Sequential Take 5 & Take 5 Desktop Update: Poly Chain Now Supports Up to 10 Voices
Updates for Sequential Synths
4,4 / 5,0 | 
The Sequential Take 5 and Take 5 Desktop are receiving a significant update! The new Poly Chain feature lets you connect two units and create a 10-voice synthesizer. But that’s not the only new feature.
Sequential Take 5 Desktop & Updates
Sequential Take 5 Poly Chain Update
Sequential has released a new OS update for the Take 5 and Take 5 Desktop. The most important new feature is Poly Chain. Poly Chain, which allows two units – whether Take 5 Desktop or Keyboard – to be linked together. This creates a 10-voice analog synthesizer that won’t run out of voices, even with dense chords and complex arrangements. All settings made on one synthesizer are seamlessly transferred to the second.
Additionally, the Sequential Take 5 update includes ten new arpeggio modes. These patterns, such as “Spiral” and “Leapfrog,” are significantly more varied than the typical up-and-down patterns. They are designed to create lively, organic parts. The new Whiplash function ensures that arpeggio patterns always last the same length of time, regardless of how many notes they contain, and is also likely to prove very useful. This makes it much easier to integrate patterns into an arrangement.
Additionally, the Sequential Take 5 features a new type of noise. Violet Noise emphasizes high frequencies while reducing the prominence of the bass range. This creates new possibilities for sound design.
The free update for the Sequential Take 5 and Take 5 Desktop is now available for download on the manufacturer’s website. The update is also available for the closely related Oberheim TEO-5/Desktop.
You can get the Sequential Take 5 and Take 5 Desktop at Thomann*.
The Sequential Sound Is Now Even More Compact
[01 July 2025] Sequential announces the Take 5 Desktop Module, a keyless tabletop version of the affordable analog synth with (almost) no changes to the control layout.
Sequential Take 5 Desktop Module
In 2021, Sequential released Take 5, an affordable take (excuse the pun) on the Prophet-5 with built-in effects, a sequencer and a three and a three-and-a-half octave keybed. Today, the company has announced Take 5 Desktop Module, a keyless tabletop version of the synth that manages to shrink the size while still retaining most of the control layout.
“Ever since we launched the Take 5 keyboard, we’ve gotten repeated requests for a desktop module version,” said Sequential CEO David Gibbons. “And more recently, it seems that modules have really shot up in popularity. So, we’re very excited to offer the Take 5 sound in a format that everyone seems to want.”
Hands-on Control
Sometimes, when companies reduce their full-size synths down to desktop format, some of the hands-on control is lost. Thankfully, the Take 5 Desktop Module retains almost everything. Comparing the two side-by-side, it appears the only concession to real estate has been in the LFO section. While the original keyboard version offers separate controls for the two LFOs, the new Take 5 Desktop Module combines them into one section with a button to select between LFO one and two. Additionally, they are now labeled Mono and Poly rather than Global and Per Voice, although the functions remain the same. (This also brings the naming convention in line with the TEO-5, which also got the desktop treatment.)
The new desktop module has also lost Low Split, which makes sense as that was a performance function based on the keyboard.
The rest of the Take 5 Desktop Module is the same as the original (minus the keys and mod wheels, of course), with five voices, two analog VCOs per voice and continuously variable wave shapes, a square wave sub-oscillator, hard sync and FM, four-pole resonant lowpass filter per voice based on the Prophet-5 Rev 4 design, two five-stage envelopes, effects (reverb and multi-effect), dedicated overdrive and vintage controls, an arpeggiator, and more.
Pricing and Availability
This new Take 5 looks like another winner from Sequential. If you have less space than you’d like in your studio but have been hankering for an affordable Sequential instrument, you’re in luck.
The Sequential Take 5 Desktop Module is available at Thomann* for $1275 / £1125 / €1299.
More Information
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