Both stretch goals met – Black and white, and the cover.
They also doubled the number of notes in the sequencer. New stuff with the sample and hold so it can do some modular sorts of things. And the editor is almost done. Up to 128 oscillators in mono mode! Polychaining. General delivery coming up soon. Still available on Indiegogo.
Do you like how it sounds?
Looking forward to mine arriving! Some great news on the firmware enhancements too
Hope they now have better quality control than they used to. My bud bought one of their synths a few years ago and it had severe problems with aliasing and quantization noise. He sent it back to them to fix twice, both times they told him there was nothing wrong with it. It was very evident from the recordings he made with it. Cool synth I’m sure if it is all working properly, I’m just a little gun shy about quality control issues and a manufacturer dodging responsibility for their mistakes.
The guys have been very open and sharing with regards to Skulpt. And, for me at least, it’s been a breath of fresh air funding something that has so far been going to plan with no massive issues identified.
I had read on Gearslutz one person complaining heavily about Modal. Can’t remember what is was over - the guy was ranting a bit much to pay it much attention.
I had synth and drum synths , both cheap , sounded nice with nice features but not as easy to use as pocket operators , though technically capable of more.
This looks ok but I’ve got enough gear atm…
I backed this kickstarter too and I’m really looking forward to it coming through. The communication prior to funding was really good and it’s continued after funding which is nice. It’s definitely the most open process from any kickstarter I’ve backed. Like for example, the Shrolca kickstarter should deliver this month but there’s been very little said except for one update to say they’d got slightly better quality parts. Fingers cross on that one.
The thing I found strange was how many people opted for the Black version… it looks really cool but the lack of contrast on the keys might be a nightmare in low light. I went for the white because even though I’ve not played a gig for 5 years never say never…
Agreed with the black version. Always thought the white looked nicer!
What the hell were they thinking with the parameters all laid out at 90degrees to each other on the faceplate?
Got a stiff neck trying to read it and nearly went cross eyed
I don’t see the hype for this at all. I prefer the Roland Boutiques. I also think the Micromonsta sounds better if we’re talking about small, portable synths.
It depends what you’re looking for in a small polyphonic synth. All of them could be the right choice… for me, the interfaces on the poly Boutiques isn’t quite there… the sliders don’t really work for me as they’re too fiddly (or not there at all for the D-05) whereas the SE-02 is appealing (knobs are preferable to me at that size) but it’s not poly. Then, the Micromonsta is definitely much more versatile and does sound great but the interface is much less hands-on and the sequencing is more arp oriented.
So really, it’s whatever works for your needs. That said, I just got a Micromonsta so I’ll be able to compare them when the Skulpt comes through…
Makes a Volca look sexy.
I asked this before and did not get an answer.
Are all the functions of the synth accessible from the front panel or is the software editor necessary to get all functionality?
I ask this with the IK multimedia uno in mind. Where it’s adsr is only accessible from external control, I believe.
Everything’s accessible on the panel, no editor needed (except for firmware upgrades and if you wanna backup your patches etc). There’s a shift button as some buttons and knobs on the panel are working double duty/secondary functions.
Awesome, that is good news. thank you
I tried this out at Synthfest. It’s not the most intuitive synth to use but once I finally worked out what was going on (after having to ask the guy doing the demos “how does this thing make a sound?”) it did sound quite good.
I don’t think I would buy one though as it’s not really that user friendly and the layout is really quite messy/unintuitive. Build quality is ok, guess it was built to a price.
I preferred the Korg Reon which although more expensive is really nicely built, simple to operate and tweak on the fly and sounded much better and has a ton of patch points and modulation options. Going to add a few of those to the setup eventually. Hadn’t even heard of them before so it was a pleasant suprise discovering them.
I don’t mean to sound negative about it but that was my initial impressions.
My skulpt is set to be delivered tomorrow. Looking forward to it. And what a refreshing Kickstarter experience - easily the best I’ve had. Good coms and actually delivering on schedule.
Modal was very smart about how they did this. They got all the lower cost things completely done and probably had the rest of it planned down to the last dot, so they knew exactly what that they were doing on this BEFORE they put it up on Kickstarter. I don’t know this absolutely to be the case, but i think this has a lot to do with their engineer and fairly recent hire Matt Jackson, who did their Craft line on his own nickel very frugally before they hired him.
A lot of Kickstarter hardware developers don’t understand the peril involved in doing a Kickstarter offering. It seems like free money up front. But if they don’t set a price that will cover the cost of manufacturing and the parts and then some added for the mistakes and extra costs that are just a part of any new product development, THEN you are committed to make and sell a product each one at a loss. And god help the developer who under-prices the offering and the has an enormous “winner” and sells a million units, each one a money loser.
I’m looking forward to hearing more about the Skulpt, despite all i never lined up to buy one, although i always thought it looked great, and did come close.
My Skulpt has arrived. Interesting first impressions. It looks much better than it feels. Looks very premium but the feels very light and plasticky.
Genuinely only spent 20 minutes with it and most of that was just blindly twiddling and prodding things. The built in sequencer seemed to have potential though. I was building short loops out of one preset that was the sort of thing I could imagine sampling into the OT.
Despite it’s polyphony, I think this could be a really nice machine for pads and the likes. The manual is now available online so going to give that a read later today and then start playing about some more.
I got mines yesterday and took it round to my mates where we had a good hour playing about with it whilst enjoying a light refreshment or two… just exploring what it’s capable of and we were both really impressed. The user interface is really well considered and the endless encoders with the ‘keyboard led’ indicator works really well. With the morphable oscillators and state variable filter you can get a surprising amount of timbral variation. The detune is well designed and similarly the spread controls. The core sound of it is lovely too… a great example of how things don’t need to be analogue to do nice souning stuff and some of the harmonics that the filter picks out/emphasises are lovely.
To address @J0n35y 's point about the build quality - it is very light but I don’t think it’s overly flimsy and the lid would make less worried about transorting it - survived fine in my backpack with some bottle of beer last night! But, if you are expecting something really robust it is worth bringing those expectations back.
Also to say that it was probably the best run kickstarter that I’ve backed with regular meaningful updates and delivered on time. Overall then, I’m very pleased and I think this is a great option for one of those “what to pair with my DT” questions that gets asked. I hope that Modal go onto do some other synths in this form factor - an interesting take on wavetables would be really smart in my estimation.
Well done jeye_musik, with the detail on your first experience with the Skulpt. Nice to start off by sharing it with some friends.
I think this is entirely reasonable, seeing that there was more than one Craft synth, and that this level of design (good sounding, high functioning, and inexpensive) seems to be Modals new stock in trade, transitioning from the premium products (002 and 008) that started the company.
BTW – i notice that the Craft synth seems to be in the process of disappearing from the store shelves here in the USA at least. So maybe the Skulpt is there new main thing. That sort of attitude really helps put a company’s all into a new product design and release.
But i think it’s possible that Modal may do something entirely different as well, it’s certain regardless that we’ll see action from them in the next year or so.
a cost reduced synth that captures the spirit of the 008 or the 002, maybe in the sub $1000 price range?