New Serum-Inspired Eurorack Wavetable Synth Module, The Centre

1V/Oct has launched a Kickstarter project to fund production of a new Eurorack wavetable synth module, The Centre.

The Centre is a four-voice polyphonic module, with each voice featuring a wavetable oscillator LFO, VCO, Envelope and filter. This means you can use it as a complete polyphonic synth within your rack. It can also be used for sample playback, so you can use it as a MIDI drum module. Other features include clocks, effects, digital VCA and more.

The developers say that The Centre was inspired by the popular software synth Serum:

“The Centre is not a replacement of that great plugin, it just tries to use similar techniques to reproduce similar sound in hardware packages. Using software is not always convenient and running modular performance is much easier without a computer and by using knobs and patching modulations.”

Features:

  • Polyphony (up to 4 voices of polyphony all controlled independently from V/OCT inputs)
  • Wavetable Oscillator with Unison/Detune/Warp
  • LFO with Sine, Square and Triangle output that can be freely controlled
  • VCO standard high resolution oscillators with Sine, Square and Triangle
  • Low Frequency Shaper – Shapes – shapes for low frequency modulations (Serum file-format shapes can be imported)
  • AHDSR Envelope
  • Filters (Bi-Quad and Diode Ladder)
  • Drum Racks – MIDI powered drum sets playing sampled drums
  • Sample playback controlled by Gate or MIDI
  • Clocks, MIDI clocks, gate dividers
  • Ring Modulator
  • Wave Folder
  • Digital VCA – Voltage Controlled Amplifier
  • Simple Multiband Compressor
  • 3-Band Equaliser

Pricing and Availability

The Centre is available to project backers as a Eurorack module or as a compact semi-modular synth. It’s available to project backers, starting at about $390 USD.

13 thoughts on “New Serum-Inspired Eurorack Wavetable Synth Module, The Centre”

  1. Looks very nice.

    Just a heads up, the “semimodular” version is twice the price of the Eurorack. And it’s not really semimodular, it’s a Eurorack case with this and a polyphonic midi-CV module and a mixer.

    I would have thought that they could just have reboxed it and made a little bit of software to make a standalone version. I mean, it’s running digitally, so it seems a bit wasteful to get a polyphonic midi-CV just to plug it into this. But I guess it’s mainly about keeping the production runs manageable.

    1. Hey,

      Semi-modular is special…

      It has connections underneath which you can “break” by putting jacks in. And The Centre itself operates on MIDI in that aspect as it is controlled by MIDI-EX interface that is shared between The Centre and Tamar (MIDI Interface). I need to write better description.

      Happy to tell more details over mail

  2. Instant order for me.

    The closest thing to this in Euro seems to be the Synth Tech Quad Morphing VCO, which is $1000 and seems to do a lot less than this module does for about 1/3rd the price.

    Synth Tech’s quality is amazing, so we’ll have to see if this module comes anywhere close to it, but the info and the demos seem pretty good.

    1. Hey,
      As an author I can confirm… yes. But with limits. It depends on size of wavetable. But if you load simple wavetable (with not many tables, but can be any length in points) you can have multiple wavetables per voice and different wavetables per voice.
      Complicated but doable. I will try making more demos.

      Happy to answer more details: [email protected]

  6. This is both a great idea and cool implementation. Am I the only one that hears Serum as beefier though?? That would be the first instance I can remember of hearing a VST out-beef hardware

    1. “Am I the only one that hears Serum as beefier though?”

      Not sure how that would work.

      Serum is a mature platform, though, with presets created by professional sound designers, and you’re comparing that to what looks to be a quick demo of pre-production hardware.

      I’m not thinking about it as a Serum replacement, though, rather as four complete, powerful synth voices in Euro for under $400. It really seems like a steal from that perspective.

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