"I always lusted after a Technos Acxel from 1984, but they didn't really exist. There were only about 4 ever made and those barely made it into public view. But there were pictures of them, and I had my imagination.
So, 30 years later, I made it myself, and then I made it better.
Every partial, hand-drawn.
Modeled after the Technos Acxel — a Quebec-built additive synthesizer from 1986-1992, with somewhere between 30 and 40 units ever made. Two engine slots share one wave bank, one Grapher, and one mod bus: Slot A is the Acxel's additive and sinusoidal resynthesis engine, Slot B is a wavetable machine, and you can run either or both at once.
AXCEL plugin GUI
- Acxel-accurate additive engine: up to 32 partials per voice, each independently addressable on the Grapher for amplitude, phase, and detune
A faithful emulation of a machine older than your dad's synth collection.
Four oscillators, a full patch bay, and a state-variable filter with an INPUT DRIVE stage that distorts inside its own resonant loop — the original's signature scream, modeled all the way down to the resonance itself breaking up under drive. Duophonic voice architecture, a MODULATOR that goes OFF → AM → RING, a sample & hold SAMPLER clocked off OSC 1, and enough patch points to make questionable routing decisions like it's still the Nixon administration. Patch it by hand for hours, or hit EZ to find something you wouldn't have thought of in a million years.
- Four oscillators — OSC 1 steps through triangle/saw/square/pulse/sine across HI/LO range, OSC 2–4 morph continuously via COLOR — feeding a duophonic voice architecture (KB1/KB2)
"Modular Town — a synthesizer town, drawn by hand.
Modular Town is a single Amorph instrument: a hand-drawn village you scroll through, where every knob, step-sequencer and jack is mounted on a building facade wired by hand, just like real hardware.
🏭 Filter (Cutoff/Resonance) on the factoryVCO1 / VCO2 on the vending machinesDetune and Attack/Decay/Release tucked into the houses🥁 A 16-step drum machine (Drums Volume, Accent, Drive) running through its own sequencer🍜 Ramen Bass Shop, a mono bass synth with its own 16-step piano roll, playable live or sequenced. A day/night cycle you flip from a shop sign. Delay (Time/Feedback/Mix) on a canal-side wall. A full patch panel route LFO, ENV and random modulation across the whole village with real cables✨ Reverb, aged-paper texture and film grain for a sketchbook feel"
"oh dear, what do we have here? an @illuminationent minion on the hunt for the perfect instrument? oh wow, our minion found the @roland_aus Go Keys 3 Minion Edition! what a happy day :)
this special minion edition wonder machine/Roland Go Keys 3 is perfect for beginner piano players and beyond! it is loaded with a number of special sounds beyond normal piano's/strings/synths/drums etc. and we have one in-store ready for you to try today! pre-order your's now as there is very limited stock incoming to @turramurramusic
our minions x Brtiney collab was performed by our very own James Rika-Heke and he even brought in his own Minions Suit, ready for Halloween!"
"6 New GRB Instruments drums for eurorack.
The modular analog drum machine with a classic vibes is almost ready!
There are 11 patterns/jams in this video."
Sound is synthesized by a system of oscillators based on Schmitt triggers, that recreates the classic, complex sound of an analog cymbal. The sound is synthesized by a system of oscillators based on Schmitt triggers, operating at different frequencies. The mixing of these signals creates the rich, chaotic, and metallic spectrum.
You have direct control over the resulting texture. The TUNE knob shifts the overall frequency range of the metallic noise, while DECAY sets the length of the sound's wash and sizzle. The TONE control further shapes the character of the ringing, allowing you to fine-tune the brightness and timbre. This combination of controls lets you sculpt everything from a short, bright metallic click to a long, decaying noise.
For dynamic performance, the module features an ACC input (0V to +5V) to modulate the accent level and is triggered via the standard GATE input (+5V to +12V). The final, complex cymbal sound is available at the OUT jack.
"Here is a little demo of SID SYNTH, a software live synthesizer for the Commodore 64 and Commodore 64 Ultimate. V1.0 lands on 6 Nov 2026 as a bonus download with my new album 'Neon Airlines', and it is up for pre-order right now:
💾 https://lukhash.bandcamp.com/album/ne...
Pre-order today and the download link drops straight into your inbox the moment it goes live on release day, so there is no waiting and nothing to chase later. You get the full album with it, and pre-orders genuinely help a release like this land.
