A drum synth, percussion sequencer and sequenced percussion synth VST/AU plugin for one drum voice at a time. Two oscillators, noise and click layers, filters, drive, six decay envelopes, and four per-step lanes. Run one instance per drum.
Engine
Two oscillators, noise and click layers feed a switchable low-pass / high-pass filter section, pre/post drive, and six independent decay envelopes.
"Additional touch pads and the centre pad no longer tied to the root note. And it's purple! In this video I talk about these enhancements to MIDIPan and make some music using the built-in looper.
[Alternative ways of interfacing with a synth engines]
"'Klangfarbe' is not a metaphor, it is how our brains perceive sound. But if sound is colour, then why are most synths built like lab equipment?
Abyss II is built on a simple yet radical premise: a synth designed around how we actually experience sound. It keeps you in the flow rather than forcing you into abstract formulas. Just play with colours, as you would mess with paint.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Sound is Colour
0:12 How Brains Perceive Sound
0:28 Synths = Lab Equipment?
0:45 Abyss II First Impression
1:05 Patch in 60 Seconds
2:05 E-Pianos & Variations
3:01 Handpan Sample to Preset
3:40 Pad in 30 Seconds
4:12 Sequencer Demo
4:30 Palettes from Samples
4:55 Full Track (25 Instances)
All sounds in the video are created using Abyss.
The track 'Stare in2 the Abyss' was made by Rich.
Abyss II will be released August 20th, 2026
https://www.dawesomemusic.com/"
"Sometimes I just wanna reach for a happy accident sequencer, and that's where I find the @instruo Pocket Scion so, so useful. Small, battery powered; the only other thing you need is a plant 🪴
Here it's sequencing the @whimsicalraps Atrium, with a little Cocoquantus, Cosmos and Bim off screen, and a little bass texture towards the end from @slateandash Choreographs. Most of what you hear though, is coming from Atrium sequenced by Pocket Scion.
"A slow, fairly minimal jam that appeared at the end of a testing session while I was working on improvements across the Unusable Engineering full suite.
There are only three sounds.
The pulse / heartbeat-like rhythm comes from Logic’s Drum Synth, processed with Spectral Pressure Chamber and a static Frequency Guillotine setting used mainly for EQ shaping and stereo spread.
The main keyboard sound is Partials & Discrepancies. It is a four-slot patch built from very few partials, but with constant movement between the slot states. That runs through a stereo tremolo sequence in Binaural Modulator, subtle stepped movement from Frequency Guillotine, a slowly modulated Geometry Delay, and a similarly slow-moving Geometry Reverb.
The high drone comes from Curves & Membranes, using two currently unreleased features and some portamento movement. It runs through a slewing Frequency Guillotine sequence, a deeper modulated Geometry Delay, and another slow Geometry Reverb setting.
Partials & Discrepancies is being played from both a Moog Muse over regular MIDI and a ROLI Seaboard Rise 2 using MPE at the same time.
I have started liking this combination quite a lot. The regular keyboard gives you the predictable part of the performance, while the MPE controller can add pressure, slide, and more expressive movement on top of it without having to commit the whole patch to one playing style.
Truth be told, most of my testing sessions ends with something like this. It is a nice way to clear the head.
"In this video, I walk through a new web app called Plaits Palette (https://rubato.audio/plaits-palette/), which lets you easily create your own custom firmware for Mutable Instruments Plaits. You can assign synthesis models from a large library to slots of your choosing in up to 4 banks on the module. You can also customize chord tables, speech models, DX7 patches, and many additional new functions.
[You can find additional demos by Starsky Carr, BoBeats, and Molten Music Technology further below.]
Pittsburgh Modular Lifeforms SV-2 Lifeforms SV-2 from Pittsburgh Modular is a duophonic analog semi-modular keyboard synthesizer that honors classic East Coast subtractive architecture while packing a punch of flavorful twists afforded by modern technology. A full-blown revamp of the SV-1, it features updates to nearly every aspect of the instrument: new oscillator core, classic PGH filters updated with new character modes and overdrive stages, new spring reverb, new response curves and range modes on the ADSR envelopes, a custom 37-key keyboard with pitch-bend and mod wheels, and a redesigned interface with eighty-four patch points along the top. Moreover, a 24hp Eurorack expansion bay with three power headers sits alongside them, so external modules of your choosing can be dropped into the signal path at any point.
