Spectralis little Brother?
Named Hybrid Elements (strange name, huh?) http://www.radikaltechnologies.com/
So the first interesting Product to show up?
looks, there will be news on the NAMM (17th.Jan 08)..
Downsized Spectralis with 8 Steps (with Shift 16) – Watch out..
no, it’s different_:
The Hybrid Elements Synthesizer does the same in a little different way. We have not reduced the number of editing elements so much. Instead of that the Hybrid Elements Synthesizer can be bought at an entry level price and can be upgraded with additional hardware synthesizers that will all be controlled by the main unit. Like on the Spectralis the user interface controls the different engines the mainframe holds. The Hybrid Elements will run with up to 4 different Hybrid engines at a time. The user can decide if he wants wavetable synth with stereo multimode filters or for example a sample engine with drum programming functions. The different synthesis hardware modules can easily be exchanged and the user decides which kind of engines he wants to use in his desktop module. Another 19“ frame will become available that can hook up the synthesis modules as well without any editing elements. Sounds and sequence patches can be exchanged with the desktop version with a memory flash card or via MIDI dump.
That allows for example to built up a polyphonic version of the hybrid engine by putting multiple similar modules into the 19“ mainframe and controlling them via MIDI. So your system can grow and you pay only one time for the user elements. Adding a second synthesizer engine will be very affordable because you simply don’t need to pay for a second limited user interface the user interface will simply adapt the new engine. The basic parameters can all be accessed directly with the knobs and the grafic display allows editing all the more specific parameters.
The basic unit with the Hybrid Wavetable engine will sell for below 1000€ and the modules will be around 400€ or less each. This solution allows to sell Hybrid-engines at a price point, where you usually can get native DSP engines only.
But there is an additional difference. I am not simply putting the Spectralis into a new box with less elements. The new synth engine will sound very different from the Spectralis. The digital part of the engines will use a complete different technology and the analog filters will always have a stereo signal paths to allow a lot of nice external signal filtering with that device. If you combine 4 modules with different analog filters you can think of the Hybrid Elements like a multiple stereo filter box for external equipment.
So as a conclusion the Hybrid Elements is not a tracked down version or a successor of the Spectralis. It is more a complete different product with it’s own character. It is a good addition to the Spectralis and a nice new entry level product for people who want the sound of real analog filters instead of soft synths and pure DSP engines.
