VONGON Rosetones: Get Excited With This Gorgeous 12-Note String Synth Pedal
Rosetones is a handmade synth pedal with a 12-voice resonator oscillator – and it sounds just beautiful.
VONGON Rosetones
What’s up with boutique Karplus-Strong string synthesizer devices this week? First, we had the Zlosynth Instruments Arplus, which I talked about in Synth Journal on Thursday, and now VONGON’s new Rosewoods, a string synth pedal that tracks your pitch and sounds the bee’s knees.
String Theory
If VONGON sounds familiar, that’s because the company made the ultra-minimal Replay synth a few years ago. Guitarists will probably be more familiar with the Oakland, California-based company, however, as it’s steadily been releasing some pretty lovely pedals. Rosetones fits right into their ecosystem with classy design, a hardwood enclosure, and a beautiful sound.
Much like a regular synth pedal, Rosetones tracks your playing and uses it to trigger a synth sound. What’s different, however, is that instead of a typical synthesizer, the “oscillator” in this case is a 12-voice chromatic resonator bank that routes detected pitches into tuned delay lines.
Get Excited
“Each pitch class excites a resonator that can sustain, swell, and interact with feedback to create dynamic harmonic movement,” says VONGON. That feedback is adjusted with a knob, acting like a decay on an envelope. Use the sensitivity knob to control notes via velocity.
You can set the pitch of the resonator’s notes as well with an octave slider that’s capable of altering chord voices. Via MIDI and an external controller, you’re also able to set chord voicings. You can use it in conjunction with an audio input or as a standalone synth.
Signal Path
Once it’s passed through the waveshaper bank and the feedback control, the signal moves through the tone filter, with its dark to bright potentiometer, and the modulation section, which has both a chorus and vibrato. You can select these individually or together, and adjust them with the modulation knob.
Pricing and Availability
Rosetones is fairly simple in what it does, but it has such a lovely tone. As the demo videos show, it sounds good with guitar or other string instruments (like Emily’s harp), but also with percussion and even another synth. What a gem.
Rosetones is handmade and available now directly through VONGON for $449.
More Information
- VONGON Rosetones product page
- More about VONGON
- More about pedals
- Buy pedals at Thomann*
- *Note: This article contains advertising links that help us pay for this site. Don’t worry: the price for you will always be the same! If you buy something through these links, we will receive a small commission. Thank you for your support!
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