Malevolent is a devilishly compact analogue semi-modular monosynth with independently patchable oscillators and endlessly evil intentions. ADVERTISEMENT Malevolent Built by PWM, the design comes from Bristol-based Future Sound Systems and was developed by ex ROLI and Focusrite engineer Ben Supper along with PWM owner Paul Whittington. It’s in this meeting of experience and intent that we get this intriguing analogue modular synthesizer that’s both instantly playable and endlessly patchable. It also has one of the most convincing sound demo videos I’ve seen in ages: So, what’s the deal? You have 2 VCO with saw, triangle and pulse outputs and a mix output, shape control, 2 FM inputs and individual mixing. There’s a 2-pole multimode VCF with modulation inputs, there are two envelopes and an LFO. It’s all normalled for instant sounds but there are 19 inputs and 19 outputs for patching making it extremely adaptable. For control, you have 32 velocity-sensitive mini-keys which are totally independent of the analogue circuit and use USB-MIDI to 1volt/oct conversion to address the synthesizer. An arpeggiator comes with 6 types, latch and up to 6 octaves. The joystick offers a bit of pitch bend, portamento and vibrato. On the back, Melovolent has a line output and a headphone output, is powered over USB and also has MIDI. It sounds really fruity and those 2 oscillators give an uncommon amount of girth in a little synth. It’s priced at ￡499.99 and they are open for preorders. PWM will be in booth W365 at Superbooth. |
