but they nailed the analog modeling with this. Sounds even better than the neutron to my ears.
The fidelity of filter modulation from that LFO is ace. Need to support folks making digital better like this rather than falling back on all the fetishization of analog that's out there right now. Good stuff, especially for the expected price.
Modal definitely know how to get a good sound out of digital. Wish it had a stereo spread, but it is pretty fantastic for the price and you can't have everything. Nothing a little stereo chorus won't fix. I might consider this for my live rig. It would fit in quite unobtrusively and give me some different pad sounds.
Yeah because he's not supposed to say everything himself, he wants the dude on the left to say more about it. Maybe it just didn't excite Nick that much but Nick felt like he couldn't criticize it front of the engineer. I would feel bad too if i were one of the best reviewers and i had to dislike a feature or two front of my guest or in this case maybe a client or co-host. My sole observations. Maybe Nick skipped coffee and is a bit grumpy, haha, joking, let's not overanalyze people and enjoy the review.
Just Another I agree, but I wouldn't say this is a good example of "that digital sound." They could have done something cool - wavetables, samples, etc - but they made it a VA. Just digital emulating analog, standard waves and everything. I like digital and hybrid synths, but mostly when they do things you can only get with digital
This is cool. Still wish they'd release VST control for 002. That's the only thing thats held me back from buying one since release. Well, that and compulsively buying other synths.
While I quite like the sound of this, I'm not so sure about the look and the integrated keyboard. I most certainly am excited about the current trend for more portable sub-£300 synths on the market. Now I'm just waiting for the right one to sweep me of my feet.
Serious question time, is it possible to adjust the oscillator to voice ratio with a software update? More voices with fewer oscillators per voice would be good.
Nick is looking for some distinctive bottom end. Couldn't find it in this round. I sure didn't hear it. Also, the filter seems pretty pedestrian. Time will tell.
Let's hope that component shortages that delayed the Modal Craft Rhythm delivery date don't affect the pre-Christmas availability for this. As with the Craft Rhythm I shall not be adding this to my set-up. By " sub three hundred bucks" I am taking that as around £275 which is too much for something like this, and it will be around that taking into account VAT I imagine. Seems all you have to do is substitute £ for $ or € when you see the prices irrespective of the exchange rate!. As far as I am concerned Modal peaked with the Craft synth, just my opinion though. Totally get that there is Modal brand loyalty out there. I wish Modal every success, but this just not for me. The IK Multimedia Uno has a more appealing spec and form factor IMHO, and I can live with the alternative MIDI connections using adaptor cables, and the price is very attractive too.
So the issue is carrying four different mini key synths versus one and a full key controller. Already own a microKorg and its great...through a tube amp. I travel and trying to minimize what I carry onto a plane. I also would like to stop carrying my TX7.
You need a magnifying glass if you want to edit sound ... Maybe also packed in the box. Why making these products always so small .... Anyway... Sounds great !
Daniel Davis the A4 is one of my favorite also because of its layout. My #1 go to synth today is my Prophet 12 because it can do just about anything I throw at it and it can sounds very different then any other analog synth I own. The more poly the better.
It looks like it's a more than capable little synth but for synth and music enthusiasts which already have a collection of synths ...? I don't know .. I have a MS-20 mini and a Blofeld and I'm not really interested in this thing
Dacci Pucci its not the quality that makes it so you can tell...itis the sterile audio nature of the oscillators....now with effects it could sound better
Weird Music Judging a synth before it has even been released and you had a chance to test it yourself is just unprofessional. You can’t possibly tell which of these sounds „better“ (whatever that means) at this point. At least wait until they have been built before you make your claim ;)
Dacci Puiveo im not talking about the style of patches presented, if i judged it based on that you are correct....but the overall character of the synth is what I am talking about, which you can tell early on with synths....if it was a sampler then I would also agree with you say for instance the Prophet X or if you want to call it a sampler the Quantum....those I couldn't judge until in my hands so to speak.
The demo guy keeps looking for Nick to be visibly impressed and he's just like "okay..."
I think the guy from Modal is quite proud of what their little box can do. It's nice to see. Nick gets to play with so much cool gear it's probably hard to impress him at times.
Premium digital volca?... SOLD. Bigs ups to Modal for being "geniuses of obviousness" and making a face cover for it. THANK YOU SO MUCH. I'm pretty excited about this.
at least someone 'gets it...' :)
"DAD! let me do my demo!"
Chronovengers I know. Modal never lets Nick play.
A little snobby on this guy for some reason?
So annoying
He didn't seem like he had a demo script in mind, so looks like he needed some direction and prodding from Nick.
