OSCar

Back in 1983, this quirky British mono-synth arrived late to the party but stole the show with its ahead-of-its-time additive synthesis, letting you craft custom waveforms by tweaking up to 24 harmonics right from the keyboard—something no other monosynth of the era could touch.

At its core are two digitally controlled oscillators pumping out sawtooth, triangle, square, variable pulse, PWM, and noise, plus those 24 user-defined waves for endless tonal weirdness. Dual 12dB/octave filters (lowpass, highpass, bandpass) can link for a fat 24dB slope, swept by cutoff, resonance, and their own ADSR envelope, while a second ADSR handles amplitude. One LFO with triangle, saw, square, and more modulates pitch, filter, pulse width, or amp, plus sample-and-hold for extra spice. It's monophonic but duophonic in split-osc mode, with a 37-mini-key plastic keyboard, arpeggiator, and 24-step sequencer. Early models store 12 user and 24 presets; MIDI versions bump to 36 patches—mono out, no effects, pure analog filter soul in a compact, lightweight case that feels like a beloved relic.

Players still geek out over its spiky, angular leads and cutting basses that slice mixes, though some note the plasticky build and non-velocity-sensitive keys as vintage trade-offs. If you dig raw, programmable monosynth character, this one's a timeless hunt.