Modulr Quint

Five voices of two oscillators each, a hard sync, poly-mod and wheel-mod, and a filter envelope and an amplifier envelope of their own, with forty-nine patches.

Modulr Quint is a five-voice polyphonic synthesizer after the grammar of a 1978 programmable polysynth: two oscillators a voice with a hard sync, a four-pole filter, two envelopes of four stages each, poly-mod and wheel-mod routings with a switch for each destination, an LFO, glide and unison. The programmer’s forty programs are drawn and inert: you choose the sound in the patch drawer.

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54 controlsevery one can be automated from your music software

49 patcheseach one loads the whole sound

VST3 · AUApple silicon, macOS 11 or later

Hear it

Six sounds, played as they ship.

Each clip is the plug-in itself: a patch is picked in the drawer and loaded, then a played chord or line sounds on it, the way it is played into the plug-in from a keyboard. The forty-nine patches hold six distinct sounds, one for each clip here. No source documents a setting on the instrument these records were made on, so the artist-named patches are this product’s reading of each sound’s role, not the artist’s own setting.

The Cars · Let's Go — Candy-OAfter The Cars · Let’s GoA hard-synced lead: oscillator B is the slave, a sixth above A, swept by the filter envelope through the poly-mod. The settings are this product’s reading of the lead role, not the artist’s.

New Order · Blue MondayAfter New Order · Blue MondayA saw and a pulse against a saw an octave down, a closed filter snapped open by a short envelope: a plucked low line. The settings are this product’s reading of the bass role, not the artist’s.

Phil Collins · In the Air Tonight — Face ValueAfter Phil Collins · In the Air TonightA held chord on a slow attack and a long release, two detuned saws with pulse widths swinging gently. The settings are this product’s reading of the pad role, not the artist’s.

Daryl Hall & John Oates · I Can't Go for ThatAfter Daryl Hall & John Oates · I Can’t Go for ThatA struck chord on a saw and a pulse against a detuned saw, an envelope opening and closing the filter quickly. The settings are this product’s reading of the keys role, not the artist’s.

Phil Collins · I Missed Again — Face ValueAfter Phil Collins · I Missed AgainTwo detuned saws through a filter that opens over a few tens of milliseconds and settles bright: a chord stab. The settings are this product’s reading of the brass role, not the artist’s.

Japan · Ghosts — Tin DrumAfter Japan · GhostsOscillator B off by an interval and sent through the poly-mod to oscillator A’s pitch, noise in the mix, a resonant filter swept slowly: a metallic, shifting sound. The settings are this product’s reading of the effects role, not the artist’s.

How it plays

Five voices, two oscillators each.

Two oscillators a voice.Each a saw, a triangle and a pulse that sound together or alone, with a pulse width; the second has a fine tune, a low range and a key that frees it from the keyboard, and a hard sync to the first.
A mixer and a filter.The two oscillators and a white noise, then a four-pole low-pass with resonance, an envelope amount and a keyboard tracking of a half or a whole octave.
Two envelopes.A filter envelope and an amplifier envelope, each with attack, decay, sustain and release, and a release key that lets the amplifier ring on or cuts it off.
Poly-mod.The filter envelope and the second oscillator, at their own amounts, sent to oscillator A’s pitch and pulse width, oscillator B’s, and the cutoff, behind a key for each destination.
Wheel-mod and an LFO.A triangle, a saw or a square, mixed with noise by one knob and sent by the mod wheel to the same five destinations; the LFO’s initial amount sends it with the wheel at rest.
Glide, unison and the wheels.A glide time, a unison that stacks all five voices on one key, a pitch wheel that springs back and a mod wheel that stays where you leave it.
Patches that load the whole sound.Pick a patch and every control moves to it at once; the drawer closes and the keys are ready. Hold to preview plays a patch’s tone on your own MIDI, and when you let go the instrument is exactly as it was. The programmer’s keys are drawn and do nothing.
Services.Choose whether the instrument answers your host’s MIDI and clock, set its output level, and age it.

Requirements

What it needs.

Format	Systems	Licence
VST3 · Audio Unit	macOS 11 or later, on Apple silicon	$25. A licence file for each machine is needed to make sound; without one the editor opens and the output is silent, and there is no automatic way yet to receive one.

The drawings

The editor, and the module it becomes.

The plug-in is built. The Eurorack module is drawn, with its macro knobs and the control jacks under them, and is not.

The Modulr Quint plug-in editor, as it opens — The Modulr Quint editor as it opens: two rows of outlined sections on a brown-black panel, the programmer display, the voice lamps, a 61-key keyboard.

The Modulr Quint Eurorack module, 28 HP, in its case — The 28 HP module: eight knobs in four outlined groups, five amber voice lamps and the jacks in two trays, between walnut cheeks.

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 the Prophet-5’s grammar, redrawn in Modulr’s own words, and nothing on it is measured against the instrument.

The instrument it studies

Prophet-5, 1978.

The instrument’s own grammar, as the catalogue recalls it: the sections, the controls and the look the study borrows.

The five-voice programmable polyphonic grammar: two oscillators with shape caps, a mixer, poly-mod and wheel-mod with their destination caps, a filter and two ADSR envelopes, an LFO and a programmer of five banks by eight programs.

A warm brown-black panel with cream silkscreen between thick walnut cheeks: small knobs with a chrome bezel and an ivory pointer line, ivory push caps over deep red lamps, five amber voice lamps and a dim red-orange two-digit program display.

Oscillator A and B: frequency, shape switches for sawtooth, triangle and pulse, pulse width, sync and fine tune on B
Mixer: A, B and noise
Poly-Mod: the filter envelope and oscillator B as sources, with their destinations
Wheel-Mod: a source mix of noise and LFO, with destinations
Filter: cutoff, resonance, envelope amount and keyboard tracking
Filter envelope: attack, decay, sustain and release; the amplifier envelope
LFO: frequency, shape and initial amount
Programmer: 40 programs on bank and program buttons, with tune and volume

The spec sheet

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%
Poly-Mod	pmod.fenv	0–100%	0%
Detune	oscb.fine	±50 ct	0 ct
P.Width	osca.pw	5–95%	50%
Attack	amp.attack	0 ms – 20 s	5 ms
Release	amp.release	0 ms – 20 s	200 ms

Side	Jacks
In	Note (MIDI), V/Oct (CV), Gate (CV)
Out	Out (Audio), F.Env (CV), LFO (CV)

The plug-in is built. The module is not.On saleModulr Quint is a working VST3 and Audio Unit, $25, ad hoc signed and not notarized, so macOS will warn before it opens. A downloaded copy stays silent until it is licensed, and there is no automatic way yet for a customer to receive a licence file. It is not a copy of any instrument: no maker’s name or logo is drawn on a panel, and nothing is measured against the original. The Eurorack module drawn on this page is a design study and is not built.

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.