Frap Tools Magnolia: From Lush Poly to Nasty Mono

video upload by Starsky Carr

"The Frap Tools Magnolia is an 8 voice analog polysynth with through zero FM, wavefolding and poly aftertouch — and it goes from lush Jupiter pads to full MS-20 scream in about two moves. Full review and demo.

I've never played a polysynth that turns into a monosynth this easily. Magnolia is what happens when Frap Tools take the Brenso oscillator and the Cunsa filter out of their Eurorack range, put them in a very sexy box with a poly aftertouch keyboard, 64 modulation slots and no menus at all — then add a load of things nobody else is doing.

Sync that flips the waveform instead of resetting it. FM smoothing, which I don't think I've seen on a poly before. A resonant high pass filter that squeals into MS-20 territory. Filter FM from either oscillator or the noise. And Poly Move, which throws a random value at every note you press so the whole thing breathes like a modular.

I've had a review unit here for a few weeks and it's going back this week, which is a genuine shame. In this video I go through every section, show how you interact with 64 modulation slots without a screen or a modulation matrix, and build a patch from one plain triangle wave into something enormous. There are two demo tracks in there too — it inspired me to write a track, which doesn't happen with everything that comes through the door.

WHAT'S UNIQUE ABOUT IT
• Two oscillator types
• A dedicated TZFM envelope,
• Sync that flips rather than restarts
• FM smoothing
• Resonant low pass AND high pass filters,
• Filter FM from OSC 1, OSC 2 or noise
• Poly Move
• Hertz detune
• 64 modulation slots, all assigned and toggled from the panel — no menus, no screen

Around £3,800 / $4,200 / €4,200. It's an expensive synth, and there's nothing wrong with that — my full thoughts on whether it's worth it are at 47:52"