New England Synth Fest
on Saturday, May 2, 2026 at Northeastern University
in Ryder Hall
(11 Leon St, Boston, MA 02115).
Right next to the Ruggles T Station.
DIY workshop starts at 11am. Performances, lectures, exhibits, and petting zoo are happening 12pm to 6pm.
"In this showcase, I've created six different sound sources with the Ballista Blast by @ShakmatModular . It can do SO MANY THINGS, and do them AMAZINGLY, but I thought I'd focus on six sound design examples, so we can zoom in on a few core engines and all the various sounds you can get from those engines. Let me know what you think of each one in the comments!
Each sound example is 2.5 minutes long, save the last example, which is 4 minutes.
0:07 Sound Example One, Engine: WaveTable. Type: Basic. ENVLP Mode: ASR. ANLG VCF: Type 2. VCA Mode: Drone. Distortion type 2, level 3 out of 5. FM. Alt = ON
2:23 Sound Example Two, Engine: Classic. Mode: Width. ENVLP Mode: AR. ANLG VCF: Type 2. VCA Mode: Drone. FM. Alt = ON
9:50 Sound Example Five, Engine: Classic. Mode: Sync. VCA Mode: Drone. ENV Mode: AR. ANLG VCF: Type 2. FM.
12:15 Sound Example Six Engine: WaveTable. Type: Harm 1. Distortion type 2, level 3 out of 5. ENVLP Mode: ASR. ANLG VCF: 4P. VCA Mode: ENV. Distortion type 2, level 3 out of 5. FM.
I'm using effects by the @busycircuits MFX and @tiptop-audio Z5000.
The first two sound examples feature a sequence by the Varigate 4+ by @malekko1
The second two feature the Pseudos by Raw Yaw Media.
The last two feature the T12 by @doboz.modular"
"An outstanding stereo SID track made by Flex (Antti Hannula) of Artline Designs in 2020.
Played back using quadchained midiphy zetaSIDs with a slight amount of hardware unison detune to slightly thicken the mix :). The MIDI ASID signal is provided by a midiphy nexusMIDI expander connected to an Elektron TM-1 MIDI Interface in Turbo MIDI mode to provide the bandwidth required for dual channel ASID playback.
Visualization support by a tiny six inch Sony PVM 6041QM CRT.
Thanks for watching and listening!
Best regards,
Peter/Hawkeye
https://www.midiphy.com/"
"Programming session/jam based in one of my single patches, developed on the fly in the course of 22 minutes. Tried to film the performance, but my phone crashed just seconds into the performance before i realized."
I can't get enough of these kind of gentle key patches on the Katla synthesizer! For this patch I used a similar approach to the previous one, using the self oscillating filter as a sound source. But this time I played with modulating the wave folder, which at times in the piece almost feels like an extra melody coming in. I also once again tuned one of the voices an octave higher than the other ones, for unpredictable octave jumps in the melody, I just love that so much on Katla! For the next patch I'll try a more distorted one, promise."
"After stringing along my followers on Mod Wiggler, I have finally made a video demonstrating the core circuitry of my polyphonic synthesizer project, the DS-3100 -- my homage to the Korg PS-3100, but done in Doc Sketchy style, with PCBs laid out in Excel, fully handmade and based entirely on my own original circuitry."
"Cosmic Debris is a powerful delay and reverb engine built for modular explorers who want more than just echoes. With 16 interactive delay lines, multiple performance modes, and a design tuned for live use, Cosmic Debris can move from precise rhythmic repeats to infinite atmospheric washes in an instant."
Playlist:
1. Introducing Cosmic Debris from WMD and Infrasonic Audio
2. 3 patches with WMD Cosmic Debris
3. WMD Cosmic Debris - In-depth overview and tutorial
"A collaboration born in the Denver modular community
Cosmic Debris began as a design by Nick Donaldson of Infrasonic Audio, a fellow Denver modular enthusiast we met through our monthly Freq Boutique gatherings. Nick approached WMD for advice on manufacturing, and as soon as we heard the sounds he was creating, we knew there was something special.
From there, the collaboration took off. We worked closely with Nick to refine the design, bringing in ideas to expand the feature set, streamline performance controls, and ensure the module would be rock-solid for production. The process has been as rewarding as the results: not only has Cosmic Debris grown into a truly versatile delay and reverb processor, but we’ve had the joy of building a deeper friendship through the design journey.
Cosmic Debris is a powerful delay and reverb engine built for modular explorers who want more than just echoes. With 16 interactive delay lines, multiple performance modes, and a design tuned for live use, Cosmic Debris can move from precise rhythmic repeats to infinite atmospheric washes in an instant.
At the core, Spray transforms traditional delay taps into massive ambient reverbs, while Scatter reshapes the feedback paths and interactions between lines to create ever-changing textures. Time and it's shift function SLEW take traditional modulation and flip it on its head with huge risers, crossfading delay time changes, and hands on control over the energy of the sound caught in the buffers.
A built-in band-pass filter lets you carve space in the mix or push the signal into motion with CV modulation.
Cosmic Debris is designed with performance at its heart. Blast delivers a momentary boost into the delay input as well as 100% send level (in send mode) for explosive bursts of sound with natural tails, while Send Mode turns the Mix control into a CV-controllable send/return level, perfect for insert-style processing.
Flexible sync options include clock input, tap tempo, or free-running mode, keeping you locked in rhythm or drifting into uncharted time. A dedicated Freeze function captures audio into a timeless loop, letting you hold textures indefinitely.
Three unique processing modes, Blur, Ratio, and Warp, expand the palette even further, from smearing reverbs to pitch-shifted delays. Combined with its intuitive interface and deep modulation capabilities, Cosmic Debris is equally at home in a live performance rack or a studio sound-design system."