⎍∧∿⩘⎍∧∿⩘⎍∧∿⩘⎍∧∿⩘⎍∧∿⩘⎍∧∿⩘⎍∧∿⩘⎍∧∿⩘⎍∧∿⩘
SID SYNTH is a real-time C64 software synthesizer built for playing live. It sits between two amazing programs, the instant playability of Cynthcart and the deep sound design of SID Wizard. That's the middle ground I've been missing. The ultimate tool for live performance on your favourite computer :)
For those who are interested what's under the hood:
Eight waveforms (4 main+combined ones) across three voices (six with a second SID), an adjustable ADSR with hard-restart retrigger, a multimode filter, and fully customisable PWM with its own rate, depth and sweep shapes. Add vibrato, portamento and tremolo, plus switchable ring mod and hard sync. Seven voice modes take you from full polyphony through fifths and octave stacks to arpeggios you can lock to tempo. Then you play it: live pitch bend, vibrato swells and filter swipes you can freeze and latch mid-note, for real expression and sound design beyond presets.
Build your own banks of instruments across 54 slots, save and load them to disk, and jump between sounds on the fly, so a whole set is under your fingers on stage, with a "Live Lock" to keep a stray key from changing anything mid-song.
Full MIDI in adds assignable CC to use with your DAW or any MIDI hardware, program change to switch patches hands-free, and clock sync to keep the arpeggiator in time with your drum machine or sequencer, plus a tap-tempo that sets the arpeggiator's speed straight from the rhythm you tap, so you can lock the arp to your track by ear in seconds.
Twelve reactive visualizers turn a held note into a show, and dual-SID stereo, blackout-clean recording for the real SID chip and automatic PAL/NTSC tuning finish the picture. 👾"
"'Neon Airlines' is your boarding pass to a sonic journey where chiptune, synthwave, and other modern electronic styles fuse into a retro-futuristic adventure. Experience the iconic sounds of the Commodore 64, Amiga, SNES, Mega Drive, and Game Boy, brought into the modern era while staying true to their roots. ✈️🌆👾
💾 Bandcamp exclusive: the download includes a bonus MOD track (Patch It!) made on an original Amiga, plus SID SYNTH (v1.0), a live synthesizer by LukHash that turns a real Commodore 64 / C64 Ultimate into a playable instrument. Explore the sounds of Neon Airlines, then make your own.
"Vice Operators is a Miami Vice and Jan Hammer-inspired instrumental from my new album, Each Machine a Voice.
The track combines the Korg opsix and modwave, Uno Drum and a couple of other synths to create an atmospheric 1980s-style soundtrack featuring digital textures, sequences and expressive lead sounds. This video is a full performance of the track using the synths behind the music.
Each Machine a Voice explores the different character that every synthesizer brings to a piece of music. Some tracks focus on one particular machine, while others combine several synths as an ensemble.
The original 1979 hardware synthesizer helped define an entire generation of electronic music. The Martinic Prodigy plugin now brings this iconic sound directly into your DAW. Developed with proprietary Advanced Circuitry Emulation technology, it faithfully recreates every nuance of the original analog circuits.
Alongside the classic sound, exclusive modern features have been added, including a built-in analog sequencer with 8 and 16-step modes, an extended Multidrive circuit, and a mono reverb inspired by the Moog 905.
Using studio monitors or high-quality headphones is recommended to capture the full frequency range."
Demo Track no. 1.
Sound source: A couple of instances of Martinic Prodigy
Effects: Martinic TG100 Reverb & Martinic AXFX
Want to hear more of my sounds for the Martinic AX73 and other synths? Visit https://solidtrax.nl/shop"
The Moog Prodigy's raw, uncompromising sound helped define a generation of electronic music. But getting that authentic analog character into your productions has always meant tracking down rare, aging hardware that's becoming harder to find and harder to maintain.
The Martinic Prodigy finally brings that iconic sound to your DAW. Built with our Advanced Circuitry Emulation technology, it faithfully recreates every sweet spot of the original 1979 analog circuitry, and adds modern features like a built-in analog sequencer with eight- and sixteen-step modes, an extended Multidrive circuit, and a Moog 905 inspired mono reverb. All at a very affordable price.
