Analogue Solutions Series 700 Remakes Roland’s System 700, More: Synth Journal
The Best of the Rest of This Week’s Synth News
4,0 / 5,0 | 
One of the best modular systems ever gets remade as the Analogue Solutions Series 700, plus a software version of the Oberheim TEO-5 and… a walking disembodied Eurorack hand?!
Synth Journal
Analogue Solutions Series 700
Roland’s System 700 is undoubtedly one of the best modular systems ever made. Already prohibitively expensive at the time of release in 1976, with only a small amount made, prices have only continued to climb since then. The dedicated analog synthesizer boffins at Analogue Solutions have thus taken it upon themselves to remake the System 700 in its entirety for the 21st century. Ladies and gentlemen, the Series 700.
Analogue Solutions are no strangers to massive modulars. They’ve already done the Synthi 100 as the Colossus and ARP’s 2500 as the TC5000. Now it’s Roland’s turn for the remake. The Series 700 features six blocks, with nine VCOs, multimode and lowpass filters, plenty of modulation, a three-channel 12-step analog sequencer and onboard effects. The team has taken care to keep the system as it was originally but has added MIDI-to-CV for the sake of modern convenience.
There’s no price quoted on the site, although it’s sure to be expensive. You can buy it as a whole set or in blocks. Visit the AS site to register your interest in a pre-order. Shipping is planned for late this year.
Analogue Solutions patch cords are available from our affiliate partners Thomann* and Sweetwater*.
Phantom Instruments S49
If you like step sequencers, have I got some good news for you. S49 is a new hardware sequencer from Irish company Phantom Instruments. It’s a slick-looking thing with a nice design, and would be perfect for an x0x-style techno workflow.
Here’s why: it’s a 16-track step sequencer. Each track provides eight patterns with 16 steps per pattern, although these specs are subject to change (hopefully for the better). You can give each track a unique name, MIDI channel, output mode and color for the LED rings around the step encoders. You can input step data like pitch, velocity, probability, ratchets and gate length, with a variety of playback and sequence generation modes. There are also scales, swing, performance features and all the things you expect in a modern sequencer.
The hardware features USB MIDI note and CC output, TRS MIDI in and out, per-track CV/Gate as well as clock in and out. There’s also a screen.
S49 is available for preorder for €399, with shipping in 2027. Once pre-order ends, the price will rise to €549.
AtomoSynth Mochika X7
Mochika X7 is the latest iteration of AtomoSynth’s long-running monosynth. The new model adds a few fresh features and improvements while keeping the sound as fat and fun as ever.
With X7, you get a voltage-controlled oscillator with square and saw waveforms plus a DCO with square, saw, triangle and sine waveforms running through AtomoSynth’s famous continuously variable lowpass/highpass vactrol filter. (European readers, I guess that means you’re out of luck?) In terms of modulation, there’s an ADSR envelope generator, an LFO with shape control, a 32-step sequencer with nine playing modes, an 18-point patchbay for semi-modular explorations and more.
At the time of publication, there was a waitlist open for Mochika X7 with reduced pricing. The synth comes in two formats: a desktop version ($399/$449) and Eurorack model ($349/$389). Visit the AtomoSynth side for more information.
discoDSP TED-8
There are countless plugin recreations of analog synthesizers made by modeling the original and approximating their behaviors and sound in code. For the most part, unless they’re produced by the same company, most soft synths are of classic synths, ones no longer in production. Isla Electronics’ recent Alesis Andromeda 6 remake ASYX comes to mind. You’d have to be pretty cheeky to do a synth that’s currently on the market.
Oh, hello, TED-8. This new plugin from discoDSP models Oberheim’s TEO-5, an analog synth that’s very much still for sale.
The developer says, “TED-8 is the Oberheim TEO-5 as a plugin, built from thousands of measurements of a real unit. Every knob, every curve and every effect was recorded, compared and tuned until the plugin and the hardware sounded the same side by side.” The plugin models the synth’s panel exactly, and can even link to the hardware over USB and act as an editor.
TED-8 sounds very good indeed, but I’m not sure how I feel about modeling an instrument still in the shops. What do you think?
TED-8 is available from the discoDSP site for the introductory price of $99, eventually rising to $199. There’s also a loyalty price tier of $49.
Oberheim TEO-5 is available from our affiliate partners Thomann* and Sweetwater*.
Gijs Gieskes HAND
With Halloween just around the corner, I thought I should include something spooky. And damn, but if this doesn’t fit the bill. This is HAND, a hand for your Eurorack rig.
I don’t think Michael Caine is into synthesizers, but if he were, he would surely own HAND. Because he was in a movie called The Hand, right?
HAND is a disembodied hand connected to a Eurorack panel that moves in a creepy way. I couldn’t find any YouTube videos but you can see it in action on developer Gijs Gieskes’s eye-botheringly busy site (hey, at least it’s not vibe-coded). According to the manual, you can turn the hand on and off with gates, and it generates an audio signal.
“Hand module for Eurorack plays Halloween song and can walk,” says Gijs. “Also handy for cable storage and possibly other things. It sounds best thru a delay module.”
I’m not really sure how you buy it, but Gijs does recommend you get a pair, left and right.
Happy Halloween, everyone.
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