Traveler, a Prodigy Recreation and a New CS-80 Chip Clone – Synth Journal
3,0 / 5,0 | 
This week, we have a spectacular new synth, Traveler, from an industry stalwart, new CS-80 chips to keep those old beasts going and a clone of the Moog Prodigy.
Synth Journal
Traveler by KeySolutions Sounds
Mike Martin has been in the music industry for many years, the bulk of which were spent at Casio, but he also served at Kurzweil, Yamaha, TC Electronic and Sonic Foundry. You may also know him from his sound design work for the likes of Cherry Audio too.
Traveler is the first instrument plugin to come out of his company, KeySolutions Sounds and it’s an absolute doozy. Billed as a cinematic hybrid synth, Traveler boasts a powerful feature set and has a strong focus on expression.
Traveler’s 3 oscillators boast numerous types, including linear and exponential FM, wavetables and a 7-voice unison stack, amongst others. The filter section is no slouch either, with numerous types and options, including multiple ladder filters and an NJM2069-style filter that was found in the KORG DW-8000 and DSS-1.
Traveler has three multi-stage envelopes that are both powerful and flexible, and Traveler also features a hugely flexible sequencer and arpeggiator. The package is rounded off by a suite of top-quality effects that beautifully complement the synth as a whole.
With a preset library fashioned by the likes of Scott McAuley, Venus Theory, James Dyson, David Helping, James Terris, Drew Schlesinger and more, Traveler has plenty to get you going and exploring the depths of this rather remarkable new synth.
Traveler is on sale now for just $99 and comes with two new FX plugins at no additional cost. The price will rise to $149.99 when the offer ends.
Martinic Prodigy
Another cracking synth plugin was launched this week with the emergence of the Martinic Prodigy, a clone of the classic little Moog Prodigy that delivers all that the original did and much more! I think the Prodigy was one of the first Moog synths I became aware of because Howard Jones used at least two in his live rig back in the day.
Its simple two-oscillator architecture features hard sync and glide, which sounds great when sent through the ladder filter, but Martinic have added things like a new sub oscillator, noise generator, spring reverb and a host of up to date modulation options.
Of course, this version of the Prodigy is now 8-voice polyphonic and also features a 6-voice unison stack. There’s a cool sequencer with loads of modes that allow for both pitch and filter sequencing as well as plenty of modulation options.
Unfortunately, unlike Howard Jones and the original hardware, you can’t hook up a guitar strap and play this in a keytar style, but you will be very surprised at how good this slightly overlooked and underappreciated piece of the Moog story can sound!
The Martinic Prodigy is out now with a 50% off launch offer on the lifetime licence at £28.50. There’s a demo version too, and you also have the option to pay for a year’s access with a non-renewing annual licence for just £20.
IG00151 VCA Clone for Yamaha CS-80
If you’re lucky enough to own a Yamaha CS-80, or even one of the “lesser” CS models like the CS50 or CS60, you will know that keeping these things going requires some deep pockets and a metric tonne of good fortune.
Some of the components are unobtanium these days, so many owners have to resort to cannibalising other machines or simply resigning themselves to the fact that they now own a pretty large doorstop. A good friend of mine is one of the leading CS-80 restorers in the world and even he is getting very low on parts.
So when someone pops up with a new clone of chips that are as rare as rocking horse poop, collective CS owners and repair shops breathe a sigh of relief! And Andy Pilve has come to the rescue with a new clone of the IG00151 VCA chip.
He’s also produced a clone of the IG00158 Wave Shape Converter so he is becoming a bit of a lauded saint in the world of CS synths! Early customers are claiming that these are as good as the originals, which is encouraging, so maybe we will see plenty of CS synths for many years to come.
Andy sells his chips over at Reverb for very reasonable prices!
Tone Garden by Mycelium Sky
Drawing things to a close this week is something delightfully simple and beautifully effective, which has been soundtracking me writing this entire article this evening! Developed by Mycelium Sky, Tone Garden is an ambient frequency generator and, as the blurb says, a living generative instrument.
Completely based in your browser, it allows you to layer up to 17 hand-built voices, each with its own voicing, volume level and anchor frequency. You simply choose your voicing for each layer and start blending the volume and frequency.
You can add more layers using different voicing selections and frequencies, and there is also the option to add air noise, reverb and a shimmering chorus effect. Finally, you can add so-called weather, which can be things like thunder and rain, but also other instruments, all of which can be frequency-tuned and will occur randomly throughout your session.
Click the ball at the top of the page, and your ambience softly and slowly begins. Tweak your settings, and then let Tone Garden go off and do its own thing. I have to say, I found it helped me focus on writing after a busy few days when I genuinely struggled to keep my mind on work.
I can see many uses for this, such as meditation, an aid to sleep, or simply to serve as background ambience to your day or night. It’s currently free to use, and make whatever you like with it. So, sit back, relax and drift off…
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