In his latest video, synthesist Starsky Carr offers his take on the new Erica Synths Elektor Formant modular synthesizer.
In May 1977, Elektor magazine published the first of a series of articles that document building the Formant modular synthesizer. The Formant, designed by C. Chapman, was designed to an affordable DIY alternative to the commercial modular synths of the day.
Last year, Erica Synths introduced a modern reissue of the Formant modular, with 27 module kits available for DIYers.
Carr shares an overview of the Formant modular, history of the system, sound demos and more.
Topics covered:
- Overview of the Erica Synths Formant system
- The history of the original 1970s Elektor DIY kit
- Sound demos: VCOs, filter tones, modulation & patching
- Performance insights (including Synth East)
- Is this the ultimate vintage modular revival?
Alex Ball also shared this video, exploring a vintage Formant.
Topics covered:
0:00 Intro Jam
1:20 What was the Elektor Formant?
3:38 Demo 1: Elektorial Spank
5:02 Interview with Bruce part 1
7:33 Demo 2: Key-Bored
8:44 Interview with Bruce part 2
10:49 Summary and Formant Reissue
11:46 Patron Outro Jam
Check out the videos, and share your thoughts on the Elektor Formant in the comments!
haraldswerk has Elektor Formant on his website that you can download gerber files and make yourself.
Behringer, you know what to do. 🙂
Actually, I agree this is up to what Behringer is (mostly) doing, revive old, obscure, hard to get stuff. This would actually be the easiest cheapest thing to R&D (literally all the instructions, BOM, etc is out there) while adding extra stuff like a sequencer. If they get this in eurorack format and decetly priced, Im game.
That’s putting it charitably.
Behringer is in business to copy anything that they can and make a buck off it, limited only by what they can get away with.
Behringer’s shameless copying is a win for the community when they copy old stuff that’s expensive only because it’s rare.
When they Xerox products from companies like Arturia and Make Noise, they’re taking money away from the companies that are actually investing in designing cool new tools for us.
That could be fun !
Eurorack Formant ?
?
“Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.”
And then Godwin’s Law kicks in, forum Nazis!
This got me interested in fixing my old Elektor Formant. (Have to wait a tad as I got the Kawai K5000S on the bench)
I have a vintage EF (and a lot of other vintage systems to compare it to) and really like the sound of it. Mine is a bit skwonky and horrible round the back, but the basic sound is very powerful and the formant filters are really interesting. But the big plus for me is the size – I hate the tiny fiddly euro rack format!
Hans Holema has recreated Format modules (F_SYN) for the Cherry Audio Modular system
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9ZJrJEiibq5_qWcEtiDQ_A