NEWS - The River, an 8 voice polyphonic analog synth being developed by Baloran!

Yes, analog poly synths seem to be now more fashionable than ever!
And the latest one seems to be being developed by Baloran!

NEWS - Digitana, a company to follow with some really nice products in development!

To those not familiar to Digitana (as I wasn't until earlier this week), they have been developing interface modules for classic EMS gear.
They have also put out a re-release of the EMS Synthi Hi-Fli, built under license from EMS.

A new toy, from Teenage Engineering!

First of all, sorry for the late post, but today I was travelling and unfortunately the internet in the bus was absolutely terrible...
So terrible that all the hope I had in posting something during my trip quickly faded...

You like Boss guitar pedals? Then you should definitely check this one!

In my personal studio, I have several guitar pedals available and while I have to admit I don't really use them that often, when I do, they usually end up giving something special to the sound!

Clavia DDrum, the original!

If you are a lot into electronic drum sounds, you might have heard about Clavia's own electronic drum modules, the Clavia DDrum series!

System 80 presents their new 808 eurorack module!

If you have been looking for a Roland TR-808 for a while but couldn't find one for a reasonable price,  this will probably spark some interest in you!

Using the Clavia Nord Modular G2 as a mixer! - Part.1

If you remember, I promised to make quite some posts about the Clavia Nord Modular G2, but so far, it has been a bit absent from this blog...
Today, I want to make a post about using the Clavia Nord Modular G2 as a mixer, since I have used one of the slots available in it several times for this task and it has done really well so far!

Your Clavia Nord Modular G1 as a Drum Machine? - Part.1

Yesterday I got the idea of turning the Clavia Nord Modular G1 into a drum machine, but a drum machine in which I can change the pattern in realtime using the knobs available!

Clavia Nord Modular G2X + Elektron SIDstation = Amazing Combo!

I said it before and I say it again, as I still think so, the Clavia Nord Modular G2X together with the Elektron SIDstation form a truly amazing combo!

Now for something really really rare... Korg MP-100 and Korg RP-100!

If you never heard about them, that's not surprising, as these machines are really really rare!

One more from NAMM! The Oberheim OB-X inspired Shear Electronics Relic-6!

New company with a new product seeking inspiration in an amazing vintage synthesizer, the amazing Oberheim OB-X!
If done right it should sound amazing, right?

An old eurorack modular experiment with a crippled system!

I know there are many demos of eurorack modular synthesizers available, some of them with truly monstrous systems!
But this post is about a simple demo I did when I started my eurorack modular system and which I hope shows you can still produce really nice sounds with a pretty crippled system!

Wide sounds with audio rate panning modulation!

This is definitely one of those tricks I really like to use in my Clavia Nord Modulars!

On other exciting news, the Fabulous Silicon Paradigm synth!

The information available about this synth is not much, but it seems really interesting since it uses "Apex" programable analog chips.

And Malekko Heavy Industries seems to be at it as well!

And not with a single product, but with 3 new desktop creations that look really amazing!

Memories from the cold...

One of the things I love about Norway is that, sometimes, you can find quite some amazing gear for pretty decent prices!

And Elektron just brought out their new drum machine with sampling, the Elektron Digitakt!

Unfortunately I couldn't find any demos of it in Youtube yet to hear how it sounds, but considering what Elektron has delivered so far, I'd bet it's gonna be a really nice machine!

Even hotter news! Dave Smith Instruments REV2!!!

This is definitely big news!!!

Dave Smith Instruments is updating their classic DSI Prophet 08 and introducing the DSI REV2!

Hot News! Dave Smith continues Toraiz partnership with Pioneer! Meet the Toraiz AS-1 Monophonic analog synthesizer!

I've seen some teasers from Dave Smith Instruments lately, but this one seems to be a complete surprise!
And to be honest, a pretty interesting surprise as you can see in this video that popped up in youtube yesterday!

Do you love real piano sounds? This is the sound module to have if you don't want to spend much!

This is the first time I share a video that isn't mine, but I think it is a really good video that shows how nice this old Korg module sounds for piano sounds!

Electro Harmonix Small Stone, a classic Phaser!

If you are familiar with synths and phasers, you most likely know about the amazing Electro Harmonix Small Stone, the classic phaser used by Jean-Michel Jarre together with his Eminent 310u to obtain those amazing string sounds!

Roland MC-202 versus Roland TB-303?

If you could only choose one of these classic Roland machines, which one would you go for?

Samplers versus the real thing! A first post about it!

Samplers versus the real thing is a topic that could definitely lead to a very lengthy post / discussion, and lots of examples would be convenient to prove a point.

Why I'm not a big fan of recent grooveboxes...

Grooveboxes are amazing tools for anyone doing electronic music, so I thought a topic about them would be more well timed now!

EDP Wasp Special! Some more synth porn!

Unfortunately this weekend wasn't that productive for synth-related work...

A day with a Clavia Nord Modular G1!

As I was predicting, yesterday I ended up focusing on my Clavia Nord Modular G1 to create some new sounds and ended up neglecting my Creamware Pro 12...

Still, it ended up being a very fun afternoon and I was able to come up with quite some diverse sounds for my Clavia Nord Modular G1!

The small setup of today! Some nice synths for some sound-design experiments ;)

So, today I decided to get some good synth time and try out some new ideas with some of my synths!

In order to be a bit more productive, I decided to focus on few machines and so I ended up picking  the 3 different machines in the photos!

Great news from Korg! Korg Gadget is going to be available on Macs, and their ARP Odyssey re-issue is getting a full size keyboard!

Great great news from Korg, as some amazing new products from them seem to be going out soon!

Some more synth porn! Inside a Roland RS09

Some years ago I ended up getting a broken Roland RS09 in a trade.

Clavia Nord Modular G2!

For my first review, I thought it would be interesting to talk a bit about my absolute favourite synth, the Clavia Nord Modular G2!

In the meanwhile, some more synth porn! The insides of the Elektron SIDstation!

Some time ago, when I was putting my Elektron SIDstation back in the stand, a stupid accident happened with it... 

It basically dropped out of my hand, which really made me feel stupid...

Do you have a Clavia Nord Modular G2? You probably are aware of these then, but if not...

Today was a bit of a bummer, so I ended up not finishing a nice overall review of my favourite synth, the amazing Clavia Nord Modular G2.

For starters, some good synth porn! The legendary Axcel Technos!

Before I get a “real” synth post ready for you, I thought it would be nice to post some photos of an extremely rare machine, the Axcel Technos!

Hello all and welcome to my blog!

Hello all and welcome to my blog!

My name is Paulo Santos and I have been a synth lover for over a decade now!

As part of my new year resolution, I decided it was time for me to create a new synth blog in which I intend to share my personal experiences with the gear I have.

I will try to make quite diverse posts, from reviews of different gear I have experience with, to more technical posts explaining some of the techniques I use to achieve my own personal sound.
To make these posts more interesting, I'll try to document them with images and sounds whenever it is possible.

I hope you all enjoy my blog!


Best regards

Paulo