"There's a drum machine from 1983 that was intended to sound like a real drum similar to the Linndum — rolls, flams, off-the-beat feel. But the real story is bolted to its side, and most people have never seen one.
The Oberheim Stretch DX is the machine almost nobody talks about — the expansion that turned a 6-voice box into something else entirely. Here's how it happened, and what it can still do.
⏱️ CHAPTERS
00:00 — The drum machine that didn't want to be a machine
00:38 — Oberheim DMX: the little brother that came first
01:20 — 18 sounds, EPROM cards & the idea that predicted sample packs
02:00 — Inside the DX: sequences, quantize & the swing mode
02:40 — Rear-panel tuning & individual outputs (why 6 voices matters)
03:10 — The Stretch DX: the bolt-on nobody expected
03:40 — Installing a Stretch: soldering irons & ribbon cables
04:00 — Why the DX & Stretch DX faded — and what they left behind
04:20 — Let's make some beats
🎛️ Gear in this video: Oberheim DX, Oberheim Stretch DX"
"OktaDie is an 'organismic' synthesizer for iPad: eight touch-sensitive voices,
a cross-modulation matrix, a dual modulated delay and an overdrive — with no
keyboard, no scale and no quantisation anywhere in the signal path.
No talking in this video: just hands on the glass. Everything you hear is
OktaDie running standalone on iPad (AUv3 plugin versions included), played
entirely on the eight pads — no MIDI keyboard, no sequencer, no external
processing.
🎛️ ABOUT THE INSTRUMENT
The eight generators are closer to a vintage electric organ than to a VCO.
TUNE moves each voice continuously across a huge untempered range, SHARP
morphs the waveform from triangle to square, and the envelope shapes pitch
and waveform as it moves instead of just opening a VCA after it. Voices work
in four pairs and two groups, each pair picking its own modulation source —
another pair, the Hyper LFO, or the instrument's own output. TOTAL FB feeds
the post-distortion signal back in and turns the whole machine, delay and
drive included, into one giant FM structure. Noise, bleed and drift are
features here, not defects: it never produces exactly the same sound twice.
👆 PLAYED BY TOUCH
Eight multitouch pads replace the keyboard. Play with several fingers at
once, slide sideways to glide from one pad to the next, press harder to open
the envelope further — OktaDie reads the contact area of your fingertip, and
Apple Pencil pressure where available.
📱 iOS VERSION (iPhone & iPad)
Standalone app + two AUv3 extensions: OktaDie as an instrument and OktaDie FX
to run your own audio through the delay, drive and feedback loop. Works in
AUM, GarageBand, Cubasis, Drambo and Logic for iPad.
💻 DESKTOP VERSION (Mac & Windows)
Available in AU, VST3 and AAX formats for all major DAWs. Presets are shared
with the iOS version.
"AcidBoxMynah is an alternative firmware that turns the Mynah into an acid groovebox. Based on the open source AcidBox project for ESP32. It provides an acid combo of tb303 + tb303 + tr808 like synths. Filter cutoff, reso, env mod, accent, wavefolder, overdrive within each 303, per-instrument tunings, hi-pass/lo-pass filter and bitcrusher in drums, send to reverb, delay and master compression
While the original project is headless, the AcidBoxMynah fork provides direct control with the Mynah hardware and adds a number of additional features detailed in the user Manual below. Like the original firmware, the AcidBoxMynah is open source and made available under the MIT license.
More info at https://groovesizer.com/"
Update: press release follows:
"Hot on the heels of Mynah's launch this past May, Groovesizer has released AcidBoxMynah - a free, open-source alternative firmware that transforms the ESP32-S3-based sampler into a dedicated acid groovebox.
Built on copych's open-source AcidBox project, AcidBoxMynah takes what was originally a headless engine and gives it a full physical UI on Mynah hardware - 24 tactile switches, an 8×2 NeoPixel grid, OLED display, and a single pot for hands-on parameter control. Under the hood, it's a combo of two TB-303-style synths plus a TR-808-style drum machine, with filter cutoff, resonance, envelope mod, accent, wavefolder and overdrive per synth voice, plus hi-pass/lo-pass filtering and bitcrushing on the drums, all routed through send effects and master compression.
