GliGli shared this sneak preview of the upcoming Overcycler hybrid polyphonic synthesizer.

The Overcycler is intended to be an affordable DIY polysynth. Here’s what they have to say about it:

“Now that there are cheap SMT clones of the SSM2044, I thought I could finally make this synth an affordable and easy to build DIY. My idea is to offer this synth as a fully soldered (almost) entirely SMT PCB, and let the users wire the panel (10 potentiometers, a 40*4 character display and a 16 keys keyboard) and build the enclosure.

For now, it’s hard to give a cost estimation, but let’s say it would (probably) be around 200€ for a fully assembled board (add less than 100€ for the rest).”

Features:

• 6 voice polyphony using hybrid synthesis (Digital “single cycle” oscillators / per-voice analog VCF and VCA).
• 2 synchronizable oscillators per voice, duty cycle modulation on any waveform, dual waveform mix modulation, “girth” modulation (from a subtle veil to “ring modulation”-like sounds), 80KHz sample rate for a clean sound by default.
• 3 complete envelopes with lin/exp choice and looping (oscillators/filter/amplifier).
• 2 complete LFOs with 6 modulation destinations.
• 1 noise generator.
• Voice panning on the stereo output.
• Sequencer / Arpeggiator.
• Patches and single cycles (AKWF, ProphetVS, …) stored on an internal flash chip, accessible through USB mass storage.
• USB powered with USB MIDI and regular MIDI.

Pricing and Availability:

The Overcycler is expected to be available in the next few months as a DIY kit with a pre-populated PCB for around 250€ or fully assembled for around 300€.