‘Uncompromising’ Vermona ’14 Analogsynthesizer Now Available

The Vermona ’14 Analogsynthesizer  – described as ‘an uncompromising synthesizer for instrumentalists’ – is now available.

The Vermona ’14 is a monophonic analog synthesizer that follows the classic subtractive synthesis structure: a versatile lowpass molds the sound-source being created by two analog oscillators. Vermona says it sounds “warm, round, classy and offers musical authority in the mix.”

Here’s a video demo, from Superbooth 2016:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbQW5xhzM6k

Features:

VCO 1

  • Octaves: 16′, 8′, 4′, FIX
  • Tune Coarse: ± one octave
  • Tune Fine: ± 1/2 note
  • Waveforms: sine, saw, rectangle
  • Pulse-width: can be set manually between 50 % and 95 %
  • EG 1 intensity: about ± 2 1/2 octaves
  • sub-oscillator: sine, one octave below main oscillator

VCO 2

  • Octaves: 16′, 8′, 4′, FIX
  • Tune Coarse: ± one octave
  • Tune Fine: ± 1/2 note
  • Waveforms: sine, saw, rectangle
  • Pulse-width: can be set manually between 50 % and 95 %
  • EG 1 intensity: about ± 2 1/2 octaves
  • sub-oscillator: square, one octave below main oscillator
  • frequency modulation through LFO and sine-wave of VCO 1
  • hard-sync through VCO 2

VCO 1 and VCO 2

  • Master Tune: about ± 1/2 note
  • glide with legato function
  • pulse-width-modulation through LFO (up to 100% pulse-width)

Mixer

  • Volumes of both oscillators and sub-oscillators can be controlled individually
  • noise generator (white noise)
  • Volume control for external input

Filter

  • Type: lowpass with resonance
  • Slope: 12, 18, oder 24 dB/octave
  • Tracking: OFF, Half (50%), Full (100%)
  • Modulation sources: LFO, EG 1, Sinus-Wellenform of VCO 1 (can additionally be controlled by EG 1)

VCA

  • Modes: ON, EG 2, EG 2 + LFO
  • Individual volume controls for main outputs and headphone outputs

Envelope Generators EG 1 und EG 2

  • Type: ADSR
  • Attack: 1 millisecond to 10 seconds
  • Decay: 1 millisecond to 10 seconds
  • Release: 1 millisecond to 10 seconds
  • Legato mode can be switched on/off per envelope generator

LFO

  • Waveforms:
    • saw up
    • saw down
    • square
    • triangle
    • sine
    • sample & hold
  • Frequency range: 0.05 Hz (= 20 seconds) to 100 Hz
  • Can be synchronized to internal or external clock
  • Reset function

Vibrato Generator

  • Waveforms: Sinus or Dreieck
  • Frequency range: 0.05 Hz (= 20 seconds) bis 100 Hz
  • Modulation destinations:
    • VCO 1
    • VCO 2
    • VCO 1 and VCO 2
  • Modulation intensity can be controlled by aftertouch and/or modulation wheel

VCF MOD

  • Modulation destinations:
    • Cutoff-frequency
    • filter-FM-intensity through sine waveform of VCO 1
    • Modulation intensity can be controlled by aftertouch and/or modulation wheel

Keyboard

  • 44 keys, half-weight (Fatar)
  • Aftertouch
  • Velocity for controlling Cutoff-frequency and/or VCA modulation through EG 2

Pitchbender

  • can be adjusted freely between ± 1/2 note up to ± 1 octave
  • Modulation destinations
    • VCO 1
    • VCO 2
    • VCO 1 and VCO 2

Arpeggiator

  • Modes:
    • ARP (classic arpeggiator mode)
    • SEQ (complete arpeggios can be stored)
  • Up to 60 notes with velocity
  • Arpeggios can include rests between notes
  • Same notes can be used more often (with help of sustain-pedal)
  • variable gate length:
    • 20 %
    • 50 %
    • 80 %
    • 100 % (legato)
    • random values between 20 % and 80 %
    • random values between 20 % and 100 % (legato)
  • Pattern:
    • Up (1, 2 and 3 octaves)
    • Down (1, 2 and 3 octaves)
    • Up & Down (1, 2 and 3 octaves)
    • Alternate Up
    • Alternate Down
    • Zufall (1, 2 and 3 octaves)
    • Order forward
    • Order backward
  • can be triggered by LFO, internal or external clock

