NRSynth Quatuor: Oberheim Four Voice Reborn – How Fat Is This Synth?!
2,5 / 5,0 | 
Less a clone and more a reimaginging of Tom’s Four Voice, NRSynth Quatuor combines four synth voices with Prophet-5-style styling and an analog sound that has to be heard to be believed.
NRSynth Quatuor
Last year, we told you about the Solo, a remake of the Oberheim SEM from French boutique outfit NRSynth. I say remake, but it’s really more of an update, as it added some new features to the proceedings while keeping the layout – and sound – largely intact. Now NRSynth has upped the ante considerably with the Quatuor, a Four Voice-like analog poly that combines a quartet of Solos with Sequential Circuits Prophet-5-like styling.
If you’re not frothing at the mouth yet, you will be once you hear how it sounds.
NRSynth Quatuor: Four Times the SEM
As shown at the recent SynthFest France, the NRSynth Quatuor is an interesting mix of old and new, with NRSynth’s adherence to classic manufacturing processes (no surface mount here!) sitting alongside modern MIDI implementation. So we have a Four Voice reimagining that’s traditional enough not to have presets, but up-to-date with separate MIDI channels for each of the four voices. If you’re counting, that does indeed mean it’s four-part multitimbral, with separate outs for each Solo SEM plus stereo panning on the master like Tom liked to do.
Staying with the new, there’s a global section that takes what Tom did further, adding global tuning, cutoff, and an LFO, plus a digital sequencer and arpeggiator.
As for that keybed, it’s a five-octave Fatar with velocity and aftertouch, plus pitch and mod wheels on the left for performance.
NRSynth Quatuor: SEM Kind of Wonderful
Let’s take a look at the voices themselves. Each is, of course, a Solo unit, which is a modern take on the Oberheim SEM. They’ve each got two discrete VCOs with hard sync, saw, square, and pulse plus pulse width; analog VCA; analog triangle wave LFO; plus that famous 2-pole filter with LPF, HPF, notch, and bandpass modes.
NRSynth didn’t stop there, though, giving each an additional sub-oscillator with a pulse wave one octave below VCO 1, 100% analog white noise generator, two snappy analog envelopes inspired by the Sequential Pro-One, a digital LFO with eight waveforms plus tilt, three frequency ranges, and sync, sample and hold, and glide.
The Eurorack-compatible patchbay has been moved to the top of each module as well, making the NRSynth Quatuor a powerful companion to your modular rig.
NRSynth Quatuor: Handmade Housing
Looking at the NRSynth Quatuor, you might be reminded not of a white Four Voice but of a black Prophet-5. The Quatuor does indeed borrow styling choices from Dave Smith’s famous synthesizer, with a handmade wooden housing holding everything together.
NRSynth Quatuor: Pricing and Availability
The Quatuor looks to be a beautiful new synthesizer. It also sounds absolutely stunning. Listen to the demo videos embedded in this article and tell me it doesn’t make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Honestly, if I had the money, I would buy one right now.
That’s a little premature, though, as the synth is currently still in prototype stage, although NRSynth has indicated that it’s almost complete. According to the website, reservations will open in May of this year.
NRSynth is a one-man operation and all instruments are handmade, meaning this will be a strictly limited release. According to Synth Anatomy, the manufacturer currently has enough components for about four units, so if you’re interested, don’t miss out. As for price, it looks like it will cost around €5000.
More Information
- NRSynth Quatuor homepage
- More about NRSynth
- More about synthesizers
- Buy synthesizers at Thomann*
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