Skulpt from Modal Electronics

The Lounge Other Gear
#41

There is considerable discussion about the Skulpt on the most recent Sonic Talk 540. It starts at 10 minutes in and goes past 24 minutes. Of course Nick has direct knowledge, he had used and featured the Skulpt recently. But more significantly Matthew Hodson, was a guest on the show, and he is developing a piece of music on the Skulpt that is likely to be featured on Modal’s Kickstarter page and he has been using the Skulpt for a considerable length of time. Hodson, who has a lot of electronic music experience, had a lot to say about the Skulpt and is very positive about it. He is using it under Max-for-Live for instance. Sounds like Hodson plans on making it one of his synths when it is released and he certainly has plenty of choice.

There is info also in the video about the 8 oscillators per voice, i am still trying to figure out exactly what that means precisely – it sounds to me that separate oscillators is literally what it is, that it comes down to the sort of separate control you have on all those oscillators.

To me the Skulpt is starting to sound like a no-brainer, as a purchase, though there is a ways to go yet.

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#42

That’s the Kickstarter gone live on this one - looks like it’s pretty much fully funded already!

I’ve pledged for now - will see if I stick with it in the long run. £250 seems pretty reasonable to me though. Doesn’t seem as though the lid is included though at present unfortunately :frowning:

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#43

What an ugly design though…

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#44

If the software editor has a randomiser I’ll put my money down.
Looks like it’s pretty much backed already so I can wait to find out…

Shame about the lid, cheeky that…

#45
  • 50 pound brexit Eu punishment :frowning:
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#46

That’s the case added as a stretch goal. Not sure why, but the case/lid is part of the appeal for me. Purely aesthetic but a nice touch.

#47

Following up a little.

Here’s the demo track by Matthew Hodson that i mentioned before.

Also about the lid – i see that the pledge amount is very close to reaching the 200% needed for Modal to include the lid. They still have 23 days left so, it’s likely though not certain, that the lid will make it as a stretch goal.

ADDED A DAY LATER: I see the pledge level is over 200% now so unless a lot of people cancel their commitments, the lid is included.

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#48

This video is really well done.

Only five days left on Kickstarter – although that may be a soft deadline, if orders are allowed beyond that date.

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#49

I noticed that since they passed the first stretch goal (for the lid) they have added a second stretch goal at 300% the Skulpt in black. We might presume it includes the lid in black too.

Black%20Skulpt

300% is still a ways off though. I do like the black better.

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#50

Cool video, despite lots of stuff being tucked away in submenus this synth seems really well-designed. The variable-function endless pots with LED keyboard screen is really clever.

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#51

I ended up pulling the trigger on this Kickstarter, despite earlier reservations. The initial demos didn’t hook me in, but since then the tutorial video and further demos have sounded really damn good. And there are clever workflow touches throughout that will be really useful. It’s a suprisingly well-featured and quality-sounding synth for sub-$300. This is certainly a cut above many of the desktop volcas etc. in the same price range.

They also said in an update that they’re planning a VST/AU plugin for it, they’re just figuring out how they want to implement it. That will be revealed in a future update.

And the FAQ says that, although the synth doesn’t currently support MPE, it’s under consideration for a future update since they’ve already implemented MPE in three of their other synths (Modal 002/001/002R).

So those were the two main things on my wishlist, addressed sufficiently for me to buy in. Now let’s hope for that 300% stretch goal. The black Skulpt looks really nice!

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#52

The sound speaks for itself.

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#53
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#54

I ended up pulling my Kickstarter. Videos like that make me think again!

It does sound great. Just been burned with Kickstarter a few too many times!

#55

Seems to me that it being from a company like Modal mitigates the risk of non-delivery, or the product being really useless. Plus Modal is pretty far along in the development of this already, and that this is highly funded that should also mitigate some risk.

I think the biggest risk here is with schedule. But they were smart in making the stretch goals things that shouldn’t impact schedule a great deal. (Different color plastic injection molding – which actually has a small cost, instead of some grand poorly thought-out adventure in the software.)

But who knows.

ADDED: I checked the schedule promise for this is September 2018. So if they deliver on that, it’s just like a regular order. But this also seems awfully tight on schedule.

Looks like Kickstarter may just be a way for Modal to get some inexpensive advertising, and some gauge for the first production run.

#56

Yeah, let me clarify there - I dont doubt that Modal will deliver but there is always something unforseen that causes at least a little delay. It’s that sort of thing I’m done with really.

I think for me I’d rather see it out there in the wild and in the hands of the public before taking the plunge. I can imagine losing hours on my commute to/from work playing about with something like this.

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#57

Changed my mind and jumped back on this one haha. Haven’t touched a DAW in a couple of months now and figured something like this plus the A4 that’s on the way would make a nice, fun OTB set up with the OT.

Rewatched the tutorial video and some of the sounds on it were fantastic. Going back to my “fun on the train” comment, that sequencer looks fun. Wonder if it saves your last recording or something so that I could get home and sample it straight into the OT (for example).

#58

Looking at the final totals – looks like they only fell a few thousand short of the Black Skulpt stretch goal, i wonder if they’ll do it anyways?

Modal released a few more videos in the last few days before the deadline – like the BigBass one etc – the Skulpt does have a certain kind of sound and appeal. Being a volume product, i expect to see Modal having this in retail pretty soon – will that one have a lid too? We’ll see.

#59

They gave an update and said they have enough to do the black!

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#60

Skulpt is now for (pre)sale on Indiegogo!

November is set as the delivery date.