New synth company Artium Instruments has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund production of The Swarm, a polyphonic desktop synthesizer with built-in effects.
The compact synth features 8-note polyphony, onboard effects, per-knob control, plug-and-play connectivity and more.
Features:
- Polyphonic Desktop Synth w/ Onboard Effects – The Swarm features a SuperSaw oscillator with 8-note polyphony, curated onboard effects, and a full-featured arpeggiator
- Knob-For-Knob Functionality – Every feature of The Swarm is directly mapped to a knob, button, switch, or jack, ensuring effortless control. There’s no need for menu-diving or complex button presses to access features; everything is immediately accessible.
- Onboard Effects – These are designed to complement the synth core, including freeze, delay, reverb & chorus. You can also use the onboard effects with other equipment, allowing you to route external audio through the inputs on the back.
- Plug and Play Functionality – The Swarm utilizes a USB-C MIDI host for simplicity and ease of use. Most modern class-compliant MIDI controllers with USB functionality should plug in and work immediately with zero setup. Additionally, The Swarm provides power to your controller, streamlining your setup process. For older controllers that only have DIN connections, a USB to DIN converter can be used to ensure compatibility. (These converters typically cost $10-20)
- Open Source Platform – Artium desktop synths use an open source platform known as Axoloti or Ksoloti for development and implementation of its products.
Pricing and Availability:
Production of The Swarm is being funded via a Kickstarter project. It’s available to project backers for $379 USD.
Note: Crowdfunded projects involve risk. See the project site for details.
super saw is super fun.
Still creator trying to avoid the subject of the synth being digital when it’s clearly digital but looking very analog. It used to say “virtual analog” or emulation and I’m sure in the 80s digital was a buzzword.
But today only a few say it, very few proudly, but if it’s analog it will be mentioned in the headline and in the first sentence, same for hybrid,
When you don’t say it, I see two reasons, first, digital is the “standard” so only when it’s analog it’s worth mentioning
Second, hoping to sell to some poor souls who don’t know the difference or that will still think it’s analog 2 years after they purchase it.
It’s digital! wear it with pride!
I think its the first one. People may not care as much anymore. Sometimes I’d see a fully digital synth with “analog filters” and I instantly cringe cause I know what their doing. It’s kind of corny at this point. Some folks just havent fell into that trap and I think their wearing that with pride versus the latter. Its a synth, sounds good, done here.
When a synth is digital, it might be mentioned once at the end of the post but it’s usually hidden.
When it’s analog, it is usually mentioned in the headline and multiple times in the post.
I do believe most creators who incorporat analog filters, amps and overdrive with digital oscillators believe it’s a beneficial design compared to a completely emulated ones, It’s also way more expensive and complex to add the filter chips, audio/cv converters and other supported electronics so it’s kind of hard to believe it’s all just for advertising, especially if people may not care as much anymore.
I think it’s just very common for folks to conflate “analog” with “hardware” and “digital” with “software” these days. ofc some of it is just buzzwords for marketing, but I think generally unless folks are into the circuitry they tend to just think if it is hardware based then that means it is analog, and if it is software based then it is digital.
It’s also a 1970s movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEGtUUT71Y8
as well as a somewhat less obscure 2000s German science fiction franchise. but i guess you’re (and they) are referring to the bee’s buzzing noise.
Somewhat less obscure? The Swarm is one in a line of venerable 1970s disaster films from producer Irwin Allen. These include The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, and others including The Swarm, which is simply the best killer bees movie ever made. It’s an underappreciated classic that is up there with Citizen Kane, Casablanca, and Lawrence of Arabia.
The Swarm has an all-star cast including Michael Caine, Katherine Ross, Henry Fonda, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlin, Fred MacMurry, Lee Grant, Olivia DeHavilland (in her last movie role), Patty Duke, Slim Pickens, and other notable actors as well. No doubt they all played synthesizers. Obscure?!
The Swarm is a great name for a synth and the best killer bees movie ever made. When Behringer released the Wasp Deluxe, I thought they should have called it The Swarm since it has the enhanced oscillator feature not found on the original Wasp.
Go watch The Savage Bees and change your mind.
No midi other than USB.
sick of these products that rely on USB for everything and have no isolation in the circuit, so you hear all kinds of noise in the signal unless you use other external products to counteract it
It’s because public sentiment is that Analog is just more worthwhile, valuable, better sounding, and cooler. To the extent that digital products are unfairly considered de facto inferior. They lead with the Analog line because they know it the fact that it is Analog alone will create interest.