There is a new star shimmering at the synth horizon: The Analog Complex Wave Synth. The SunSyn isn't merely a "virtual" or simulation-type "clone product", but instead is a "controlled, organically cultivated, fully analog synth"...a highly advanced polyphonic and multitimbral 8 voice synth with presets and full midi implementation.
Although the SunSyn is fully analog, it doesn't share the typical sound-limitations of other analog synthesizers because it has a feature called RCO's (Ramp Controlled Oscillator). This is the first synthesizer which allows you to play complex digital waveforms with the timbre of the analog VCO's. Additionally, it is possible to use the classic VCO's by themselves. The RCO follows the VCO with all the fine tunings and frequency alterations that the analog VCO does. This results in a completely new expression for waveforms that formerly was not possible in the analog and pure digital world. The complex digital waveforms start coming alive when driven by the analog oscillators. Other than that, the RCO's follow all the movements of the analog VCO's, such as modulation, OSC sync and restart (Phase starts new at retrigger). Furthermore, it is possible to give the RCO's their own relative pitch. Per voice there are two of these oscillators, which makes four oscillators for each voice.....
The filter section contains a fully configurable 4 pole analog filter. One can adjust the highpass/lowpass characteristic individually for each filter pole and the coefficients (meaning a basic cutoff frequency for each pole individually), too. Thus, you have the ability to crossfade from a typical Moog 4pole to an 18 dB/octave 303 lowpass and to an Oberheim 2 pole filter without steps. Additionally, using the HP/LP switching for each pole, it is possible to create the craziest bandpass and highpass filter sounds. But there's even more: You can store 2 Scenes for each filter setup that include ALL filter parameters and it is then possible to MORPH (in the analog domain, of course) between these two...
Like the rest of the machine, the both envelopes are analog and fast. One of them can be inverted. The typical classic envelope “paths³ (filter ENV2 Amt and VCA ENV1 Amt) are hardwired and each have their own knob.
Per voice, the SunSyn has two LFO's (resulting in 16 LFO's total) that can be applied to events, and they can be delayed . They have the common waveforms triangle, sawtooth up/down, rectangle and sample/hold. The maximum LFO rate will be at approx. 1 kHz and will go as low as 0.02 Hz.
Last, but not least, is one of our most important innovations: The Routing System.
The Routing System actually turns the SunSyn into an 8-voice Modular System with storable wiring paths. Because in a real analog synthesizer all signals exist "physically", and for each modulation path there is the need for its own VCA, the hardware effort would increase to impractical amounts if one wanted to create all of the possible modulations, especially considering the multitimbrality. However, since no one could use all the modulations at the same time, nor control them, the choice of 4 different modulations per voice should be enough in a real world application. But with this concept there are a tremendous number of possible modulations.
In the SunSyn, this is achieved by circuits called Routing Elements. These are VCA-elements with one or two assignable inputs (sources), assignable adjusters (modifiers) and assignable outputs (destinations). There are 4 of these Routing Elements for every voice. Simply calculated, each Routing Element can result in a possibility of 4096 different modulations! And this does not include the additional different assignments for the midi-controller (first entry in the modifier list)!
Source1
1 of 8+ Source 2
1 of 8+ Modifier
1 of 8* Destination
1 of 8VCO1 S
VCO1 R
RCO1
ENV 1
VCO1KV
VCO1PV
NOISE
LFO1VCO2 S
VCO2 R
RCO2
ENV 2
VCO2KV
VCO2PV
EXT IN
LFO2Controller
VCO1 S
VCO2 R
ENV 1
ENV2
RCO1
LFO1
LFO2VCO1 FM
VCO2 FM
VCO1 PW
VCO2 PW
VCF CUT
VCF RES
VCF IN
VCA AMTSource1 Source2
Explained methaphorically, a Routing Element is similar to a cable of a modular system which consists of two inputs and one output, with an electronically adjustable potentiometer between them to control intensity.
The adjustment of the intensity can be a midi controller (control change, velocity, aftertouch) or an analog signal out of the synth itself. This means that modulations of modulations are possible. And all of this works in a purely analog domain. Therefore all operations are not limited by fixed point calculation errors (like in DSP's), but instead offer the full dynamics for modulations which can be rather "chaotic".
An example:
Both VCO's are cross modulated. This uses 2 Routing Elements, one for each direction. The intensity of the modulation can be controlled by key velocity, for instance. At the same time, an external audio signal is mixed with noise and cut into pieces by LFO1 and is mixed into the filter input.
Now there still remains one Routing Element to ring-modulate RCO1 and RCO2, for example, and to let the result modulate the VCA amount (if RCO2 is the source and RCO1 the modifier, both signals get multiplied; resulting in ring modulation). The resulting sound would be extremely hard to imagine!
The SunSyn has an LCD-Display with four soft-controllers to select the waveforms and to perform the master editing. A 3-digit LED-display shows the program number and the currently altered parameters in a clear, readable fashion.
Each of the 40 most important parameters has its own knob.
All knob movements and keypad events are sent and received as midi controller data. Jomox will deliver editor templates for the common sequencer systems (Cubase, Opcode, Logic, Performer, etc) to easily get up and running with this synth.
The SunSyn contains a card-slot for PCMCIA Cards to store waveforms and sounds. The maximum storage capacity is 16 MB per Card; this is equivalent to storing 63 banks with 256 waveforms plus 500 patches (roughly 350 single/150 multi). The internal wave storage is 8 banks of 256 waves.
There is a stereo-in for external audio signals, that also may be control voltages. Each of the eight voices has an individual output. Each voice can be assigned its own pan location in the stereo output. The headphone out has its own volume knob.
230/110Volts. The line voltage can be adjusted at the back of the unit for either European or US/Japanese voltages, and the unit uses a standard power cable.
19" Inch rack mount metal case. If not mounted in the rack, the unit can be put on a table as a "desktop model" with the included wooden side panels. The newly designed rack-ears can be swapped to be either a rackmount-bracket or a side panel with wood.