What is in it
| Oscillator | Digital, with more than twenty engines: wavetables, FM, physical models, speech, chords and, since firmware 5, four sample-based engines |
| Filter and amp | Analog, 12 dB per octave filter (low-pass, band-pass or high-pass) into an analog amplifier |
| Modulation | A 5 by 7 matrix, a cycling envelope that can loop, one LFO, a main envelope, and key pressure as a source |
| Keyboard | 25 flat capacitive touch keys that sense how much of your finger is on them, plus a touch strip |
| Voices | Mono by default, or four paraphonic voices that share one filter |
| Sequencer and arp | Four arpeggiator modes, a step sequencer with two patterns of up to 64 steps, and up to four recordable knob movements per pattern |
What it is built for
- Learning synthesis. Each knob does one thing you can hear, and the matrix shows how one control moves another.
- Unusual sounds. The engines are odd ones, and pressure on the touch keys reaches the sound.
- Movement. The arp, the sequencer, the cycling envelope and recorded knob movements turn a held note into a pattern.
- Size. It is small and runs from USB power; for reliable touch keys Arturia recommends its included grounded power supply.
Where it stops
- No built-in effects. The stock firmware has no reverb or delay section (a few engines have their own chorus control). Effects come from outside.
- A flat keyboard. The keys do not move, and two octaves is a small range.
- Paraphonic, not polyphonic. Four voices share one filter, so moving the cutoff moves every note.
- One LFO, one filter, one mono output.
- Settings in menus. The Utility menu holds a lot, and you move through it with one knob and a small screen.
- Decay and Release share one knob.
- Samples need a computer. They load through Arturia’s MIDI Control Center app, so back up before you import your own.
Connections
6.35 mm main output (TS or TRS), a headphone output (which is also the vocoder’s microphone input), USB, MIDI in and out on small 3.5 mm sockets with the supplied adapters, clock in and out, and CV outputs for pitch, gate and pressure. It can run from USB. Arturia recommends its power supply as well during firmware updates.
See MIDI, clock and CV for the settings.
Firmware and versions
These lessons describe firmware 5, which added the sample engines, 512 preset slots and a new preset bank. A used unit may be on older firmware and is updated through MIDI Control Center. Arturia has also sold variants, such as a vocoder edition; check the maker’s page for what a particular version includes.
See Firmware 5.