The 20 Synthesizer - Axel Hartmann's High-End

Published on Apr 27, 2017 Synthtopia

"Industrial designer Axel Hartmann and his company Designbox have handled the industrial design for dozens of synthesizers - including the Waldorf Wave, the Alesis Andromeda, the Moog Voyager XL, the Arturia Minibrute and the Schmidt synthesizer.

At Superbooth, Hartmann was showing a personal project, the '20' synthesizer - a high-end synthesizer created to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his company.

In this video, Hartmann explains the background of the project, some of the design ideas that he wanted to explore with the '20' and gives a demo of what it can do."

The First 20 Electronics Silver 20

20 music 20synthesizer body manufacturing

Published on Aug 2, 2016 20 Synthesizer

"This video is from the milling process of the 20 synthesizers main body. The entire instrument casing is milled from massive aluminium."

via 20's Axel Harmann

"It is a Sunday, and I am here at Design Box, finishing work on the first silver 20, that we have been building in the past few weeks. No matter, what you think about this project, the synth itself, or me doing something like this as a designer in this - our niche of the music-market; - I am really proud of how this machine is sitting in front of my camera lens right in this moment. Together with our genius mechanical engineer, Stephan Gries, we could overcome all the obstacles, that a project like this has in stock. I have to thank him a lot, but also all the people, that helped on the way - the company, that milled the massive casing out of the raw aluminium, the Waldorf people, and especially Stephan Stenzel, who let me have their soundengine, Hermann Gier and his team at SPL, for designing their highend op-amp especially for the 20, and last but not least, my friends from Studiologic around Marco Ragni, down in Recanati / Italy, for modifying the frontpanel of their sledge synthesizer, so it feels right for a high-end machine like this - and producing this special all back TP8 keybed for the 20. This beauty will make its way over to the US tomorrow - and I wish it a good journey, and its future owner a lot of delighted moments with it!"

See the 20 Electronics label for more.

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Axel Hartmann's 20 Synth Nearing Completion - Set to Ship in June

"Set up for final testing and sound design. Fatar has sent us a b/w keybed for checking into a modified aftertouch ribbon below the keys, which works perfectly. The final models will be back to an all black keybed. The Synth you see is the first with black anodized surface. The grafics are laser edged. I am quite positive, that we can finally release the 20 by the end of June...

The synth is based on the Studiologic Sledge which is based on the Waldorf Blofeld. From the original post here"

"Only 20 black and 20 silver will be made | Waldorf / Sledge Synthesizer Engine | SPL Supra Op-Amp audio technology | Wavetables | Hartmann Neuron Synthesizer Sampleset | Pure aluminium shell, milled from a massive block | Collapsable, milled ultra thin aluminium panel | Custom-built pure aluminium knobs and wheels | Custom-built acrylic-glass switches | Highest quality, custom-built, all black Fatar TP 8 Keybed" See the 20 Electronics label for more.

New Renders & Technical Drawing of the Upcoming 20 Electronics ECHT Hardware Synthesizer

You might remember the 20 Electronics ECHT coming from Axel Hartmann, the man behind many physical synthesizer designs and his own Hartmann Neuron. Here are a few new renders and a technical drawing from them. Only 20 will be produced in black and 20 in silver. See here for additional details.

"Late yesterday, our mechanical engineer Stephan Gries has released a set of technical drawings for the manufacturer. What you see here, is the main drawing, where all major parts are being described. More then 30 detail drawings show all bits and pieces of the mechanical setup. For me, these drawings almost look like art. From my experience I can say, that if the technical drawings look right and appealing, the product later on will also match this approach. What a piece of work; - I am so glad, we have Stephan here in house for more then 4 years now - he is a great engineer and a maniac of detail work."

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20 Electronics ECHT - Additional Details - Only 20 Black and 20 Silver to be Released

See the update in this post. Some prelim specs listed. Looks like it will be a Waldorf/Studiologic Sledge with Hartmann Neuron sampleset.

20 Electronics ECHT - New Hardware Keyboard Synthesizer Design from Axel Hartmann

A couple of renders by Axel Hartmann, sent my way via Soviet Space Child.

You might remember the previous teaser pic here, which kind of mixed design cues from both Moog and Waldorf. That was no surprise as Axel Hartmann designed the "look" of Waldorf and Moog synths as well as numerous others.

Axel Hartmann's first self branded synth was the Hartmann Neuron.

The question is what will 20 Electronics produce? Is it a new design house similar to Design Box, or is it a new hardware manufacturer like Hartmann?

ECHT appears to translate into a number of meanings. As a noun it is marriage. (strike that. I accidentally grabbed the Dutch translation). In German it translates into "real", "authentic" like in "the real deal".

Update via Holger Steinbrink of Waldorf:

"Only 20 black and 20 silver will be made | Waldorf / Sledge Synthesizer Engine | SPL Supra Op-Amp audio technology | Wavetables | Hartmann Neuron Synthesizer Sampleset | Pure aluminium shell, milled from a massive block | Collapsable, milled ultra thin aluminium panel | Custom-built pure aluminium knobs and wheels | Custom-built acrylic-glass switches | Highest quality, custom-built, all black Fatar TP 8 Keybed"

Update via Soviet Space Child.