Unusable Engineering have released Currents & Nostalgia, available for €89.00.
A 6-voice virtual analog synth built around two circuit-modelled saw-core oscillators, classic filters and two independent slot systems for musical movement.
An instrument is defined by its boundaries. Currents & Nostalgia could be described as a classic synthesizer from a parallel timeline. What if the computerization of the synthesizer had not lead to the DX7 and a continuous feature creep. But instead had lead to refinement of the analog synth concept of the late 70’s and early 80’s. Currents & Nostalgia feels familiar and its core sound is best described as nostalgic. Maybe not for a time that’s been experienced, but a time that might had been… It is built around a circuit model of a saw-core oscillator I designed for an earlier hardware project. The component tolerances on that lead to slight sound diffences of each oscillator. Those variations helped shape the software instrument. The name’s Currents refers to the electrical currents charging the capacitors in that circuit, the process at the heart of its sound.
I wanted its basic sound to make me want to keep playing: the kind of sound that suggests a melody, then another part, until an arrangement starts taking shape. There are two oscillators per voice, a waveform mixer that can push the filters into saturation, a resonant ladder low-pass and a state-variable high-pass. It is not an emulation of a particular instrument, but I like how quickly I can find a sound I want to spend time with.
Like my other synths, it is built around limitations. There is a small set of hardwired modulation sources and two independent eight-slot systems: one for the oscillators and waveform mixer, and one for the filters. Complete groups of parameters can step or sweep together, respond to how you play, follow clocked patterns or move through unpredictable sequences. The two systems can follow different patterns and run at different speeds, while parameter locks keep selected settings available for manual tweaking. It comes with 350 factory presets, from familiar basses, leads and pads to patches that use the slots as part of the sound itself.
Features include:
- Two circuit-modelled oscillators per voice – Blend saw, triangle, sine and pulse from the modelled wave shapers. Core Drift changes component variation, including wave shape, tuning and tracking. Windowed oscillator sync, compensated exponential O1-to-O2 FM and cross-voice FM let the cores interact.
- 2 independent eight-slot sequencers – Each slot holds the settings for its section. A sweep can move oscillator tuning, waveform levels, sync and FM together, while the filter slots follow a different pattern. Small locks let you hold individual controls across slots.
- Ladder low-pass and state-variable high-pass – The ladder low-pass can self-oscillate and has an output slope from 12 to 36 dB per octave. The 12 dB high-pass uses resonance wave warp. The two filters can run in series, in parallel, or a mix of the two.
- Discrepancies between voices – Eight controls vary tuning, pitch scaling, wave mix, oscillator and filter slot positions, cutoff, envelope timing and stereo position between voices. The random offsets are saved with the patch and stay the same until you click the dice.
- Velocity and expressive playing – Velocity can scale both envelopes’ attack and release times. Pressure-driven envelope modes, pitch bend, sustain-pedal response, MPE and MTS-ESP support make room for expressive controllers and alternative tunings.
- 350 hand-carved and sweaty factory presets – A broad factory library covers classic basses, leads, chords and pads alongside more experimental patches built around slot motion, voice variation and oscillator interaction.
Currents & Nostalgia is available to PC and Mac users ((VST3 and AU).
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