Exactly man
Nick - you seemed a little...impatient in this demo. :) Although I'd rather if it was just you going through the machine.
Did I? we had a lot to cover and Luke is an engineer, not a product demo guy so I was driving a little to get through it
I like when you're impatient or discerning. It's like I'm watching a consumer report, rather than just a commercial.
A tech host needs to be pushy of the reps to keep the details coming or else they will just blather on, not even forming words. It's an old trick and a good one.
I agree that it's much better when Nick has had a chance to play around with a synth and give his own opinion and insights, in his own way. But I guess it's not always possible to do this and this isn't quite the finished product anyway. Either way, there are a growing number who appreciate your shirts, Nick!
Watch that level.
Serious sample fodder :D
This is one of the best sounding digital synths I've ever heard!
It looks really pretty, but there seem to be some odd design choices here. 8 oscillators per voice, but only 4 voices... would have been nice to have more poly! Lots of mod routing, but just two LFOs. And why have that much bass rolloff on a virtual filter? I wonder if you can feed a sine sub-octave or fundamental past the VCF?
Micromonsta is similar money, but seems more flexible.
albedo0point39 totaly, 8 osc per voice with only 4 voices is overkill and under kill all in the same box. What an oxymoron of a synth. Its not bad though.
Perhaps they could change that in firmware since it's all DSP
DickBurns Yeah, would be great with selectable 8-voice 4 osc or even 16-voice 2 osc.
Amazing price and great sounds! I see this selling incredibly well.Thank god for the proper midi. The included cover is super cool. Like stated this would totally get thrown in the backpack and that’s completely unique for me.That panel layout doesn’t make sense to me, though. I’m trying to justify it like it will make you think different or something, but I would honestly just put an overlay on it so that the knob labels would be properly oriented. Thanks for sharing, I’ve been really curious about this one!
Interesting synth for the money. Nick seemed a bit off-kilter to me in this video - hope all's well.
I felt the same way. Perhaps he just wasn't that excited for this piece of gear :)
Yes, and that random notes playing is so lame !
Everyone here seems to agree. I think he was aggravated about the volume.
O.M.G. Think Im in love! Thanks Nick - instabuy! Must add, form factor is PERFECT for me and an actual synth that can replace my mpk mini2 on a cluttered desk space!
For me, the second half of the review is where it's at. The regular synth stuff is fine but that delay and distortion (and the LFO tracking and FM) would make this a very cool sound design tool.
Even in 2021 SOLD - just ordered thank you MODAL and SonicState.
For less than $300 this thing is sounding pretty dang good with loads of features. I'm intrigued by the FM capabilities.
Well done, Nick. THANK YOU for 5-pin Midi on such a small device.
Whats better? the synth or Nicks shirt?
Watch that level 😄 Nice synth, sounds pretty promising.
I will take that see-through model!
15.49: Looking out a dirty old window. Down below the cars in the city go rushing by. I sit here alone and I wonder why... :D
Ah! I thought the same.
This sounds excellent! One of my favorite features on the 008 is a "Constant" mode for the filter- Compensating for the low end loss when the resonance is cranked up. It would be excellent for Modal to model that on the Skulpt. Either way- for ~$300 it's going to be a great little piece.
I can't wait for this. Modal's oscillators sound so damn good. This will add a nice little touch to my small-synth station (Digitone and OP-1). Love stuff like this. Great price, too!
Love the look. if its from Modal it going to be good
Object Audio really, I was ready to part with £1600 for a 001 in my local store and it was horrific, operating system kept crashing and it was sent away for repair and never returned!
looks amazing. Good to see someone pushing DSP more.
sounds pretty fab for that price point.
Sounds nice and I love the form factor, but the filter doesn’t have as much flavor as I’d like. Price point is solid too. Still, I already have a Micromonsta so I think I might pass this up, even if I’d love a synth that sounds this good to carry around with me.
Looks like a really cool little synth but not nearly as kewl as nick’s shirt....
I have never understood the role of in-phase unison mode, surely only useful if every oscillator is detuned. Detuning 32 oscillators will give a big spread of fundamentals that will sound a mess , please explain this to me
Anoop Sahal even 2 osc synths sound like shit in unison.
Anoop Sahal It still has out of phase unison though right? I forgot since watching the vid.
James Reeno a point well , if the unison mode is in phase all that happens is the volume increases. If the wave shapes are different the effect is the same as you can achieve with mixing the waves so what is the point? The 1st time I saw unison was in a Jupiter 6 in 1988 and it was like mono mode . I wondered then what for is this mode? If the addition was not volume limited you may achieve some sort of over drive but the volume is limited , so why?
