Modulr Eight
Eight voices of analogue-style oscillators, a resonant filter and an eight-bit digital path, all edited from one backlit screen.
Modulr Eight is a synthesizer after the grammar of the 1985 ESQ-1: eight voices of two analogue-style oscillators into a resonant filter, with a digital path that crushes the signal through a bit-depth stage, edited from one backlit screen. Two envelopes, an LFO on the mod wheel, a chorus, thirty-three patches that each load the whole sound. VST3 and Audio Unit.
Seven sounds, played as they ship.
Each clip is the plug-in itself: the patch is picked in the drawer and loaded, a short phrase is played on it, and the cutoff is swept over the take. Each is after a record, and the settings are the plug-in’s own reading of that sound’s role, not the artist’s. Thirty-three patches ship; they make seven distinct sounds, and these are one of each.
An eight-voice hybrid, played from your keyboard.
- Patches that load the whole sound.Pick a patch and every control moves to it at once; the drawer closes and the instrument is ready to play.
- Hold to preview.Hold a key to hear a patch’s tone on your own MIDI, then let go and the instrument is exactly as it was.
- Two oscillators.Saw, pulse or triangle on each, a pulse width, a fine tune, a second-oscillator pitch and a hard sync from the first.
- An analogue filter and a digital path.A resonant low-pass whose cutoff the filter envelope opens, then an analogue-to-digital mix and a bit depth that crush the signal.
- Two envelopes and an LFO.One envelope shapes the level and the other the filter; the mod wheel brings the LFO in.
- Services.Choose whether the instrument answers your host’s MIDI and clock, and set its output level.
What it needs.
| Format | Systems | Licence |
|---|---|---|
| VST3 · Audio Unit | Apple silicon, macOS 11 or later | A licence file for each machine; not yet on sale |
The editor, and the module it becomes.
The plug-in is built, and its editor is shown as it opens. The Eurorack module is drawn beside it, and the module is not built.
The editor is the plug-in’s own, as it opens. The module is drawn by the specification’s own kit, and its values are illustrative, not measured. The design is ESQ-1’s grammar, redrawn in Modulr’s own words, and nothing on it is measured against the instrument.
ESQ-1, 1985.
The instrument’s own grammar, as the catalogue recalls it: the sections, the controls and the look the study borrows.
The hybrid polysynth grammar: an eight-voice analogue tone section with a resonant filter and envelopes, a digital path that resamples through an eight-bit stage, everything edited from one backlit screen under a row of soft keys with a ribbed data knob beside it.
A dark grey plastic 3U panel: a blue-green backlit patch screen under the title, a ribbed data knob beside it, eight black knobs with silver bezels, each over its own control jack, and the jacks in a dark tray.
- Eight voices of analogue oscillators with an analogue filter, and a digital path that filters and resamples through an eight-bit stage
- A large backlit display
- A soft-menu row of buttons under the display and a data-entry knob beside it
- A bank of eight patch buttons and a write button
- An internal disk drive in the panel
- A 61-key keyboard with a portamento and a mod wheel
The module, knob by knob.
The module is a design study and is not built. Its macros are the signature controls a player reaches for, not a generic set; each one has a control jack under it.
| Macro | Key | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cutoff | vcf.cut | 20 Hz – 20 kHz | 20 kHz |
| Reso | vcf.res | 0–100% | 0% |
| Env Amt | vcf.env | 0–100% | 0% |
| Attack | env.attack | 1 ms – 10 s | 5 ms |
| Decay | env.decay | 1 ms – 10 s | 300 ms |
| Release | env.release | 1 ms – 12 s | 300 ms |
| A/D Mix | path.mix | all analogue – all 8-bit | all analogue |
| Volume | out.vol | -inf – +6 dB | 0.0 dB |
| Side | Jacks |
|---|---|
| In | Note (MIDI), V/Oct (CV), Gate (CV), Mod (CV) |
| Out | Out (Audio), Env (CV) |
Legendary is the catalogue of the Modulr Synths project: 43 design studies drawn with the specification’s own kit, 33 after the synthesizers of all time and 10 after the drum machines. The makers and years named here are the instrument’s; the names, the layouts and every value are Modulr’s own.