Dave Ball Passes, plus Move Over, TONTO, GIORGIO III is Here! – Synth Journal
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Synth Journal, where we round up the tidbits of synth news that may have missed your attention, but we know you’ll love. We’ve got the mighty GIORGIO III, but first, some sad news…
We start with some very sad news to bring you from the synth world. In other news, things are picking up as we enter the pre-Holiday season and manufacturers start vying for your Christmas budgets! So it is easy for things to get lost in the noise. Fear not, as Synth Journal is here to keep you informed.
Synth Journal – 23rd October 2025
Dave Ball of Soft Cell Passes Away
Just before going to press with this week’s Synth Journal, we learned of the very sad news that Dave Ball of Soft Cell, and latterly The Grid, passed away yesterday at the age of 66. As one half of Soft Cell, he and Marc Almond blazed a trail, not only for electronic music but also for the LGBTQIA+ community.
Bursting onto the scene with their now classic version of the Northern Soul track, ‘Tainted Love’, they ploughed a furrow all of their own with Marc’s dramatic vocals and Dave’s sparse but impactful instrumentation. Their debut album was smothered in early Synclavier that belonged to their producer, Mike Thorne.
Dave acknowledged how lucky they were to have such a tool to use and it certainly gave their songs a very unique sound. After Soft Cell split, Dave would form a number of small and unsuccessful bands, only to rediscover chart success with The Grid and their hit single ‘Swamp Thing’.
Dave and Marc reconvened as Soft Cell in 2002 for another album, and then parted ways again. In 2018, they reformed again for a farewell tour that turned out to be anything but. Such was the demand for new Soft Cell material, they released ‘Happiness Not Included’ in 2022 and had just finished work on their forthcoming long player, ‘Danceteria’ when Dave passed away peacefully in his sleep on Wednesday, October 22nd 2025.
Everyone here at Gearnews is devastated by this loss and extends their deepest sympathies to Dave’s family, friends and, of course, his musical partner for over 40 years, the incomparable Marc Almond.
Hans Zimmer’s SynTesla GIORGIO III Modular Synthesizer
There’s always someone who has to have the biggest, the best, the loudest, the most flashy things and when it comes to synthesizers, that person is generally Hans Zimmer! But these things are never just trinkets or items to sit back and view at your leisure. Like TONTO in the 70s, GIORGIO III is a fully working instrument.
Oh no, Hans doesn’t waste his hard-earned and well-deserved cash on things to just look at. They have to serve a purpose. With that in mind, he decided to commission what has to be the world’s largest modular synthesizer, the GIORGIO III, although I don’t have the paperwork to back that up.
GIORGIO III is the creation of SynTesla, designed and built in France, assembled in L.A. and shipped straight to Germany for testing on the live show stage! The whole thing is 5U modular, consisting of five rows of 5U and one row of 3U.
GIORGIO III consists of twelve cabinets in total, ten on stage and two off-stage as backups. A total of 23 modules were designed for this system, and these cover oscillators, both voltage and digital controlled, filters, DADSR envelope generators, VCAs, resonators, LFOs, mults, mixers, wavefolders, attenuators, attenuverters, gate delays, summing mixers and much more.
GIORGIO III is hooked up to stable PSUs with a filtered power source and distribution system. I dread to think what the electricity bill looks like when this is running full tilt. Aside from being visually impressive, attendees at the first gigs on this tour say GIORGIO III sounds incredible, too!
DF Audio NANO U Utility Kit
New from Thailand-based Aussie gear wiz, Dud Faz, is the NANO U, a standalone utility kit which has been designed to expand the functionality of semi-modular synths. However, it can be used in many ways, as DF Audio are keen to stress.
So what does it do? Well, first up, you have boosting circuits that will take line-level inputs and bump them up to Eurorack level. Then there’s the envelop followers, which convert audio into CV signals for a multitude of useful applications. There are DC-coupled buffered attenuators for audio and CV, mix/split functionality and a CV offset generator.
It’s a hugely useful tool that will garner many fans simply because it adds a wealth of functionality at a very low cost! These retail for $160 Australian Dollars, which works out at roughly €89/£78/$103! Just like the rest of DF Audio’s range, it delivers excellent functionality at incredible prices! Order yours here, now!
Roland EARTH Electric Piano
Roland kicked off their EARTH series with a rather lovely acoustic piano plugin, available through their Roland Cloud service. They have now followed it up with EARTH Electric Piano, available now to all Ultimate level Roland Cloud subscribers.
Containing 19 electric piano types, covering different electro-mechanical methods such as tine, reed, clavinet and vintage digital, this is a very nicely put together collection of some classic EP sounds. It comes with two pre-amp types, 12 amp cabinet models and six kinds of tremelo, an EP FX staple.
Talking of FX, there are over 90 multi-FX presets, plus EQ and dynamics and a reverb that Roland calls a ‘Venue Space Simulator’. I have to say that, as electric piano plugins go, this has a really easy-to-understand interface and sounds pretty amazing to my ears.
As you’d expect, this contains plenty of Roland digital EP sounds, as well as some emulations of the best digital EP in the world, the Yamaha DX7, although it isn’t explicitly called that! If electric pianos are your thing, you probably have most of this covered, but this is a welcome addition to the Roland Cloud, which I have to say has been lacking in new instruments for some time now.
Erik Norlander Gear Sale in Aid of The Bob Moog Foundation
Finally, this week, we bring you news of the imminent sale of a bunch of classic synths and keyboards from the studio of Erik Norlander! Erik, one of the loveliest men in the business, is whittling down his collection and donating 30% of all profits to The Bob Moog Foundation.
There are over 40 instruments in the sale, which are being hosted at Erik’s store at Reverb. It’s a fantastic collection of great instruments that includes…
- Oberheim Matrix-12
- Oberheim OB-Xa
- Oberheim OB-8
- Rhodes (ARP) Chroma
- Rhodes Mk.V and II
- Roland VP-330 Mk.1
- Waldorf Q Keyboard
- KORG MAXI-KORG DV800
I first encountered Erik back when he was the synth product manager at Alesis. I was working on the ill-fated Fusion and recall Erik’s amazing demo of it. I bumped into him again when he popped up at IK Multimedia, where he co-designed the UNO Synth, and latterly, we reconnected when he arrived at Moog Music as their Director of Keyboard Product Development for Moog and inMusic.
Erik is also on the Board of Advisors for the Bob Moog Foundation and has keenly supported and been an advocate for them for many years. So it is very fitting and incredibly generous of him to support Michelle Moog-Koussa’s amazing project with this sale.
You can check out the items for sale over at Reverb!
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