I suspect it is like a cigarette lighter in a modern car , present because it always has been present. I know people use a cigarette lighter socket as a power point but unison mode is even less useful than a cigarette lighter socket !
Weird Music, I didn’t note any evidence of detuning in unison mode so perhaps a useless feature. Actually how do you know unison mode is working? Other than a change in loudness? I can achieve the same thing in mono mode by turning up the volume knob
The UI is driving my ocd crazy!
This sounded surprisingly good, for that price point. I'm impressed
This thing sounds lush. :)
I was guessing about right on the price. I was thinking it’d be nice if it hit a $200-$250 price point, but guessed it’d more likely be $350 - $400 max. Glad they aren’t overcharging for it. It certainly provides a very reasonable alternative to something like Behringer neutron. Of course apples to oranges, digital vs analog ...but they nailed the analog modeling with this. Sounds even better than the neutron to my ears.
“I like me a 4th pad” “absolutely”
What a beautiful shirt, Mr. Batt. Interesting synth.
Sounds great, I've already supported the kickstarter.
I could definitely see myself picking one of these up. Neat little gadget, and a decent price point to boot.
The fidelity of filter modulation from that LFO is ace.
Need to support folks making digital better like this rather than falling back on all the fetishization of analog that's out there right now. Good stuff, especially for the expected price.
Modal definitely know how to get a good sound out of digital.
Wish it had a stereo spread, but it is pretty fantastic for the price and you can't have everything. Nothing a little stereo chorus won't fix.
I might consider this for my live rig. It would fit in quite unobtrusively and give me some different pad sounds.
I really like the layout/interface on this thing... Seeing $300, is this accurate? Anyone know when they will go into production/become available?
Does Nick seem a bit grouchy in this video? I wonder what’s up.
k___g___ b___ And this was prior to the match. 😆
Phranque Peasant 🤣🤣🤣
I was gonna say, he seemed a bit cranky.
k___g___ b___
I’m loving his vacation style shirts
Yeah because he's not supposed to say everything himself, he wants the dude on the left to say more about it. Maybe it just didn't excite Nick that much but Nick felt like he couldn't criticize it front of the engineer. I would feel bad too if i were one of the best reviewers and i had to dislike a feature or two front of my guest or in this case maybe a client or co-host. My sole observations. Maybe Nick skipped coffee and is a bit grumpy, haha, joking, let's not overanalyze people and enjoy the review.
I love analog but sometimes you need that digital sound. This sounds amazing
Plays Live I take it you don't like it lol?
Just Another I agree, but I wouldn't say this is a good example of "that digital sound." They could have done something cool - wavetables, samples, etc - but they made it a VA. Just digital emulating analog, standard waves and everything.
I like digital and hybrid synths, but mostly when they do things you can only get with digital
That's pretty impressive. I like the looks of it too.
sounds amazing... but no mention how many envelopes, or if it will be a editor ?
Now this is something. I've been looking for a large, virtual analog type of synth. Perhaps, Skulpt is the answer instead?
nick knows exactly what we want to see and hear
Love The Sounds Out of This Well Done Modal
This is cool. Still wish they'd release VST control for 002. That's the only thing thats held me back from buying one since release. Well, that and compulsively buying other synths.
Would love to have the option of not losing bottom end with higher resonance.
Very exciting item. And sub-300.00?? Thanks for the demo - I didn't know about this one.
While I quite like the sound of this, I'm not so sure about the look and the integrated keyboard. I most certainly am excited about the current trend for more portable sub-£300 synths on the market. Now I'm just waiting for the right one to sweep me of my feet.
This looks like a fun little synth.
Serious question time, is it possible to adjust the oscillator to voice ratio with a software update? More voices with fewer oscillators per voice would be good.
Nick is looking for some distinctive bottom end. Couldn't find it in this round. I sure didn't hear it. Also, the filter seems pretty pedestrian. Time will tell.
“USB midi and power” imo deserves a graceful readjustment of a mans quiff
This is gonna be a sweet little synth
Any aliasing/foldback in the top octaves?
yeah but does it have pulse with modulation?
The kickstarter fully funded in less than 5 hours. Despite the negative comments, there's clearly interest in this.
Let's hope that component shortages that delayed the Modal Craft Rhythm delivery date don't affect the pre-Christmas availability for this. As with the Craft Rhythm I shall not be adding this to my set-up. By " sub three hundred bucks" I am taking that as around £275 which is too much for something like this, and it will be around that taking into account VAT I imagine. Seems all you have to do is substitute £ for $ or € when you see the prices irrespective of the exchange rate!. As far as I am concerned Modal peaked with the Craft synth, just my opinion though. Totally get that there is Modal brand loyalty out there. I wish Modal every success, but this just not for me. The IK Multimedia Uno has a more appealing spec and form factor IMHO, and I can live with the alternative MIDI connections using adaptor cables, and the price is very attractive too.
