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Greetings from Signal Sounds HQ!
It might not be feeling very spring-like in Glasgow yet - we’ve had a solid couple of weeks of deeply unpleasant weather to contend with - but new synths and modules keep popping up like the first daffodils of the season! Arturia have stepped into a completely new area for them and announced their new Astrolab hardware hybrid synth, and the much-awaited Play All Day Playfaders have landed from our old friend Hadj down in Brighton. We’ve also got some exciting new modules from Malstrom, Dreadbox and Thorn Audio - plus a clever new solution to the perennial problem of tangled patch cables! Read on to find out more.
Now, this was the part where we were going to give you a heads-up about our special Buchla-themed in-store event taking place on 24th April - but the tickets all got snapped up in about 24 hours! Those who grabbed one can look forward to our pal Tom Lewis chatting about all things West Coast synthesis with plenty of demos on the mighty Music Easel and plenty of chat about the culture and design philosophy behind Buchla. We’ll be heading to Attack Release at Bloc afterwards to carry on the fun.
Stay tuned for news of more special in-store events over the coming months - we’ve got some exciting things in the pipeline.
Until next time,
Jason, Aleks, Kyle, Luke, Molly, Rob & Tom
PS: Right before we were about to hit 'send', a box of Chompi samplers arrived! We have a very limited number of this super-cute sampler and tape music-style instrument up on the site but they won't hang around for long...
What's hot
Brand new from our French friends is AstroLab, a 61-key stage keyboard with a typically classy design that lets you browse and play thousands of presets from Arturia’s stunning V-Collection software instruments for instant sonic gratification and zero computer crashing. Available to pre-order now; should be shipping by the end of the month. C’est formidable!
The Play All Day Playfader is a versatile two-channel CV, gate and MIDI sequencer and looper that loves to make friends with modular synths, vintage synths, MIDI synths, guitar pedals, and anything else with CV and expression inputs. It’s got a pretty unique and very playable interface which hides some sophisticated performance-oriented sequencing tools. We’ve got a limited quantity of each colour in stock - don’t sleep.
Saturation is a sound designer’s best friend, and the new Wyvern module from Malstrom leans into it with a spectral approach that combines a filter EQ with soft clipping, hard clipping and allpass distortion for a variety of flavours. Perfect for adding character, from subtle analogue warmth to all-out sonic destruction.
Another pair of innovative, affordable modules from the Greek masters of quirky synthesis. Telepathy is a full synth voice in just 10HP - and what’s even cooler is that you can chain multiple units via MIDI and create a monster analogue polysynth in conjunction with the new Psychosis stereo mixer. Check out Mylar Melodies’ video where he does just that. Embrace the quirk.
The Thorn Audio VC LFO is one of the fullest-featured LFOs we’ve seen here for quite some time. A whopping 16 wave shapes, built-in VCA and sample & hold, voltage-controlled everything… truly a module to fulfil your every low-frequency wobbling need. Oh, and it looks pretty stunning too.
Tired of tangled cables obscuring your panels and getting in the way of your knobs? You need Nest Tamers! These clever clips mount via your Eurorack screw holes and let you tuck your cables neatly around the edges of the case. Once you get that nest tamed you'll wonder how you ever lived without them!
Restocks, B-stocks & pre-orders
We’ve had a big restock of Making Sound Machines’ drum sequencer Stolperbeats, the ultimate way to get some Dilla-style off-grid swing into your drum parts. And we’ve got a few of the much sought-after Industrial Music Electronics modules back in stock, including Piston Honda and Bionic Lester.
We’re adding a load of brilliant B-stock items to the site over the coming weeks too. Current bargains include a Sherman Filterbank, OTO BIM and BAM, Xaoc Devices Belgrad, Intellijel Rainmaker and a Make Noise 7U case - but keep your eyes peeled for lots more.
Pre-order wise, if you’re quick you can bag one of the final run of Make Noise’s mighty Erbe-Verb, in the classy black and gold panel. Once these are gone, it’s gone for good! We’re also getting a few more of The Map Is Not The Territoire from Manifold Research Centre, so if you need a magnetic matrix mixer in your life (and let’s face it, who doesn’t), you know what to do.
In the spotlight
One of our favourite brands here at Signal Sounds is Future Sound Systems. Finlay and Jamie make some of the best-sounding analogue modules around with innovative takes on classic circuits. We’ve got just about all of the current range in stock at the moment with 10% off, so if you’ve ever wanted to get the Recombination Engine (as demonstrated by the mighty DivKid above), Timbral Sculptor or Gristleizer modules in your rack, now’s the perfect time.
New on our YouTube
After his awesome demo of the Sherman Filterbank earlier this year, we’ve invited Michael Manning back to our channel to present some tips on composing with his favourite gear. First up is this set of ideas for getting the most out of the super-powerful Squarp Hapax sequencer. Michael always takes a very real-world approach to his videos. He’s a sound designer and composer by trade so he’s keenly interested in how instruments are actually used, their workflow and ways of getting the absolute best out of them rather than just giving opinions about whether he likes something or not.
New on our blog
The Signal Sounds team is growing! There are now seven of us working at our Glasgow HQ, so we thought it was time we gave you a little insight into who we are and what makes us tick. Meet the team.
And finally...
A couple of great podcast recommendations for your ears: the latest Why We Bleep features a cracking interview with Jake from RYK Modular on his journey from making music videos for Warp to designing the influential M185 sequencer and beyond. And Scuba’s Not A Diving Podcast has a lovely long chat this month with snooker legend turned modular synth wizard Steve Davis. Well worth a listen!