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I have another Erica Synths product, the Pico System III, that accepts "voice cards". With the synth, you receive some blank voice cards which are effectively p

I have another Erica Synths product, the Pico System III, that accepts "voice cards". With the synth, you receive some blank voice cards which are effectively prototyping boards that you can use to create your own sound path by soldering components onto them. An example can be seen from 2:55 in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rw9dGsLlY0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rw9dGsLlY0

alfiedotwtf 2y ago
I’ve always wanted to pick one up. Does it have that Moog girth? Also wanting a DB-01… that thing is filthy!!
- mastazi 2y ago
  It's more of a West Coast synth so it doesn't sound much like a Moog; I like that it has a "modern" approach (not just a clone of old West Coast synths like Buchla/Serge). I also like that it's really packed with features: two oscillators, two cycling slopes/envelopes, two low pass gates, a bucket brigade delay, a modulation source with noise, three mixers... all in a compact case and for a very reasonable price. It does have some shortcomings though (see below). The waveshaper sounds good but it's a bit limited (it just continuously shapes from one waveform to another, but it's not a proper wavefolder, i.e. it does not "fold" the wave creating those crazy harmonics). However you can overcome this limitation because you can always use the analog FM for adding more harmonics, this is linear FM, not exponential, so it's easy to keep it in tune and as a result it's very flexible, it sounds great (don't expect the sound of digital FM like a DX7 though, this is the typical 60s/70s analog FM sound). The envelope is quite bad and it's the main shortcoming of this synth. Of course being a West Coast synth I didn't expect full ADSR, but my issue is that it doesn't have a way to switch from ASR to AD mode, in other words you you can't turn off sustain so the only way to make plucky sounds is to use short gates; this is a big limitation (some hardware doesn't have a way to force the gate length) and I dislike that very much. On the other hand, one thing I like about the envelopes is that they can be switched to cycling so they can be used as LFOs which is in line with the fact that this is a West Coast-inspired synth. The low pass gates are amazing, definitely my favourite part of the synth, they can be used as VCAs or as proper low pass gates, but also they have resonance unlike the classic ones from Buchla/Serge. I love how flexible they are and how much sonic palette they offer. TL;DR it's a really good synth except for the envelopes, would be a great pairing together with a good West Coast slope/envelope module like Make Noise Maths or Befaco Rampage. PS sorry for the wall of text.
  - alfiedotwtf 2y ago
    Wall of text is good, thanks! Ok that’s a good review. I think those shortcomings could possibly be overcome by breadboarding your own modules and bypassing! Oh wow, I can see so much time getting lost with this thing haha

alfiedotwtf 2y ago

I’ve always wanted to pick one up. Does it have that Moog girth? Also wanting a DB-01… that thing is filthy!!

mastazi 2y ago
It's more of a West Coast synth so it doesn't sound much like a Moog; I like that it has a "modern" approach (not just a clone of old West Coast synths like Buchla/Serge). I also like that it's really packed with features: two oscillators, two cycling slopes/envelopes, two low pass gates, a bucket brigade delay, a modulation source with noise, three mixers... all in a compact case and for a very reasonable price. It does have some shortcomings though (see below). The waveshaper sounds good but it's a bit limited (it just continuously shapes from one waveform to another, but it's not a proper wavefolder, i.e. it does not "fold" the wave creating those crazy harmonics). However you can overcome this limitation because you can always use the analog FM for adding more harmonics, this is linear FM, not exponential, so it's easy to keep it in tune and as a result it's very flexible, it sounds great (don't expect the sound of digital FM like a DX7 though, this is the typical 60s/70s analog FM sound). The envelope is quite bad and it's the main shortcoming of this synth. Of course being a West Coast synth I didn't expect full ADSR, but my issue is that it doesn't have a way to switch from ASR to AD mode, in other words you you can't turn off sustain so the only way to make plucky sounds is to use short gates; this is a big limitation (some hardware doesn't have a way to force the gate length) and I dislike that very much. On the other hand, one thing I like about the envelopes is that they can be switched to cycling so they can be used as LFOs which is in line with the fact that this is a West Coast-inspired synth. The low pass gates are amazing, definitely my favourite part of the synth, they can be used as VCAs or as proper low pass gates, but also they have resonance unlike the classic ones from Buchla/Serge. I love how flexible they are and how much sonic palette they offer. TL;DR it's a really good synth except for the envelopes, would be a great pairing together with a good West Coast slope/envelope module like Make Noise Maths or Befaco Rampage. PS sorry for the wall of text.
- alfiedotwtf 2y ago
  Wall of text is good, thanks! Ok that’s a good review. I think those shortcomings could possibly be overcome by breadboarding your own modules and bypassing! Oh wow, I can see so much time getting lost with this thing haha