Published
Sat, Sep 9, 2023, 14:00
- Ample is a three-oscillator monosynth with a pin matrix.
British company Analogue Solutions has just released a new synth.
The company says Ample takes many favourite elements of its past instruments and rolls them into a compact, desktop instrument. Three analogue oscillators plus a sub-oscillator create tones that run through a filter, a ring modulator and two envelopes. There's a 16-stage analogue sequencer and an inbuilt bucket-brigade delay.
Modulation is managed via a pin matrix, which is an unusual way of routing control voltage by sticking little pegs into holes. The system was used originally by EMS, a pioneering synth company from the 1970s whose work is a major influence on many of Analogue Solutions' designs. Additional modulation routings can be created using patch cables and there's a touch-plate interval generator that spits out different control voltages for yet more modulation sources.
According to Analogue Solutions, "aside from the MIDI chip (which has to be digital), everything else is totally analogue using real transistors and op-amps. There are no CPU stabilised and quantised circuits, no DCOs, no digital LFOs and no digital EGs, as found on other so-called analogue synths. The circuitry is based on designs dating back to the mid-1970s. So Ample has a genuine old sound."
Watch a demo.
Ample is available now in limited quantities for £1,999.