Connections

  • audio outputs:
    • headphones (1/8“- und 1/4“- jack)
    • unbalanced 1/4“- jack (line)
    • transformer-balanced XLR output (line)
  • audio input, 1/8“- jack
  • CV/Gate outputs (1/4“- and 1/8“- TRS jacks)
    • Gate Out
    • modulation wheel
    • 1V/octave
    • pitchbender
  • Sustain pedal inputs, 1/4“- jack
  • Volume pedal, 1/4“- jack with trim-pot for minimum volume
  • MIDI connections:
    • IN
    • OUT
    • THRU

MIDI

  • Send:
    • Keyboard, polyphon
    • Arpeggiator
    • MIDI-Control-Changes for controlling Mono Lancet and Mono Lancet ’15 parameters
  • Receive:
    • MIDI notes

Pricing and Availability

The Vermona ’14 Analogsynthesizer is available now. Production is limited to 222 units. See the Vermona site for details.

via SonicState

42 thoughts on “‘Uncompromising’ Vermona ’14 Analogsynthesizer Now Available

  1. looks like a great machine. i do not quite understand the limitation of units, though. this thing will have a heavy price tag (handmade in germany…). so not much danger of selling too many units anyway. sell as many as you can. it will not affect its future value.

  2. Call me a cynic, but in today’s rather-flooded market, I can’t imagine saying, “Hey, let’s build a two-oscillator subtractive synth with a low-pass filter.” Are there that many new buyers out there to purchase these things?

    It’s great to have choices, but how do you gain any market share without some real product differentiation?

    1. This is a niche synth – built for the people that want a full-size well-built monosynth, but want something besides a DSI or Moog. This area of the market is far from flooded with options.

      Things like the Bassstation or MiniBrute aren’t really competition – this is not designed to be cheap or mass-produced.

      1. I understand “niche;” I’m definitely part of the niche that would buying them. But if the projected prices of around $2400 materialize, you start thinking about polysynths that run in unison mode, too. And THAT arena contains a significant number of players.

        My question is exactly how much sonic differentiation is really possible, in a subtractive two-oscillator synth, for a new product to be perceived as truly DIFFERENT.

        Please don’t think I’m wishing anything but for Vermona to sell out 222, then sell a few thousand more. The world needs more synths. 🙂

        1. I totally hear you. I’m sure it will be a quality instrument and stuff, but I personally wouldn’t invest in the construction of such an instrument these days; there needs to be something to make it stand out amidst the ‘competition’. Maybe I missed it, but I don’t see (or hear) anything unique here.

          (But I too wish them luck – we seem to be living in a “golden age” of electronic music and I hope it never ends)

          1. The ‘stand out’ feature from my perspective is that it’s an analog synth that’s not built like a piece of garbage.

            People act like the market is flooded – but how many options are there really out there for professional quality analog monosynth keyboards – with basic features like a full-size keyboard and aftertouch?

            And don’t tell me that you can get a poly synth for that price – that’s just like announcing that you don’t know much about synthesis.

  3. Such a bad demonstration. The VCO sounds static and simply nothing to hear from the FM side of sound.
    Hope there will be better reviews.

  4. I just know the Vermona Lancet. But that little Synth has a quite warm and “vintage” Sound. I’m sure, there’ll be better demos around soon which are showing the real beauty of Vermona 14.

  5. Open, slightly sideways question; Why are there no monosynths with built-in loopers? Seems like the sort of thing that’d be a nice pairing, but they just don’t exist, and I’m not too sure why not.

    1. You mean a looper as in a button (or pedal) that records your performance (notes, rests, etc) and then reproduce it without previous programming, letting you add layers on the fly?
      is there any synth with such a thing?

      1. It’s not a bad idea and his point about it making particular sense for a mono synth is reasonable. Of course you can do it easily enough simply by connecting the audio out to a looper pedal, so its not like you can’t do this already.

  6. Every time an artist nods their head in a performance, it says look, I’m insecure about what I’m doing. But though this nodding, hopefully you’ll be convinced, by my strategy of radical-technological creativity! An illness that normally afflicts that poor insular beast: the DJ, in the sad times that we live in. 9-)

  7. I should add that I love Vermona’s synths. But, they do reflect a company born in the DDR. My Vermona Perfourmer was a luxury synth I’d like to have again, or a ’14’! But finances are an issue…

  8. It seems like it sounds damn good! But seriously, is there someone who still have enough room left to buy a half meter square mono synth?!

    1. There are always new people (we hope) coming into the hobby/business looking for such as synth plus those who started with something smaller that might want to take the step up. I agree that it is becoming a crowded market with all these mono synths but as a consumer I’m happy.

