At SynthFest 2019, Sonic State’s Nick Batt got a quick intro to the Colossus, Analogue Solutions‘ new megasynth.
“It’s not for everyone, being a cool £25k,” notes Batt. “But look at it!”
Analogue Solutions describes the Colossus as “an exciting new mega-synth, with a design ethos from the dawn of analogue synths. It is more than a powerful analogue ‘workstation’ – it is also art, architecture, exquisite studio furniture.”
While the physical design of the Colosuss is inspired by the classic Synth 100, the circuit designs are original, based off of AS’s own Polymath, Telemark & Vostok.
Pricing and Availability
The Colossus is being built to order, priced at £25K. See the Analogue Solutions site for details.
I don’t think I have a jar big enough to save my change.
Only Jarre does…
Honestly, it looks like a huge hodge-podge. Since he’s using the Curtis VCO chips, it doesn’t seem to have an especially unique sound. I mean, aside from 12 oscillators and 8 filters, etc. If you wanted a “thick” sound like this, you could just buy 12 of the all-in-one Eurorack panels and be happy.
Oooh, “the matrix panels are about 800 pounds each.” Wow, those must be built by hand for him.
“the matrix panels are about 800 pounds each.”
Could be the cost – could be the weight!
It is beautiful but the o my thing that is an eyesore is that nicotine yellow oscilloscope. It certainly looks like it was just put in there culled from a third party standalone unit.
A hit… with who? All the rockstars who bought it to put it in their collection and never touch it?
All of the components of T.O.N.T.O. would cost far more than $25k now, especially the super-vintage parts. Here, all of that power is neatly focused so you can scream and tear out your hair from one spot instead of having to run around the room.
I saw Tonto at a festival years back. Huge synth, couldn’t wait! Then about 10 minutes into his “set”, his CD started skipping horrendously. The magic wore off, we walked away. Real shame that, though I imagine at a hot outdoor festival, with it’s age, probably a bit unstable these days
Time to sell a few under-used pieces of equipment. I’m looking forward to hearing some examples of this tremendous playground of an analog machine!
Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, haters gotta… wait… no! You know what? People always say- “Well, it takes all kinds”. But I’m pretty sure there are some kinds we could do without.
Any given gear either meets your needs or it doesn’t. Hating on something that you can’t afford? I do NOT understand that!
This instrument is mad, over-the top, and costs more than my car. It is also insanely beautiful. I take my imaginary hat off to this guy for doing something this crazy. It’s more of a way of working than anything else. A beautiful, insane way of working. I love it!
It will end up in the studio of RockStars? Celebrity DJs more likely.
For $30,552.62 I’m going to have to insist on a custom faceplate over that slapped-in oscilloscope, I mean come on…
Agree, that’s one of the more odd parts of this system. You can always just buy an old Tektronix scope and sit it on top of the cabinet. Doesn’t seem to be an integral part of the system.
well he did say he was going to replace the oscilloscope, prob with a digial one because CRTs are too deep I guess… shame but whatchagonnado?
I wish someone would do an ARP 2500
he seems slighly squiffy – rightly so – take some cojones to do this. I ordered one.
There is lots of brilliants with this. As a youth the Synthi 100 was the dream. It still is.
Being a Serge owner, i do see the potential in other modules, including some that aren’t on this.
If you own a Serge, you’re braver than about 25% of the posters here, including me! That’s serious top-end power. Given enough time (what’s that), you could probably do at least some justice to this beast. Its hard to say how many people (aside from us) have the ears to really hear what it can do, though. Nickaloo wants an ARP 2500, but that one has the same problem: can you justify it? That’s not a slam; its an honest creative question I ask whenever I start eyeballing some shiny new goodie.
With my current finances and music I can’t justify or afford this. I don’t have that internal dialogue as anything over 3 digits is a no from me.
I can appreciate and applaud a great or interesting synthesiser. I do that here.
As for the Serge it does things other synthesisers don’t do. Also my “regular “ instruments do things the Serge can’t. Am I in the mood for scales or working on song it’s one thing. Inspiration, sound design or noodling it’s bananas. It’s great for creativity to have a synth doing things you don’t understand and working in a non east coast way
One of these isn’t enough.
Analogue Solutions – from my experiences make sure you buy one through a dealer to protect your consumer rights. Just saying’.
Stunning to be sure, but… I wouldn’t be able to rationalize buying one even if I had the money for it. I did a quick’n’rough calculation: for about 60-70% of its price, one could put together a modular monster (say, building it around 4 Mother 32s & 2 Neutrons) that would have many-many times more VCFs, VCAs, and a whole bunch of other stuff. The only challenge would be the 4x4x16 pin matrices, but even those could be sourced through (say) a custom order from Hinton, Alyseum, or Erica. And, the final system would offer a LOT more than the Colossus does. Regardless, respect to Analogue Solutions: it’s a Gaudian Sagrada Familia to East Coast analogue synthesis.
I love it but I would not buy it even it would be half that price. I think it is more of a piece of art to make your studio look better. Maybe the first real demo clips will make me change my mind.