COMPUSYNTH400, wild west coast/Altair8800 modular synth from Giorgio Sancristoforo - December 5, 2022

In Giorgio Sancristoforo’s new wild standalone modular Synthesizer, west-coast synthesis meets vintage Altair8800 computing ideas.

Giorgio Sancristoforo’s developments in recent years have made for a lot of looks in recent years. On the one hand, because of his very beautiful, lovely ideas for unusual instruments. On the other, for his courage to publish these as standalone apps and not as plugins for your DAW. He want to show that DAWless is also possible with the computer.

After his weird Japanese synthesizers Ongaku and Bento, we are welcoming another west-coast-inspired instrument with a unique inspiring feature set.

Spoiler: Details

Details

COMPUSYNTH400 is a new modular Synthesizer that takes inspiration from west-coast synthesizers (Buchla…) and the mighty Altair8800 computing from the mid-70s. The GUI is very Buchlaesque, with its red and blue knobs on white faceplates.

The synth consists of four sine/sawtooth wave oscillators, each with frequency, fine-tune controls, and FM options. They can also act as LFOs. These are joined by four lowpass gates/VCA combinations, a resonant lowpass filter, and a resonator section. Plus, you a ring modulator. Interesting decision to add a filter to the west-coast concept, and the resonator could also be a great door opener for really wild sounds.

Every west-coast synth lives from its wild modulators. These were also far more complex in early w-c synths than in classic Moog synths for example. Giorgio also adopted this wildness in its new standalone synth. In form of four AR envelopes, and a complex random CV generator. There are also utilities like an attenuverter, summarizer, and more.

To refine your sounds, COMPUSYNTH400 also includes an echo and reverb processor. A highlight is its unique 128-bit sequencer that has three data tracks, data input section, and more. Sounds can be created in a virtual patch matrix with up to 1596 patch points. This allows you to build a huge number of sounds. Also perfect for experimenting like a mad professor in a sound lab.

Yes, COMPUSYNTH400 is not a plugin, it’s just a standalone app. You can record sounds internally on a virtual tape machine with some simulations. Alternatively, you can route audio to and from your DAW using a virtual audio driver such as Blackhole or Loopback.

Unfortunately, there is no sound demo of it. But I am sure that the new synth is on the level of the previous releases by Giorgio. Ready for wild sonic adventures?

COMPUSYNTH400 is available now for 19,50€ and runs as a standalone app on macOS. Windows version will be released in January 2023. A demo version is available on the website.

More information here: Giorgio Sancristoforo

 

in which way shall that thing be related to an altair 8800? it has a sequencer -> its programmable -> the altair is also programmable???

 

I am really just pissed that Windows user got to wait a bunch longer for his releases.

Related or not, IMO his synths are truly a work of art.

Huge fan of Gleetchlab and Berna.

There is always arguing that they do not come as plugins, but I see it as opportunity to leave the DAW for some sessions and focus on something different, create differently...

 

Too few knobs. Besides that, looks nice.