Greek effects and synth maker Dreadbox turned a few e-music heads when the paraphonic Erebus was released in 2015, with a diverse feature set and ear-pleasing tones that also managed to charm many industry pundits. The company is hoping to repeat that success with its first polyphonic synthesizer, the Abyss.
The Abyss is a four voice analog synthesizer, with each voice having a voltage-controlled oscillator – with autotune – and a sub oscillator allowing players to sound off in unison, polyphonic, chord or multi-channel modes. It also has a white noise generator to dial in some fizz, and a low pass filter transported from the company's Murmux series that packs its own envelope generator.
Cooked in effects include a hybrid delay circuit from the Erebus synth and bucket-brigade delay known as the Reflector for chorus/flange effects. There are four low frequency oscillators for vibrato and delay, four-stage phase shift and an OTA drive circuit for extra oomph when needed. And a couple of four wave low frequency oscillators linked to the filter, Reflector, delay and phaser effects.
The aluminum-housed analog polyphonic synthesizer doesn't come with its own keyboard built in, so players will need to supply their own. The mains-powered Abyss offers main and dry audio outs, a signal input, four controlled voltage inputs and MIDI input and through ports.
The new Dreadbox family member will be available from April and priced at €1,099 (about US$1,170), making it a more expensive option than capable analog polysynths from the likes of Korg and Behringer, which both rock their own keyboards.
At the time of writing, there are no official sound or video assets available, but Audiofanzine managed to snag a quick demo at last month's Winter NAMM.
Source: Dreadbox