Modulus, a Bristol-based start-up that designs and manufactures musical instruments, has launched the Modulus.002, the world’s first analogue/digital music synthesizer de- signed for the Internet age. Designed and built in the UK by a team of passionate synthesizer experts, it creates the rich analogue sounds that have been at the heart of creative music since the 1960’s by using a mix of classic analogue techniques and the latest digital technology to give reliability and innovation.
Analogue synthesizers from the last century are collectors’ items and highly sought after because of the amazing sounds but the electronics are now getting old and increasingly frail,” explained Philip Taysom, Modulus co-founder.
“It’s tough to use them for live performances or recording sessions as they are difficult to keep working. Most modern designs of polyphonic synthesizers are pure digital and just don’t have the same iconic sound qualities, in our opinion. What we have created in the Modulus.002 is a fusion of these iconic analogue and hybrid sounds of the 70s and 80s synthesizers with the reliability of the latest electronics plus Internet connectivity to share sounds, settings and work collaboratively on music without relying on painfully slow serial/MIDI connections to do so. This is the first synthesizer designed for the interconnected 21st Century.
The UK pioneered the synthesizer industry back in the 60s and 70s and that has grown to a three-quarters of a billion pound a year global business, but now with little UK input. We are putting the UK back on the map with the first polyphonic synthesizer to have been completely designed and built in the UK for several decades.”
“Alongside the voice architecture, a key innovation is that the Modulus.002 connects to the Internet,” explained Paul Maddox, Modulus co-founder. “As musicians and synthesizer enthusiasts ourselves, we know exactly how people actually use synthesizers and what they wish they could do; so we designed the Modulus.002 to be the instrument that meets those needs and be the next generation synthesizer to inspire a new wave of musical creation.
Synthesizers have been a defining part of the music of every decade for the past fifty years with each new generation of synthesizer providing a new soundscape. Being able to work collaboratively is fundamental and the Modulus.002 enables this to happen very easily using its Internet connection to the Modulus, cloud-based server platform to share settings, sequences and sounds. Musicians can now work together thousands of miles apart to create new music together. But, we wanted to go further than this, so we’re making our cloud technology Open Platform and, later in the year, we aim to form a consortium to encourage adoption of this standard by other manufacturers.”
The Modulus.002TM is the first in a planned family of synthesizers that will be launched over the next few years.
Dealers and agents are being established in many countries and product will be available by the end of July 2014. The UK price is £2995 plus VAT (£3594), the European price €3,750 plus the appropriate VAT and the US price is $5200 plus local sales tax prices correct at time of release.