Exclusively Analogue has introduced The Merlin – a new synth, designed in response to feedback from EA customers.
According to Exclusively Analogue, the aim of Merlin is to provide a powerful analogue synthesizer with maximum flexibility, at a competitive price (approximately £800 depending on format).
Merlin will be available either as a self powered 19? rack mount module, a self powered desktop module, or in Eurorack format able to use an existing power supply.
Part of the flexibility comes from making it small enough to fit into the Eurorack format but without compromising usability. To this end all of the jack sockets are on the bottom to avoid patch leads crossing the controls.
‘Out of the box’ it just requires a CV and Gate input to work and is pre-patched to form the classic Analogue Synth routing. The 54 mini jack sockets enable the user to create numerous alternative routings – input signals and control voltages or output signal and control voltages.
The format is ‘classic’ with 2 Voltage Controlled Oscillators (VCOs) providing Sawtooth, Square, Sine and Triangle waveforms. There is also a separate Noise Source and an External input.
There are 2 LFOs – one Voltage Controlled and the other normally dedicated to Pulse Width Modulation. There is a Sample & Hold, that’s normally clocked by the VCLFO and sampling the Noise Source. A Ring Modulator is also provided to allow creation of complex waveforms.
The Voltage Controlled Filter (VCF) is based around the SSM2040 design and has 24dB Lowpass, 12dB Lowpass, High Pass, and Band Pass outputs, giving a broad spectrum of sound modification options. The standard filter frequency modulation options are available (Keyboard CV, FM, and selectable positive or negative Envelope) plus the Resonance (Q) can also be modulated which most filters do not have.
There are also 2 Envelope Generators – one for the VCF and one for the Voltage Controlled Amplifier.
The picture shows the first Merlin prototype in a rack unit and as a comparison a collection of Eurorack modules have been included on the bottom.
The Merlin is currently in development and EA is announcing it to gauge interest. They expect to have video and audio demos available soon. See the EA site for more info.
1) Never announce until you actually have sound demos. Right now, all that can be said is that the front panel is nice.
2) I like the jack placement.
3) If 800 pounds translates to $1,500 I don’t think you’ll get a lot of traction.
4) Gauging interest? You know what people are interested in? How does it sound…
Honesty looks like a rack mount and euro rack combined , have to agree what it sounds like is all that matters.
Read the last paragraph before whining about the post, please. I’m sure there will be updates as soon as the product is functional. Sheesh…
Although it looks and reads quite interesting I’d find it bit strange to integrate a full 19″ unit into a modular system. But as they’d also offer alternative formats it should be fine. Would be great to know more details about the available ins and outs.
the bottom half looks nice
In my opinion, if the synth is to sell as a stand-alone rack mount or desktop unit, it must include a MIDI-CV converter providing gate, CV, quantized CV, and a couple of other CV’s taken from MIDI in (such as mod wheel and channel aftertouch). Otherwise the synth relies on the user having external CV/Gate gear and seems more like a voice module. In the Eurorack space, it competes with offerings from Cwejman, Doepfer, and Intellijel (and possibly others). Perhaps the developer is counting on the recent proliferation of modern analog synths that provide CV and Gate outputs.
I agree with previous posters that example sounds are desired for gauging interest.
full single voice panels are not uncommon, it was the major way Serge systems operated, some Buchla as well. It’s actually an idea I kind of like, but I think for it to be worth it it should be super cheap, especially since if they are doing it right it could all be on a single board. otherwise, why not get single modules? the point of modular is flexibility.
This makes a lot of sense to me as a Euro starting point, if they can get the price right and it sounds good.
I’d like to see this priced cheaper, but the closest thing I know of to this currently is the Pittsburgh System 90, which is $1700.
It seems like there should be cost benefits to building a single all-in-one unit rather than a bunch of individual modules.
The specs all look fairly standard. There isnt anything i can see to differentite this from the myriad of other 2 vco multimode filter modules. The price point would need to be something special to compete.
Oscillator Sync or GTFO. Just kidding 🙂 But still, for that price, I’d want ringmod AND sync really.
the jacks are way to close together
The jacks are the way to close what together?