The Mynah fork adds a 16-step sequencer with per-step note, accent and slide editing, 16-lane synth and 8-lane drum automation, scale quantization, swing, and manual Sequencer Mode in addition to the original's autonomous Jukebox Mode. Quality-of-life additions include runtime drum kit browsing, per-voice muting, and pot-lock to prevent accidental parameter jumps.
Like the original AcidBox, it's fully open source under MIT license.
Switching is effortless. Owners can flash AcidBoxMynah straight from the Mynah web app's firmware tab and swap back to standard Mynah firmware anytime - AcidBoxMynah keeps its own folder on the SD card, so nothing overwrites or conflicts with existing samples and patterns.
AcidBoxMynah is available now at groovesizer.com/acidbox-mynah."
"Kepra is a rhythm instrument developed through detailed analysis of an original Japanese vintage programmable rhythm machine.
Rather than relying on sampled sounds, Kepra recreates each instrument by studying the original analog circuits, measuring waveforms, analyzing spectral content, and reproducing their behavior in software.
Developing Kepra felt less like sampling a drum machine and more like studying an archaeological artifact.
Every instrument was investigated through circuit analysis, waveform measurements, timing analysis, and spectral comparison to better understand how the original hardware produced its sound.
Rather than reproducing recordings, Kepra attempts to reconstruct the behavior behind them.
The Missing Instrument
One voice in Kepra did not exist on the original hardware.
The Shaker was designed as an 'imaginary expansion'—a voice inspired by the architecture and character of the original instrument.
Instead of adding a modern sample-based shaker, it was developed by asking a simple question:
'If the original designers had decided to include a shaker, how might they have built it using the same technology?'
The result is not a historical reproduction, but a speculative reconstruction that aims to remain faithful to the design philosophy of the original machine.
Not an Emulator
Kepra is not intended to be a museum piece.
It is a modern rhythm instrument built from careful hardware analysis, extending the ideas of a classic Japanese drum machine into new creative territory."
⏱️ Chapters
00:00 – Intro
00:14 – What happened since the last video? [embed below]
00:54 – New panels
01:17 – Fixing the noise problem
01:50 – Melon in live performances
02:03 – Firmware flashing infrastructure
02:32 – Updates to existing firmwares
03:08 – New firmwares
03:18 – Metal Hit
04:14 – RALPS
04:50 – Reese Bass
05:29 – Drums
06:26 – fxloperformer
07:29 – Final thoughts
"In this video, I’m taking a look at what has happened to melon since my last video. My 4HP Eurorack adaption of Hagiwo’s amazing RP2350-based MOD2 has grown quite a bit since then, with new panels, new firmware, community contributions, and improvements to the overall infrastructure.
"In this tutorial, I'll show you how to recreate those classic 80s synth-pop analog bells on the Korg Multi/Poly. Taking inspiration from the legendary Roland JX-10 (which is essentially two JX-8P synths in one box), we’ll dive into how to layer oscillators and use component modeling to achieve that iconic hollow, phasing tone.
Whether you're using the Multi/Poly or any other analog synth, these sound design principles will help you nail that vintage vibe. We’ll start from an initialized program and walk through everything from pulse width modulation and detuning to filter shaping and adding that essential chorus and delay.
Key Topics Covered:
Setting up square/pulse waveforms for a hollow bell tone.
Detuning techniques to mimic analog voice cards.
Shaping the sound with 24dB low-pass filters and envelopes.
Adding stereo depth using chorus, cross-delay, and stereo filters.
Experimenting with octaves and subtle noise for extra texture."
Timestamps
0:00 - Introduction to Synth Pop Bells
0:49 - Starting from an Initialized Program
1:18 - Oscillator Setup: Pulse Width & Waveforms
1:35 - Detuning for Analog Character
2:25 - Shaping the Bell with Filter Envelopes
3:30 - Adding Effects: Chorus, Delay & Reverb
4:21 - Testing Ring & Cross Modulation
5:04 - Adding Subtle Noise Texture
5:24 - Layering Octaves for Depth
7:18 - Stereo Filter & Panning Tips
7:56 - Adding Pitch Drift & Final Touches
8:40 - Outro & Suggest Your Ideas!
"In Volume 34 of my Torso Explorations series, we are diving deep into the POLY engine on the Torso Electronics S-4 sculpting sampler. While the S-4 is an incredible texture and ambient machine, the POLY engine transforms it into an expressive, 8-voice polyphonic synthesizer by arranging samples chromatically across the keys.
