Zaturn Zero, the Saddest Synthesizer in the World and a Soft Synth Made From Drum Sounds: Synth Journal
The best of the rest of this week’s synth news.
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Gotharman’s Zaturn Zero synth is a new compact hybrid synth with analog filters. That and more in this week’s Synth Journal.
Synth Journal
Gotharman’s Zaturn Zero
It really is amazing, all of the different independent synth manufacturers creating unique instruments exactly in the way that they see fit. A recent one that had my head turning was the Clank Uranograph. Here’s another: Zaturn Zero from Danish outfit Gotharman’s.
A refresh of the original Zaturn, Zaturn Zero is part synth/part groovebox complete with a touchscreen, RGB LED-lit buttons (that double as a keyboard) and a semi-modular architecture. Use the screen to connect up to 76 different modules, including a variety of oscillator types and sampling plus effects. It also comes with a digital multimode filter with 28 types and the option to add one of six different analog filters when you buy it. Pretty cool.
Zaturn Zero also sports a sequencer, is 16-part multitimbral and eight-voice polyphonic, and features morphing between presets.
Gotharman’s is taking pre-orders for the Zaturn Zero now. Prices start at €1280 for the basic model and go up to €1961 depending on optional analog filter. Shipping is expected to start in July 2025.
FRAKnoise Melancholytron
Where my sad synthesists at? Today is your lucky day. Musician and synth designer FRAKnoise debuted his Melancholytron at Superbooth recently. If you hadn’t already guessed by the name, it only makes sad sounds.
Interestingly, the synth is actually a free gift that comes with a book, also called Melancholytron. It’s full of illustrated stories about being sad. “When you buy the book, it comes with a synthesizer developed by A//ard Krijger, Joran Jessurun and Edwin van den Oetelaar,” the site says. “This instrument produces melancholic sounds that fit the stories, or any melancholic music you want to make with it. Suitable for film, game or any kind of music that needs a touch of melancholy.”
It really does sound melancholy in a warbly tape Mellotron kind of way. I love it.
The book will cost around €550, and the synth is, of course, free. The first 10 will come with the keyboard version, and after that, they’ll switch to a desktop model that will probably feature “a small keyboard in the form of buttons or sensors or so.” The plan is to start building in July 2025, with the desktop model available in the fall. Head to the site and send them an email to get on the waiting list.
Stepan Engineer MPE Retrofit
Štěpán Dvořáček from Stepan Engineer in the Czech Republic got in touch to tell us about the MPE retrofit he’s offering for synthesizers. The keyboard is a Fatar TPS9 with special custom sensor boards and PCBs. These can add strike, press, lift and glide (pressure-based portamento) to your synth. You can also use it as an MPE MIDI controller for other MPE-equipped instruments and soft synths. Configuration is handled via USB-C and Web MIDI.
You can send in your synth for the retrofit or get just the PCBs if you’re handy enough to do the mod yourself. It costs around €100 per octave. The retrofit doesn’t change anything else inside the synth. Visit the Stepan Engineer page for more information.
A Magic Pulsewave Obliquencer
A Magic Pulsewave has announced the Obliquencer, a standalone boutique sequencer that uses basic pattern building blocks to create musical sequences. Unlike with typical sequencers, you don’t enter sequences by note, but rather by setting pattern behaviors and routing the resulting patterns internally to melodic and rhythmic parameters. It can output three channels of tuned analog control voltage and three channels of analog gate signals.
You’ll notice that Obliquencer uses pin patch points for all patching and routing, including to the sub modules, which include two clock LFOs, 2-10-step gate sequencers called Decade Rings, Ripple Gate Sequencers, a Ripple melody Sequencer, and more. It comes with 40 pins to let you do all your patching.
A Magic Pulsewave Obliquencer comes housed in its own wooden case and will cost $999. The release date is June 1.
Majetone Dream Kit: Zenith
I love this kind of stuff. There’s nothing that says a synthesizer has to be made out of traditional waveforms. What if those waveforms were actually drum performances? That’s the basis for Dream Kit: Zenith, a new soft synth from Majetone that uses sampled and tuned drum and percussion sounds as the starting point for a synthesizer.
It looks enough like a regular synth, with two ‘waveform’ sections, each with filter, envelopes, LFO, effects and more. You also get per-waveform arpeggiators, which is unique, but it’s when you notice the microphone sections that you cotton on to the drum aspect of this. Close, overhead and room mics let you transform the sound as you would a recorded drum set, but in the context of synthesis. Wild.
It sounds like both a synth and drums and something in between. Definitely a sound designer’s paradise.
It’s available now at a discount price of £90 and will go up to £149 after June 25.
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