Modal Skulpt - 4 Voice Virtual Analog Synthesizer - SonicLAB Review 

like the back of nick's butt mate

@@experimentalme7438 😂

He's really good at reviewing synths indeed.

Lmao

I now know how much I appreciate PWM and sing-song harmonics.

ProckGnosis Actually considering ditching the Minilogue for this.

because it is made in China with slave sweat shop labor.

Renaissance Man you say that like it’s a bad thing.

@@kgreggbruce1552 well it's not completely positive is it

@@GuitarsAndSynths Yes like nearly everything, including the device you typed that comment on...

Totally agree

Ive started to notice that. If he gives the Synth the shoulder..its a BUY! :D

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.

I'd love to see this run through the minilouge!

t3l3phasicworksh0p Hope they do a Skulpt + Uno synth.

As a musician and producer I must say the sound of the Sculpt is inspiring

Argon 8 is now available. :)

AND A 4 pole Filter, please

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! :-)

I felt that way about the encoders on the Argon 8. :(

@ChasingDogma: of course you could. But you could have 2 Skulpts so an 8-voice / dual 4-voice synth for the price of an ipad. Some people prefer computers and soft synths, others prefer no desktop computers and hardware synths instead. Nothing wrong with either.

ChasingDogma but then you’d be just another douche making lame music on your iPad synth. Too much of that around already.

I can't abide the sound of synths coming out of an iPad without some external processing. :(

Probably because of the processing power needed to run more voices, it's a tiny unit so maybe not enough onboard power to run more.

“Digital” does not mean limitless.

@@korneykretov4668 it soon will. FPGA!!!

Hornie: FPGAs aren't limitless arrays, either. For the voice count I will say there's a trend recently to focus more system power into each voice.. and also firmware is probably coded in a higher level language more often these days so doesn't extract as much low level power out of the hardware as it potentially could.. eg. vs a Virus which is all 56k machine code.. but also gives Access the problem of being stuck on that architecture.. there isn't really an upgrade route for them on that DSP platform at the moment to make a new Virus worthwhile, unless they just add more chips. It is surprising we don't have something like a DX that can stack 1000s of DX7s together, though

@@phillytee9106 I'm sure they could run more if thtt was the goal of teh device - I tend to agree with OP and even 6-8 voices vs 4 makes a huge difference and would be worth a few sacrifices elsewhere for.

The Uno sucks. Only cheap little synth I've ever decided to return right after buying it.

@@MattGreerMusic Uno is a beast.

You'll have to power it from USB dear, or get another paper round

ben1210 I think the ultranova has a good sound engine too, plus you get a quality keyboard controller.

why exactly ? Have you any concept about how many quality brands are made in state of the art factories in China across all industries ? its not 1970 now....

I might recommend the Modal 002 and 008 for non dsp and non-cheap poly synths. The sculpt will also work without a patch editor.

This thing is a beast, no editor needed. The light indicators on the keys are perfect and not a nuisance whatsoever imho. Way better that all the hardware synths where the presets don’t match the actual knob positions. Love it.

​@@yongamusic How much have you been paid for this comment ? Can't believe it is spontaneous... (How can you "love it" since a this time the device is sold nowhere even in greatest official shops in London ?)

@@ksqmusic mode 002 and 008 are other models, they are perhaps cool, but this one is too cheap. I did not said you can't use it without the editor, not technically, but the front is so poor using th editor seems the only way to have good informations to work. And my real question was why buying a "hardware synth" if it is just a VST is a box with less possibilities ? Frankly there are tons of VST sounding better. I can bet you will not be able to tell the difference in a test...

Olivier Dahan Good question! I am one of the Kickstarter backers and received the unit a couple of days ago. After some twiddling I was very positively surprised. Then my 17-year-old nephew visited and I showed him the thing and how intuitive it is. After that he spent about three hours playing the Skulpt on his own and was very inspired. Spontaneous enough?

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.

it costs £240 and will fit in your pocket, better its plastic as that is light and sturdy

Whatupdoe Kev I just picked up one .

It actually runs on only 3 batteries which is why it lasts so long! 😳

@@PodOfHeat 3? You mean 6

@Digital Diezel: It does have poly mode of course. Think you refer to polychaining to extend the number of voices, which indeed is a great option.

Space I woiuld think a pcb mounted USB port full size, is much larger. But I agree, its a crappy connector. But on the plus side, universally available

I always find that micro USB feels/seems crappy, but have honestly never had any problems so far.

why not type C?!

Totally agree

Me too. Seemed unnecessary at first with my TR-8 but I wish everyone had it now as you said.

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

My friend had to use asio4all as it seems to be the only way to get multiple boutiques to play together

u have a mini jack and an input you just hit record, same thing

A real missed opportunity imho - especially when the pads sound so good!

If we talk about it in an civilized way maybe it will become available in an future update since the synth is DSP based

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!

Yeah maybe a stereo mode would require something else to be sacrificed!?

Same here and I think Im gonna go with skulpt because of the portability and real polyphony with realtime sequence is way better than microfreak

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.

Yes and Mod wheel too I beielve

Aren't you still busy with the Moog One? You won't have any space left soon. Lol

@@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.

Nick sold me the Reface CS, Neutron and now this :p

It's 4 voice, but 8 oscillators per voice.. you can polychain up to 4 SKULPT modules to build a 16 voice system

+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"

That’s a cool idea. I don’t find the touch key bed very intuitive though. Usable, just not ideal.

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

Just give it to me for free, your yearly charity service ;)

You know, if I could give a synth to a better home and still be well off, and if I didn't already give to charity regularly, I would... Keep trying though. You won't get if you don't ask!

@@JDStoneCreations haha all good. I like both but Neutron wins for me. Will get 1 one day.

Had a neutron and it was fun. It harsh but full sounding. I just got my skulpt and it’s fantastic.

It sounds awesome... but it made me discover that I like presets as well as exploring sound haha. Definitely considering the swap thats for sure.

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.

Is USB-C any better?

Run that noise thru some shimmer delay and call it a feature! xD

@@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.

yeah if it was made in the USA I would love one but not buying Chinese made crap.

Renaissance Man lol shut up

Renaissance - stop spreading your hate for the Chinese. We get it

@@GuitarsAndSynths Modal are based in the UK btw.

@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.

An advice : connect your craft to the Typhon 's effect section...