I walk you through how to configure and play the POLY engine using two external MIDI controllers: the Keith McMillen QuNexus keyboard for manual playing, and the Korg SQ-1 for sequencing.
The POLY engine gives you per-voice control over amplitude and filter envelopes, allowing you to sculpt raw samples into beautifully playable synth patches.
--
🎵 What's inside this video:
• Track 1: Demonstrating the core mechanics and envelope shaping of the POLY engine using a built-in stock sample.
• Track 2: A quick, live workflow showing how to sample an external acoustic instrument (my mandolin) using the S-4’s internal microphone and instantly flip it into a polyphonic synth patch.
This entire performance was recorded live in one take, with light mixing and mastering finished in Pro Tools. The video is fully annotated throughout so you can easily follow the exact parameters and routing I'm altering in real-time.
If you enjoy these deep dives into the S-4, please consider liking the video, subscribing to the channel, and leaving a comment with how you’re using your S-4!
--
00:00 - Intro
00:37 - Setting up a first POLY track
04:24 - Sending Audio from one track to another
06:12 - Quickly recording, trimming, and saving a new sample
07:05 - Using the new sample to create a second POLY track
08:34 - Let's add some drums?
09:03 - And let's play!"
"What happens when you build a vacuum tube-based hybrid synthesizer in a Soviet space lab and send it back from the future? Today we’re demoing, reviewing, and explaining MARS from Eternal Engine Electronic Musical Instruments — one of the strangest, most beautiful, and most aggressive modern synthesizers I’ve ever played.
MARS is often described as a four-voice polyphonic tube synthesizer, but architecturally it’s more accurately a paraphonic synthesizer. The four digital oscillator voices can be played across multiple notes, but they all share the same tube-based filter and vactrol-based amplifier. That puts MARS more in the tradition of instruments like the Korg Mono/Poly and Formanta Polivoks than a conventional analog polysynth.
In this video, I walk through the full architecture of the Eternal Engine MARS: the digital oscillator section, mono / duo / poly voice modes, pulse-width modulation, ensemble mode, FM synthesis, modulation matrix, envelopes, LFO, sample & hold, the gorgeous Nixie lamp interface, the resonant vacuum tube filter, and the asymmetric tube overdrive that gives this synth its raw, snarling character.
This is not a safe, polite, modern analog synth. MARS is boutique, unusual, heavy, beautifully built, and absolutely vicious when pushed. The tube filter and drive section give it a sound that feels alive in a way most modern synthesizers don’t — somewhere between vintage analog synth, industrial bass machine, experimental sound design box, and Soviet sci-fi artifact.
If you’re into industrial music, EBM, darkwave, synthwave, experimental electronic music, vintage synthesizers, boutique synths, tube distortion, paraphonic synthesis, analog filters, FM basses, PWM pads, or Polivoks-style aggression, MARS is worth hearing.
I also talk through who I think this synth is actually for — and who should probably pass on it. Because while I absolutely adore the sound, MARS is not a cheap “do everything” synth, and it’s not trying to compete with mass-market analog polysynths. It’s a character instrument. A monster. A special machine for people who want something truly different."
Prague, Czech Republic, June 23, 2026: Beetlecrab Audio announces Tempera Firmware v2.3, a firmware update introducing cross-modulation, audio envelope follower, quad-macro control, per-emitter pitch sequencing, and numerous community-driven workflow enhancements.
Tempera is a hardware granular synthesizer built around a simple idea: eight samples laid out on a surface, with grains roaming across. At its core is a granular engine with a global pool of 4096 grains, shared across voices, and any single voice can claim the entire pool if needed. Tempera is just as happy chopping breaks and sequencing tight rhythmic patterns as it is building massive drifting clouds. Since launch it has found its way to musicians in over 60 countries, growing steadily through firmware updates shaped and steered by a community that has lived with the instrument long enough to know it inside out.
"In this livestream I walk through DS8 Drumstream, a drum machine and groovebox for the PlayStation Vita.
I cover the main features in the current build, including the 8 drum tracks, step sequencing, voice editing, per-step automation, pattern tools, insert effects, send effects, master effects, and some of the performance controls built around the Vita’s physical buttons.
DS8 is still in active development, so this is an early look at the workflow, sound, and overall direction of the project.