      BTW, yes I have reached my physical limit. Between the synths, eurorack and DAW, I’ve completely filled the space I can reach without having to walk to another area of the room. The length of my arms is my primary limitation.

    2. Yeah. I have tried to convince my wife that I need someplace for an OB6 and P6 more than we need a dining room. So far, I’m making limited headway.

  9. The only thing speaking for Vermona here is the, as they say, limited edition of 222 instruments and the number of crazy cash flooded buyers out there just going for that.
    Otherwise it has got nothing new, even lacks programmability, at a rediculous price. Those who like Vermona are better of with a per4mer and a controller keyboard. Had I that amount of money to spend on something likewise then it would certainly go to the combination of a MatrixBrute and a Deepmind 12 (for who still believes these will ever actually be released?).

  10. This has been mentioned before, but it’s called the ’14 as it was supposed to come out in 2014. The chief designer on the synth died unexpectedly, and progress was stalled.

    The analog synth market was a bit less crowded just a few years ago. While the ’14 is not in my budget (by a long shot), if someone offered me the Model D reissue and the ’14 for the same price, I’d take the Vermona. As it is, the Model D is $3500. The price on the ’14 is kind of interesting, though, as the Vermona DRM1 and Perfourmer are good value for what they are.

  11. 2 oscillator monosynth with no memory? Uncompromising? Did I fall asleep in a time machine and wake up in 1972? When’s the new Yes album coming out?

  12. I’m sure, this synth might have something under the hood. Unfortunately, nothing in this video did show it to me. And looking the fidget with his oversize jacket and the stupid cap also did not encourage me to watch until the end. Finally although the design is cool, 2400€ for a mono synth is not.

  13. Yeah something of a head scratcher product. It seems their target audience is someone that wants a synth designed and built in Germany. Soundwise not particularly interesting and is it seems there’s noticeable latency and jitter with the keyboard, perhaps it is running an underpowered keyboard scanner. Would have to play it to make sure though.

    I guess another choice would be the Waldorf Pulse 2 for an analog made in Germany, though it doesn’t have a keyboard or knobs. So the Vermona would be better in those regards for a German synth.

    Dropping a German made requirement, the Minilogue seems a better synth across the board if you want an analog mono with a limited feature set. It doesn’t have aftertouch or CV out, but has a lot more flexible oscillators.

    Maybe they just need better demos, but I doubt it.

  14. NO PRICE….so they don’t sell them then right…just post videos and you then go back to looking for product that ARE FOR SALE.

  15. the buttons to save patches must be ….around on the side somewhere that i cant see?? this is a new synth in 2016 for over 2k right??

  16. MFB Dominion 1 in the corner, raising its hand. “Hey guys! Over here!”
    Memory, patch points, three oscillators, but half-an-octave shorter. And hundreds of dollars less. Also made in Germany.

  17. Why does a synth company make a synth limited to 220 keyboards?
    It’s like “nah, we only want to make prototypes, we really don’t want to sell any of this crap and make money. Let’s not expand. Let’s sit here in good old Germany with our resistors and capacitors and shit. We like it here”

    I know if I had a synth company I would like to make a synth that everybody wanted, at a great price, with at least some form of innovative techology, like that Behringer dude.

    Who needs an expencive monosynth in 2016 when a lot of the people that are interested in synths already have a modular synth with ten times the powerful of this little keyboard?

    Are they trying to be like Moog in the 70s’?
    Maybe they’re hoping that in 20 years this little synth will be so sought after on the second hand market that they have to make another limited edition line selling at triple the price?

    I can’t understand it. And I can’t understand who needs yet another mono, unless they are collectors or have just too much money.

    Nice color though, we could really need more blue keyboards!

  18. My Vermona 14 arrived two weeks ago and I’m really happy with it. Built quality is perfect. The sound is very musical and it is so much fun to play it! There is no “jitter or latency” to the keybed as mentioned here. The sound-range is not narrow at all. Creamy leads, huge bass and a lot in between. Many interesting FM sounds, too. But of course it’s not meant to be a modular. Too many features stop me from making music. I think Vermona did a great job and they will sell all of them.

  19. I’ve got a P4mr MkII AND Dominion I. So this is, like, “You REALLY need something that looks like a summer cottage bathroom in 1969 color scheme”?! Wishing them the best, but a bit confused by their feature set and approach. As for that tube reverb, sooo tempted. But really already have it covered by other units. Sigh…

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