NEWS - Erica Synths remakes their Polivoks modular!

For those of you who are really into eurorack, or into Russian synths, these are probably very exciting news!


For those of you who are not aware, Erica Synths is a small company based in Latvia that has been producing some very interesting eurorack modules these past years!


Since the end of 2014, they have available a full set of modules available that aims to reproduce the classic Russian synth Polivoks, as you can see in their original post!

I felt back then it was a pretty interesting solution for anyone wanting the Polivoks sound, as the building quality of the original synth was pretty poor...

The fact that it was a set of eurorack modules was also a plus as eurorack was getting bigger and bigger back then (and it has grown a lot since then)!

However, if you have an eurorack modular system, the preference for waveform selection switches (for the VCOs and LFO), as featured in the original synth, rather than individual outputs for those waveforms was definitely a bit annoying, as it did prevent you from using a triangle wave to modulate the filter if you would want to have two pulse waves in your audio path.


Fortunately, that "flaw" has been now corrected with their new version of this system!

You can check more informations about the complete system and individual modules in their respective products page

Personally, I think they seem to have done a great job and the demo they presented in youtube really sounds great!




This new system still takes 84hps, but I fell it ends up offering you much more!

The VCO module is where I feel there is most improvement.
Unlike the previous version, there is no difference between both VCO modules, and you don't get an X-Mod input with a knob associated to it (or a detune knob), but the advantages are worth it, in my opinion.
The most significant difference is that you get individual outputs for the different waveforms, triangle, saw and pulse, plus a PW knob that allows you to obtain all the original waveforms you had available on the original machine.
And to make things even better, you also get a sync input!

The modulator (LFO) is also quite different in the new version.
Like what happened with the VCO modules, you now have individual outputs for the different waveforms, plus a CV input!
You might not get an inverse output (with an attenuator knob), but I think this is a serious improvement!

On the other modules there are some minor differences as well, but nothing as significant as in those two modules I mentioned.

The other significant advantage of this newer system is that you also get a dedicated output module with a proper headphones output, and it still takes 84hps in your eurorack system!


If you have been wanting a Polivoks for a while, this seems to be a pretty nice opportunity to get closer to that sound!