Eternal Engine Electronic Music Instruments shared this brief demo of the MARS Polyphonic Tube Synthesizer, before shipping it out.
Here’s what they have to say about it:
“MARS – the first polyphonic synthesizer based on vacuum tubes. The power and flexibility of oscillators based on the famous R-2R DAC TDA1387, combined with the original fully tube audio path based on the APPARATUS synthesizer circuit, allow you to create a wide range of sounds from punchy aggressive FM leads and acid basslines to soft classic pads and strings.
The synthesizer supports full software control and easily integrates into any DAW using the original plugin. All synthesizers are assembled by hand and produced in limited quantities.”
Specifications:
- Compact RACK format, 5 units high
- Fully tube audio path based on the APPARATUS synthesizer
- Four oscillators operating in modes: BASIC (Sine, Triangle, Sawtooth, Fixed Pulse Width 1/2, 1/4, 1/8); PULSE; ENSEMBLE and Noise with Hi-Pass and Low-Pass filters
- Voltage-controlled tube filter of the second order with self-oscillation with overload
- Voltage-controlled amplifier, following the traditional architecture of tube opto compressors
- Triode asymmetric overdrive
- Indicator based on Nixie lamps
- Full software control using the plugin
- Four channels of 4xCV and Gate for integration with Eurorack format synthesizers
- External Input for processing the audio signal of external audio devices
- Two HADSR envelope generators with pre-delay and multiple retriggers
- Sub-audio frequency generator LFO with restart and synchronization Clock, smooth waveform transition sawtooth-triangle-sawtooth, pulse-square-pulse, as well as Sample & Hold and Noise with reconfigurable Hi-Pass and Low-Pass filters
- Auto and continuous modes of portamento / legato
- Mono, duo, and 4-voice polyphony modes
- Flexible 4-channel modulation matrix
- Plugin for integration with DAW
- PC connection with galvanic isolation
Audio Demos:
Pricing and Availability:
The Eternal Engine EMI MARS Polyphonic Tube Synthesizer is available now for $2,199 USD.
reminds me of the old Metasonix stuff without the extra nonsense
Yes this looks really nice, love russian synths
I’m disappointed to see this here, and more astonished that some European online publication chose to promote this as well.
Whilst many Russians are good and decent people, supporting Russian businesses directly fuels an economy that finances Putin’s brutal regime—one responsible for unprovoked wars, crushing political dissent, and the cold-blooded assassination of journalists and activists who dare to expose the truth. Every dollar spent props up a system that thrives on repression, corruption, and violence. Dismissing ethical choices as mere “virtue signaling” is nothing more than a cowardly excuse to avoid taking a stand when morality demands action.
@Synthtopoa – Thank you for having the moral fibre and integrity to post my comment. Many other sites, fellow Europeans no less determined that these comments were too incendiary even as the threat of Russia looms.
System7 – we encourage readers to share all types of opinions in the comments, as long as they are constructive and on-topic.
That said, your comment suggests that we are ‘promoting’ this synth by covering it, which is not accurate.
Synthtopia focuses on covering the news that is of the most importance and interest to our readers. This, by definition, will include companies and things that some readers won’t like.
For example, China is a one-party communist state with no freedom of the press. If we stopped covering gear that’s made in China, there wouldn’t be a lot left to talk about.
But is the Trump/Musk regime really that better?
Better? Only in that they will finish the job that Putin could have only dreamt about and destroy America and expose its very marrow. What an unthinkable duo, one has a brain and only uses it selectively and the other has no brains and uses it liberally to detriment of the world.
Of couse, you can’t live without US tech
System7 – News shouldn’t be censored to only include the information that you like.
And, just because a company is Russian doesn’t mean that they support the Putin regime.
Does everybody in the US support the Trump/Musk administration? Should Synthtopia not cover Moog and Sequential because they’re US-based and Trump is supporting Putin over Ukraine?
Let’s focus on synths here. Synths and music, for a lot of us, are a chance to escape from the BS of politics.
I have never disagreed with you, nor have I ever endorsed censorship simply because of my own preferences. However, drawing a false equivalence between Putin and America—where at least some semblance of checks and balances exists—only serves to create the illusion that equally destructive and divisive figures like Putin, Musk, and Trump somehow cancel each other out. They do not, and regrettably so, currently, they amplify one another.
While the Russian people may be held hostage by Putin’s brutality, they have also been, at times, complacent—if not outright complicit.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programme.
The dictator Zelenskyy hates synths though
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Admin: Personal attack deleted (name-calling, etc).
Keep comments on topic and constructive.
I agree, we need the dinosaurus to return
I support Trump, best president in decades. He is doing much better this term already than his first. I am hoping Vance will win in 2028.
I will buy a synth from any country I chose, so tired of people trying to guilt trip, it is getting old.
Now do Britain’s numerous political prisoners under Keir Starmer.
Please keep politics and personal beliefs separate from this part of the internet and the synth industry as a whole.
Most of these companies are independent or very small. Should we now hold all USA, UK etc. synth makers accountable because they indirectly fuel the genocide in Palestine?
LOL, but you still buy things from the U.S.A., we have had more unjust wars going than anyone else. Just saying, also, you probably buy Chinese stuff too.
Big difference here, Metasonix products have tube oscillators which is why they sound and behave the way they do. This Tube signal path is fine, but with digital oscillators (from what i can tell).. its a different beast.
closer to a VA run through a nice tube amp
Still blows my mind that someone would take the time to make a synth like this that will supposedly produce that extra ‘something’ in it’s analog/vacuum tube signal chain that digital synths cannot…and then they just use the camera microphone to make a demonstration instead of feeding the audio directly. Face, meet palm.
And……you managed to completely miss the four high-quality audio demos in the post. Face, meet palm.