Nick - is it coming home?
No. It 'll be France again. No surprises here.
they lost to croatia... a winning game... they just handed it away... very sad
But I still see that mini from Korg
Or the analog four
Integration with DAW
It's multitimbral
Anyone know if it is polytimbral? Can I play one voice on one MIDI channel - and play the rest on another?
I think Modal need to slip Nick a few quid to come up with the presets. Sounds like it has a lot of potential!
This thing looks so cool
This is nice. The closest 4 voice in price range is Roland SH-01A. Everything else is monophonic.
REGEND exactly what I was thinking. Plus they use great DACs in Modal gear and their stuff just sounds absolutely professional and lush.
Volca Keys is closest? 3 note poly however. I need an excuse to get rid of my Korg Poly 800 and something that can fit in a knapsack.
Reface is 8 voice
So the issue is carrying four different mini key synths versus one and a full key controller. Already own a microKorg and its great...through a tube amp. I travel and trying to minimize what I carry onto a plane. I also would like to stop carrying my TX7.
The Circuit
This guy knows exactly what Nick wants.
Nick you owe this poor guy an apology. Lol
Couldn't they find a younger kid to do the demo? Gosh, I'm feeling old...
You need a magnifying glass if you want to edit sound ... Maybe also packed in the box. Why making these products always so small .... Anyway... Sounds great !
9:40 that pad is
how does this compare with dsi tetra?
"Absolutely"
nive fat sound and poly? wonder what it would set me back
Sugiero que haya una traducción al ESPAÑOL
less than 300? in the pocket!!! love these wonderboxes Thanx
Lovely. No noise osc tho?
I think OSC 2 has a noise output
Where's the kickstarter link? :P
Wow, very cool, very clever for sound design, compact, sounds amazing! and sub usd 300!?!? whoaaaaa!
Not for me, I do not like that type of keyboard and with only four voices.
It's got MIDI. I actually like four-voice synths. The limitation forces you to be creative.
4 or 6 or mono, I have enough of them to be creative for the rest of my life. I like 12 or more voices these days.
Most of my favorite synths have 4 voices - DSI Pro 2, Korg Miniloge, Analog Keys, Microkorg...
Daniel Davis the A4 is one of my favorite also because of its layout. My #1 go to synth today is my Prophet 12 because it can do just about anything I throw at it and it can sounds very different then any other analog synth I own. The more poly the better.
now, if the delay only was stereo :(
I love tiny synths like that. The more the better and it sounds fat. Gonna buy it when available.
really nice sounding :)
fantastic
Nice Shirt, Nick!
Nick's clearly annoyed with the volume jumps between patches. I wonder if that is normal for this device.
Not annoyed, no and it because the final presets haven;t been done yet, volume matching is one of those processes
Gain matching is something Behringer failed to do with their Deepmind presets. They’re all over the place :(
It sounds great
Absolutely!
design wise , reminds me of the yamaha TQ5
I think someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed
It looks like they were partying the night before lol... both of em
It looks like it's a more than capable little synth but for synth and music enthusiasts which already have a collection of synths ...? I don't know .. I have a MS-20 mini and a Blofeld and I'm not really interested in this thing
come on, let nick turn the knobs too..... jeezzzzzz
Filter sounds extremely lifeless. What happened with Modal’s $5K synths? Not so many buyers I guess. Would buy micromonsta anytime before this.
but does it PWM?
It seemed so when he demonstrated the waveforms.
Sounds better than the IK Uno.
Plays Live xD. It's the worst sounding analog synth I have ever heard.
And you can tell that based on two compressed UA-cam demos with preproduction units of both synths? You must have magical ears 😂
Dacci Pucci its not the quality that makes it so you can tell...itis the sterile audio nature of the oscillators....now with effects it could sound better
Weird Music Judging a synth before it has even been released and you had a chance to test it yourself is just unprofessional. You can’t possibly tell which of these sounds „better“ (whatever that means) at this point. At least wait until they have been built before you make your claim ;)
Dacci Puiveo im not talking about the style of patches presented, if i judged it based on that you are correct....but the overall character of the synth is what I am talking about, which you can tell early on with synths....if it was a sampler then I would also agree with you say for instance the Prophet X or if you want to call it a sampler the Quantum....those I couldn't judge until in my hands so to speak.
15:15 - great patch
Nice one!
purchased today
9:09 lovely
Why is nick playing along with the guy whose there to do a demo? Let him do his job?
Nice one Luke :-)
Sounds like a Virus b, I like it!
Needs more thunderousness.