Extremely cool stuff. I could see maybe wishing that each drone section had two independent oscs (to allow 4 independent oscs worth of madness), but you can probably do similar things with the filters at high resonance.
I don’t need one, but looks like a great drone synth in a box. Might be a gift down the road for my partner who love drones.
Combination of price and sound + features looks incredible compared to many boutique drone synths (most of them are either overpriced or unobtainable)
Looks about 3u size… Not sure how many HP but it could be guessed. At 6x AA batteries that’d be 9V nominally which seems odd for euro rack… Wonder if it has connectors for standard rack power round the back… Looks and sounds awesome though either way
Edit… After a bit of math measuring things off the images, it looks like it would be 42 or maybe 44 HP.
I was curious, too. Erica synths sells a version of the 3340 chip they mention, and there are other modules based on it. The spec mentions accurate pitch tracking, but I’d bet it depends on the implementation and whether there’s a calibration trimpot. “Drone” sounds like Marketing for “doesn’t track” to me, and the Hz knob looks like it doesn’t go very high, but it still sounds like a really interesting product.
Anyone happen to know offhand any more context or history behind the 3340 oscillator?
(I like that it has Hard Sync, and I’m hoping the Pitch Link switch is the soft sync advertised in the chip spec. It does not look like the chip’s linear FM is implemented here, though)
The aux input is a nice touch - add another small format battery-powered synth, or mic the speaker for feedback. Wonder if it’s routed through the effects or not?
I didn’t notice the 3340 mentioned, was this in the video?
I know Matt Hodson who you see guest on sonic talk now works for stylophone so my guess is pretty soon your going to see a video of him using this machine
Its in the photo above
I don’t know much on the history but the 3340 is in the Begringer Crave also which I own and love its sound. I thought I heard somewhere that is what Oberhiem used. There is a pitch input on this new Stylophone Drone synth so I would hope it would be able to track. Would love to see another video with some more info. I signed up for the preorder list regardless.
On the enclosure! 3340 Oscillator, 3320 Filter, PT3299 delay, and another IC I forget for the reverb.
Alesis AL3201! I wonder if this is the CoolAudio V1000 clone though?
If he is involved with this that is a good sign. He knows modular. Interesting to see if this is part of a series.
Speakers in modular is more unusual, but mics in modular is getting done now, so why not ?
Yes according to the website CPM is a series, so expect more modules.
thanks for heads-up!
i sometimes do more, will happily have 3 or more S-1 .
but this particular one has no patch memory, and drones have not that much use in my music (i’m all about plucks), so one would be enough.
And no midi I realise
If it’s using a 3340 I don’t see why it wouldn’t track V/oct. It’s a drone because there’s no onboard sequencer or quantizer. I wonder if “Eurorack compatible” means the main out is at Eurorack level? That would be surprising.
The CEM3340 was used in tons of classic synths, SH-101, Sequential Pro One, Prophet 5, Oberheim OB8 etc.
It is still available and in production.
There are a few modern chips using the 3340 number and are apparently based on, or are clones of the CEM version, it would be interesting to know which type are being used by Stylophone.
I have no experience with any of the clone 3340, but very familiar with the CEM3340.
Wondering if the use of common components like the 3340 means it won’t be a limited run like the GEN R-8 was. Signed up for the pre-order just in case it is.
The way i think about this, it’s called drone because there’s no onboard VCA, and so also no gated envelope hooked up to a VCA.
There is an article in Amazona. It doesn’t say anything more than other articles, buy it does say things clearly. Article translates well.
They had me at “forever evolving drones” 