Back in 1996, this little powerhouse hit the scene as one of the first affordable analog synths with digitally controlled oscillators, delivering that classic Moog-style warmth in a compact 19-inch 2U rackmount form that's perfect for tight studio setups.
At its heart are three analog oscillators—sawtooth, pulse with PWM, and triangle on the first two, plus cross-mod and sync options on the second, and a third handling saw, square, triangle, or pink noise—mixed into a 24dB/octave low-pass cascade filter with resonance up to self-oscillation and overdrive capability for gritty tones. Two snappy ADSR envelopes and two LFOs with an ultra-wide range from 0.0008Hz to 261Hz (triangle, sine, saw, or sample & hold on LFO1) feed a flexible modulation matrix routing sources like velocity, aftertouch, or pitchbend to destinations including individual osc levels, cutoff, or panning. Controls are straightforward with six rotary pots, four keys for program selection and arpeggiation, and a 3x7 segment LED display showing patch numbers from its 59 presets and 40 user slots—no LCD fuss, just instant tweaking. It syncs arpeggios to MIDI clock, offers portamento, and every knob sends MIDI CCs for seamless DAW integration, with stereo outs, full MIDI I/O, and external 12V power on the back.
Over the years, players have praised its thunderous bass, fast envelopes, and alive, "electron-breathing" analog vibe that holds up against modern gear, though some note the minimal front-panel layout demands menu diving via the keys for deeper edits.
