Neutral Labs built Scrooge around a deliberately weird idea: what if you powered a drum machine's voices not with dedicated supplies, but by siphoning energy directly from the sequencer's control signals? The result is a machine that sounds intentionally unstable, organic, and prone to beautiful malfunction—it'll make kick drums and hi-hats if you ask nicely, but it really wants to generate glitchy artifacts, hollow crackles, and distorted growls.
The heart of Scrooge is five fully analog CMOS-based voices, each shaped by two dedicated knobs that control tone and timbre in voice-specific ways. An eight-track step sequencer with 64 steps per track gives you serious compositional depth, with parameter locking, probability controls, microtiming, and a "control all" mode that lets you adjust multiple steps across tracks simultaneously. You get 16 banks of eight patterns, pattern chaining up to 32 patterns, and the ability to sequence external gear on a dedicated track. Two modulation tracks can be routed individually to any voice for evolving textures. Each voice has its own direct output, plus two main stereo outputs that are headphone-compatible, so you can process, mute, or cue different voices independently.
The desktop version measures 230 by 150 by 30 millimeters and runs on USB-C power at just 200 milliamps, though the voices can operate passively if you're sequencing from external gear—no power supply needed. MIDI input (TRS type A) keeps it synced with your setup, and there's a sync output for chaining with other gear. The sequencer responds beautifully to both CV and audio signals at the voice inputs, opening up possibilities for modulation that feel less like traditional synthesis and more like controlled chaos.
Since its release, Scrooge has found a devoted following among producers and live performers who appreciate its unpredictability and character. The voltage-starved circuit design is the real magic here—it's not a limitation but a feature, giving every patch a slightly unstable, organic quality that feels alive in ways most digital drum machines don't.
