Dave Smith Evolver Desktop Analogue Synthesiser
Product Info
Evolver is a monophonic (one voice) synthesizer with four oscillators in total: two analog, two digital.
Why a monophonic synth? Why a low-cost, small, desk-top instrument? Well, simpler products can be designed faster, easier, and cheaper. Plus, mono synths can be a lot of fun - there are benefits when you eliminate all the polyphonic baggage. You'd also be surprised how much sound you can get out of one voice, especially with four oscillators. It also allows using the synth as an effects processor with stereo inputs and outputs. Overall, we're talking bang-for-the-buck.
The concept of Evolver is to generate new sounds that, well, evolve. Sounds that change, subtly or dramatically.
Key features and specifications
- Analog Oscillator waveshape areSawtooth, Triangle, Saw-Triangle, and Pulse (with voltage-controlled analog Pulse-Width modulation)
- Digital Oscillators select from 96 wavetables from the Prophet-VS (128 x 12 bits), and 32 user-loadable (via MIDI) Wavetables (128 x 16 bits).The Digital Oscillators get trashy as the frequency gets higher, as with the original VS.
- Hard Sync on the analog oscillators
- FM and Ring Mod on the digital oscillators
- Separate Glide per oscillator, with two glide modes
- Real voltage-controlled analog lowpass filters - not digital recreations. 4-pole/2-pole switchable, fully resonant (in 4-pole mode). There are two separate filters, one for the left channel and one for the right.
- Analog Voltage Controlled Amplifiers (VCA), again one for each channel.
- Dual digital 4-pole Highpass filters (one per channel); place before or after analog electronics.
- Stereo audio inputs; Noise generator
- Envelope Follower and Peak Detect from External Input to use as modulation sources
- External Input can be used to gate envelopes and/or step the Sequencer
- Three snappy ADSR envelopes
- Four LFOs (sync with sequencer and MIDI)
- Dual (left and right channel) tunable feedback loops; modulate frequency and amount
- Delay with 3 taps; each with separate time and amount modulation. Syncs to sequencer/MIDI. Normal feedback and additional feedback path through analog filters
- Distortion! Digital, one for each channel, can be placed before or after analog electronics
- 3Banks of 128 Programs for 384 total Programs - dump to/from MIDI
- 16 x 4 Analog-style sequencer - syncs with MIDI
- Extensive Modulation capabilities, including audio-range modulation. Bipolar (+/-) modulation.
- Easy to program matrix-style front panel with 8 endless-turn rotary encoders
