Synthesist Hainbach shared this video, which offers his take on the new Erica Synth SYNTRX synthesizer.

“After two months spend with the SYNTRX and recording an album with it,” he notes, “I feel comfortable to make a more detailed video. I give some ideas how it can be more than a synth in the studio, show the raw sound of its individual parts and give my general impression on it.”

The SYNTRX is an interesting example a synth that’s clearly inspired by a vintage design, but which goes far beyond the original. The SYNTRX takes inspiration from the EMS Synthi AKS, featuring a similar form factor and build.

But the SYNTRX is an all-new synth design, taking the original concept to a new level. A key change is that the pin patch matrix of the original, which was loved and loathed in equal measure, has been replaced with a digitally-controlled analog patch matrix. This makes it possible for the synth to save up 256 patches.

Other features features not found on the Synthi AKS are Sample & Hold circuit with individual clock, octave switch for VCO1, synchronization of VCO2, AD mode on the envelope generator, as well as MIDI that accepts CV, Gate, Modulation wheel messages and program change messages for the matrix control.

The SYNTRX also is a key instrument on Hainbach’s new album, Assertion, which he says grew out of his response to the Coronavirus pandemic:

“My new album Assertion is my way out of the gloom of this situation, that sees a world becoming in many ways smaller and more closed-minded, while our most vulnerable waste away. It is an attempt at hope, a conscious choice of traveling joyously in music, while the body stays in isolation. It is a celebration of collaboration, as musicians Maysun and Andrew Raffo Dewar contribute to the sound of this album and Nani Gutierrez spins her fantastic visual world further, in the seventh year of our work together.

It is an album I hope you can put on anytime you need something to underscore your happiness or take you out of the ever threatening darkness.”

Hainbach’s kit for Assertion features the Syntrx, Chase Bliss Blooper, Bechstein Model 10 piano, Brüel & Kjaer 2204 Sound Level Meter with 1613 filter and Roland Juno 60. He discusses the making of the album in the video below:

You can preview Assertion below:

Pricing and Availability

The SYNTRX is available to order now for € 2500. Hainbach’s Assertion is available in digital and vinyl formats via Bandcamp.