Soundtronics today announced M²Synth, a new modular synthesizer, using a new variant of 5U.
“Over the past year we’ve have developed an all new analog modular synth,” they note. “For now, here’s a sneak peek of the M²Synth, stay tuned for more details coming soon.”
The M²Synth is housed in an all-metal enclosure, with cases designed to be expandable in units of 10 spaces.
The module panel sizes are the same as Soundtronics’ earlier MFOS & YuSynth panels, but with slightly different mounting hole pitch to fit their new standard mounting rail design.
The depth of the modules is much less than the MFOS and YuSynth designs, so they say it should not be much of a problem to mount these modules in other cabinets.
Details are still to come at the Soundtronics site.
I would say inventing a new modular format that is just slightly incompatible with an existing one seems foolish. But then, AE Modular seems to be doing pretty well with its custom format.
Captive markets, blah… nonstandard = low volume = expensive.
It makes me want to wear long rubber gloves, attach cables to someone’s testes, and send high-voltage amplitudes by twisting those knobs. Good music right there!
They look pretty decent but making your own niche sub-format within the existing 5U standard pretty much guarantees that your remain a hobbyist tinkerer rather than a business owner. The differentiating factor between these two roles is that you have to make what customers want, not what you want.
Have to agree with previous commenters – please make this fully Dotcom compatible. Just use standard Moog/Dotcom style panels!
The splinter 5U formats are one of the reasons why Eurorack has been so much more successful than MU.
One of the many, many reasons.
Interesting to read the comments above. To offer some feedback on why the M²Synth is this format. Over the years, Soundtronics has sold thousands of 5U panels / modules to our DIY builders and we didn’t want to depart from our MFOS and YuSunth panel designs too much so as to avoid alienating our very loyal customer base. The pitch of the mounting holes has been slightly narrowed to 3″ like the MOTM so it does differ from our previous panels but as many of those are fitted in cabinets with wooden rails so its not overly important for our existing user base.
Soundtronics has continued with +/- 12V as that was the standard adopted by MFOS which is the basis on which we started in the modular market. Not sure that the M²Synth panel is sub-format but them again, it is not identical to MOTM but should be physically compatible.
Any other feedback will be most welcome.