New Modal Electronics Argon8 8 Voice Polyphonic Wavetable Synthesiser

Published on Sep 6, 2019 sonicstate

Looks like a Synton Syrinx meshed with a KOG Minilogue.

See it at Knobcon in Chicago this weekend!

"The ARGON8 is an 8 voice digital Polysynth with a three octave full size Fatar keybed (with aftertouch),120 high resolution wavetables (from 002 as well) 4 oscillators per voice, 28 wavetable processors including de-rez, phase shapers and rectify.

We had a look at the pre-production prototype - presets have not been created yet and the final look will be tweaked, with Jackson (we're fortunate in that Modal are just down the road). The ARGON8 will be on show at Knobcon this weekend if you are going - we'll have a reporter there so hope to get another look.

Final pricing is TBC, but Modal tell us that it will be competitive certainly sub $1000 - as soon as we know we'll tell you. Modal are also confident that the ARGON8 will be shipping well before Christmas worldwide."

Priced at $699 / £579 / €649

Specs:

Polyphony
True 8 voice polyphonic

Mono-timbral

Oscillators
120 carefully crafted wavetables split into 24 banks of 5 morphable waveform sets, covering virtual analogue classics through to cutting edge EDM and many from the original Modal 002 as well as a whole range of mathematically generated tables. Additional PWM bank and 4 noise/modulation banks accessible on Oscillator 2

28 static wavetable processors including de-rez, wave folders, wave shapers, phase shapers and rectify that can be applied to the 120 wavetables to give a mind boggling array of permutations and new waveshapes

32 high resolution wavetable oscillators, 4 per voice, with 8 types of oscillator modifier including: Phase Mod (FM), Ring Mod, Amp Mod, Hard Sync and Windowed Sync

Keyboard
FATAR TP9/S Full size 37 key keybed with both velocity and aftertouch

1.54 inch large OLED display – that provides instant visual feedback to the user at all times of playing/editing

Multiple keyboard modes, Mono, Poly, Unison 2, unison 4, unison 8, Stack 2 and Stack 4

Inbuilt sophisticated programmable arpeggiator of 32 steps with rest capability with up to 2048 steps before repeating

Glide/Portamento with both legato and staccato modes

Filter
Two pole morphing resonant filter

Filter can be morphed from low pass, through band pass, to high pass

Modulation
Hugely powerful “Mod Matrix” with eight assignable slots with four additional fixed routes, 11 mod sources and 52 destinations

A 4-axis joystick that can be assigned to a huge range of modulation destinations and virtually ‘locked’ when desired

Three dedicated envelope generators for AMP, MOD and FILTER that can be accessed independently or all three simultaneously including negative (reverse) versions

Two Audio rate LFO’s with tempo sync (one poly, one global). Polyphonic LFO can sync to frequency divisions

FX
Waveshaping distortion

Three incredibly powerful independent and user configurable stereo FX engines that can create sophisticated Delays, lush Reverbs, Flanging, Phasing, and Rich Choruses

Sequencer
Real time sequencer with 512 steps with input quantise and four recordable / editable parameter animations

All time-based FX, LFO’s and sequencer arpeggio can be either clocked internally or externally

Storage
500 patch memories, all fully editable and ships with 300 factory programs and 200 user patch spaces. Patch upload and download through the free MODALapp

100 sequencer presets and 100 FX presets

Connectivity
Analogue clock sync in and out (configured to the KORG / Teenage Engineering specification)

MIDI DIN in and out

Full size quarter inch jacks for stereo audio outs, headphones and external control such as sustain and expression

3.5 mm stereo input with ability to route incoming audio through the FX

Class compliant MIDI provided over USB connection to host computer or tablet

Optional software editor available for macOS, Windows, iOS, Android with VST3 and AU compatibility – MODALapp can be run within your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)

Power: DC-9.0V-1.5A

Physical
Road ready Steel and Aluminium chassis

Width: 560mm – 22 inches
Depth: 300mm – 11-3/4 inches
Height: 120mm – 5 inches