If you’re sitting on the fence about getting one of these, get one! Sure it’s not the sturdiest piece of kit but you won’t notice that once you start twiddling. Also set your phone timer for 1 hour, otherwise you might lose an entire afternoon without realising :)
I love my skulpt... I nicknamed it "The Drone Box" not long after getting it.. the power in it is unreal. I play it through a small Zoom multi effects unit for deeper stereo delay and lush reverbs and it sounds superb imo
Wow, I was expecting to hate that thing, but it's actually pretty damn awesome. Has that organic analog-like sound and a whole lot of useful features. Might have to add that to my G.A.S. list.
Impressed more than I thought I would be! Poly mode is a great option! Sound is very nice! Significant sound design ability on the go! And in the studio it gives your cpu a break. Sounds like a winner!
Looks great. I was a first round backer months ago and was reasonably anticipatory of this one but this newest demonstration has me very excited now. Based on the patching I'm hearing here, I have a feeling I'll be adding at least a little bit of noise to everything I program with it. The noise on this one just sounds very musical and harmonically pleasing to my ears. I also have a feeling that I'll be hooking it up to a stereo chorus and reverb quite quickly as well. Between this and my OP-Z, I feel like I've got all the mobile power I'll need for a while.
yeah for me after my last show where I used just a circuit + laptop and was pretty satisfied, I think adding this to a compact setup will be perfect - should be coming on friday and I am really excited about it.
I thought it sounded really good and I'm increasingly of the opinion that if a digital synth sounds good and has hands-on control then the need to fetishise analogue goes away. As for the short collar turning inwards during a review video? We've all been there Nick.
Sounds gorgeous!! I'm a big digital fan. One thing I would suggest though, I wish more synth companies would get on board with having USB audio (like most of Roland's new kit) it really does affect my buying decisions these days, and I'm surprised by how rarely it's implemented. I just love the convenience of it. If this had that then it would be a no brainer purchase for me.
Those Roland boutiques are a pain in the arse to hook up with USB audio. It's like they didn't expect people to buy more than one. Each device becomes an audio device of it's own and it's not clear how to set them up with your main sound device as instructions are poor
Looks really interesting. Build in full plastic is a bit off a shame, but damn with all midi out it's a damn impressive controller as well. Also a different synth structure as most things, so it is unique :)
This looks and sounds great, I like that they put Midi CC and Midi Din sockets on the unit, you could also use this as a plug-in synth controller and hook it up to your Midi gear, as well as being a fully programmable synth. Good stuff. 👍👍
How well does this synth compare to the MicroMonsta and PreenFM 2? Or is it like comparing apples and oranges? I’m leaning towards the PreenFM 2 for it’s 14 voices and multi-timbral features. Still on the fence though, so many choices.
Had been weighing up between MicroMonsta and Skulpt too - went for the SKulpt for now due to the sequencer and number of knobs. But note the 'for now' in the prev sentence, because I am still impressed by the micromonsta. Not yet heard of the PreenFM, so now I have to go and look that up, thanks! :-)
@@esoteric6178 lol oh yeah still have my hands full! This little thing sounds pretty good, actually is surprising! But yeah, no plans to pick one up as of now.
I've preferred more wysiwig functions, and no keyboard at all ! But this little thing is pretty impressive , "Modal" are good in mini gears production !
Man I love autosample. I grab patches from my favorite soft synths and pull them up as key groups on my Akai Force fairly regular. I’ve had this Skulpt for a while, but I’m just now getting around to it. Right into the usb of any modern Akai Groovebox and you’re off recording synth lines.
Got mine on Thursday. Had a query on the power connection with Modal as well as a minor one on the harmonics and they gave me a full reply, so very impressed with customer service. I’m still getting to grips with it but I have made a couple of nice patches, mainly pads. I would say that the build quality is definitely not premium, and the power supply makes me hate switching it off and on (you basically have to unplug it from a volt sensing power supply like a phone charger) to power cycle. However, I’m really glad I backed it and I still want a 002R! Thanks for the review Nick.
Nice video Nick, thanks for that! It really is a very nice and special synth. Takes some getting used to, but very worth while (my kickstarter arrived yesterday). Hope they will improve the MS Windows desktop app soon (missing a dll, haven't got round to fixing that yet).
I’ve got the CraftSynth 2 and it’s 8 Oscillators make creating chords a snap. Is it possible to use the Skulpt Multitimbral? IOW play 4 monophonic patches on it vs 4 voices each with 8 Oscillators? Thank you
If you already had a Novation Summit would you bother with this? Because to me it seems to have a flavour different and is tempting me. It sounds better for my purposes than my behringer analogues which I may sell in favour of synths like this Skulpty unit.. Plus after hearing soft synths like the Uhe Repro I feel like I have no need for the analogues where I can't save patches etc whereas the Repro and others they not only save settings but open as you left them in the entire project.
This sounds absolutely fantastic. wish they would release a VST of this, but really it sounds surprisingly good. If it had 6 voices I would buy it for sure.
I think the Microfreak's keyboard is a thing of genius. The surface simplicity of the oscillator controls and the ease of use of the mod matrix set it apart from anything else on the market. That said, for more traditional VA and wavetable synthesis with effects the Skulpt may better suit your needs.
