I think Pittsburgh Electronics is involved - their SV-1 sounds fantastic (great oscillator and filter) …. And I still miss mine, even though selling was the right thing at the time 
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Don’t need it, but I love it. Lotsa respect for both companies (had Pittsburgh’s Microvolt…amazing semi-mod). Happy to see them having a good time collaborating.
Seriously. That’s like B prices.
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after watching some of the vids it seems like a very well priced middle ground between the Moog Werkstatt and the Mother32…
it does sound lovely.
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Sonic State on the case:
SV-1 envelope and LFO plus that Pittsburgh filter; nice.The sequencer / arpeggiator has some fun tricks too.
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Seems like a deliberate choice and does make them a strong competitor in that space (the mini synths of roland, korg, behringer etc)
At the price it’s hard to go wrong ! I think they’re adding to it in firmware as well, more on why i think that soon.
You could likely do an overlay on the front panel.
Downside for me with the design is figuring out the meaning of the four binary LEDs. It’s a little abstract from looking at the manual.
But using the LEDs rather than a full display helps keep cost down, and it isn’t a show stopper for me.
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As i’ve got a plotter at my disposal I might just make my own skin indeed. Love the color in the knobs though, not an easy thing to get right bar the typical metal and/or black.
I don’t mind, as it’s either a super usable mono synth, or a sandbox for fun percussive sounds and textures. In the case of the latter, I don’t mind just clicking and wiring until I end up in an odd place. But it’s not ideal
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As far as doing an overlay, i notice the plugs have real attachment “nuts”, not hex nuts, but i think there is a special tool to remove/attaching them.
( Real metal nuts not like some very expensive monosynth, that has been lambasted for “plastic nuts”. )
The binary LEDs are mainly used for system setup stuff that gets done once, so it’s less a problem.
The Pittsburgh Modular oscillators and filters are great in this, and they sound fabulous.
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They really do; I’ve got an SV-1 and love it, but I’d almost get this to use the sequencer with it…
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This looks like another great hit from P.Modular
I have the microvolt and the SV1 and will get this too
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So more on what i think they are still working on.
One of the bullet points they list in their product description is this :
- Generative sequencing mode
Looking through the manual i found no mention of this. There is a sequencer and an arpeggiator, but nothing about a generative sequencing mode. ( Unless they somehow mean transposing of sequences, but i think it would be more than this. ) So i am guess this feature is still in development.
A generativre sequencer would be icing, but it might be very tasty icing on a budget synth like this.
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I think its a ‘blue’ button combo, it’s in the review. The synth starts cooking up its own sequences and when you like it you stop the generator.
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Apparently i missed it. Oh well, it’s early with the EB !
I’ll go back and reread the manual.
Nice though to have generative sequencing with this too !
This coupled with a Erica Synth Pico System III could be a fun combo under 1k € with a lot of potential!
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A year ago I was contemplating an PM SV-1b, but held off because they hinted at new devices in the fall. Had East Beast been around at the time, it would probably have been an insta-buy. I still might get one, just to fool around with it! The aesthetic is not to my taste, but I have to admire their deliberate contrariness. Why should everything be austere or haughty alien glyphs?
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So watching the video with Gaz interviewing Richard Nicol of Pittsburgh Modular, and he said the electronics, the oscillators and filters, in the East Beast are kind of a “best of” release from them, from all their products.
Also a leak, don’t be surprised if in a while there isn’t a west coast version like the East Beast !!
EDIT : Fixed spelling of name.
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He did seem to drop a hint that there might well be a West Xxxxx…
West Pest?
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Wow, this is such a lovely and well considered synthesiser. Some really nice design options, great price and the sound is divine… but I’ll probably have to pass on the design - no even so much about the moon in the background - it’s the area where the ‘beast’ is… just too cluttered to see what’s going on…
Another reminder that I really shouldn’t have slept on the Microvolt when it was more readily available.
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Will echo many of you that yeah…this is not an attractive design…subjective I know but not a fan.
Have had similar feelings about the modules they’ve collaborated on too.
That aside, I didn’t think I cared about this but it sounds really good, has some interesting seq/pattern features and is really well-priced! If I ever need another mono then I’ll definitely have a look at this. Even simple note input elevates this over similarly-priced B monos.
Very into the idea of a West Coast iteration in this format!
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