This sounds really good...waits to hear price tag....Wow! £270. That's pretty fair. Did you say how polyphonic it was? I'm a bit disappointed by the inexact automation sequencing and dodgy compatibility with Beatstep Pro (is this something that a firmware update will resolve?). Overall it sounds good and interesting. Thanks for this review.
+Wagoo Thanks. So 4 key polyphony? When people speak int erms of "voice," I always get it confused with timbre/patch. To me, saying something has "four voice" means it can play four patches at once. 4 note polyphony for £270 is still decent.
Four voice as in you can play 4 different notes at the same time of the same patch. Each note contains 8 sound generators (oscillators).. which is a lot more per voice than usual.. we usually see 1-4 oscillators per voice in most synths. For four different patches at once you need to say "4 part multitimbral"
The resonance filter and drive reminds me of my Vermona retroverb lancet. I got similar sounds when running a clean bass station 2 saw wave thru retroverb's drive and filter, and then modulated by the LFO, and envelope in retroverb. I can see this thing in a stage setup :-)
I propably missed something but is the editor software mandatory for using some features or is everything available on the box also ? Love(!!) the sound and the options and don´t mind learning a few keycombos to keep the computers off..
@Modal Electronics, congrats, what a nice little synth you made! My personal thoughts after wanting this is that I could also have a big brother version in the future. With features like full size jacks, long lasting connectors, metal construction, keyboard or no-board dos not matter, you could bump up the price to 500 and add more panel control maybe, something like this, something I know will be with me for many years, which is one of my priorities now a days since two Arturia products failed on me, one after a few years and one after a month (get a grip @Arturia your reputation is degrading, plastic toy makers).
the synth sounds relay nice. can i use recharble batteries in it and let them in the synth while USB power is connected? can you turn off the metronom? or lead to the headphone out? and last question: what are those midi cables? i need some shot cables like that. are they available in germany?
Anyone know how you power this with usb whilst also connecting to the app and a usb midi controller which also needs power. Every one else seems to know this, as this video shows, but how to do it seems to be a closely guarded secret. Anyone know? Finding this out is so difficult because it's such a long and specific search query, I can only find bits of solutions. Or even being able to power it via usb whilst being connected to the app would be a start.
Usb hub, or your host device should be able to supply power. If it's an iOS device, you'll need one of apple's camera connection kits that also have a lighting power input
Is this now finally stereo after some two years of firmware updates? Interested in purchasing one because it’s a tiny and portable midi controller and just dropped down to $199
I don't think so. However I've found a monaural poly is quite handy when running into one of the inputs of say, a Digitakt, while the other input handles a mono synth. :D
Just got one of these for Christmas and popped it up to the 2.0 firmware update. What a neat little device to pair with other things in my collection. I am amused though that to us synth nerds this falls in the "affordable / slightly impulse buy" territory. But for the rest of the world this is a pricey gift (when say a bluray movie or a amazon gift could would be half to a quarter of the price. Fortunate indeed.
It would probably require more DSP power for a full stereo signal path, but let's hope so - 32 oscillators in mono gets mushy and I would gladly give up half of them for true stereo operation
If it was possible to add in an update it would move this from something Im interested in into the must-have wishlist. And I agree, I'd take 1/2 the oscs for stereo pads that sound that good!
I have the white one. There are no port labels on the back at all; I had to guess as to which jack was the output. Glad to see them labeled on the black version.
I just got back from the UK, so only playing with it a bit today. I haven't gotten far yet, but so far, sounds great and has good controls (although the labels are a bit tricky to easily eye-up given all the angles). The on-board keyboard isn't useful for anything but the most basic sound testing, so an external controller is a must. The filter is pretty sweet and smooth. The types of sounds it does well feel like they should need 6 or 8 voices, however. This can be poly-chained so that's a possibility. I hope this synth does well for Modal. They seem like a great company, and I'd like to encourage more boutique mid to high-end synth manufacturers like them. For the $260 or so it cost me on Kickstarter, it's a bargain.
@spacezignul: Using midi sustain / hold that is possible. It doesn't have a hold button or sustain pedal input for its own. B.t.w all available parameters can be controlled / modulated via MIDI CC.
Nice to see Modal know how to spell synthesiser. The electronics are well sorted and it makes some very nice lush sounds to be sure. Not a huge fan of the layout but it at least has an interesting 'designer look' in that regard and is still more or less quite functional. Modal do some really great kit from what I've seen. people don't have to buy analog to sound analog - and these days, DSPs have knobs to twiddle in abundance. everybody wins.
Why all the mini usb powered synths? If I plug any of them into my computer I get a little bit of noise. At least with digital synths. My Korg Ms20 mini takes USB with zero issues. I’ve had better luck powering these sorts of things with a phone power adapter thing to plug into the mains. And yes I run all power for the studio thru a fairly high end Furman power conditioner.
So use a phone power adapter and problem solved? I've just had my SKULPT plugged into a spare USB port so far and haven't noticed any noise though FWIW
It is an unfortunate norm to have noise going into your gear through the USB 5VDC line. It's been that way for years and will continue into the foreseeable future.
@@phillytee9106 I haven't seen much about that yet. I doubt that it will be. You'll just have to "gamble" and hope that the computer that you purchase(d) will be low-noise-ish.
