For Superbooth 21 Dreadbox is showing the Nymphes, a new colorful, portable 6-voice polyphonic analog Synthesizer with a hands-on user interface.
It’s no secret that the Greek analog specialists from Dreadbox are working on new synthesizers. For some time now, new devices have been teased online. One new release for Superbooth 21 is now out. No teaser, no trailer, it’s the official info.
Nymphes is a new polyphonic analog Synthesizer with a colorful, compact design
This synthesizer is dedicated to all abused and oppressed women. May our voices unite and bring light, joy and happiness to this world of injustice and inequality. Each time you play a note on this synthesizer, imagine that you soothe their pain away and you will become a better human being and synth player.
Dreadbox Nymphes
With Nymphes, the synthesizer cult forge from Athens is once again immersing itself deeply into Greek mythology. The inspiration for this came from none other than Homer, who already reported about 700 years before Christ in his Odyssey of nymphs as beings of divine descent.
Enough history, back to the hard synth facts. Nymphes is a 6-voice fully analog Synthesizer with a single oscillator and a sub-oscillator. The main oscillator offers a waveform parameter that allows you to shape the waveform from one to another smoothly. Plus, it has a noise generator. All this is paired with a resonance-capable 24dB lowpass filter with precise tracking, as well as a 6dB high pass filter. Very Juno like or am I wrong?
On the modulation side, it has two ADSR envelopes and two multi-wave LFOs (1 per voice + 1 generic). The generic LFO (LFO 2) can target any and multiple parameters with a different amount to each one at the same time. With five waveforms, key track, fade in/out, it is a very flexible and rich modulation source and it goes up into the FM range.
A rich-sounding reverb rounds up the 6-voice poly sound of the Nymphes. So no collaboration with Sinevibes on the effects this time. But according to them, there is a bit of Sinevbes DSP inside the synth. The 6 voices can be played in 6 different voices including poly, two unison modes, tri, duo, mono, and in a chord mode. The latter gives you to option to save up to 7 chords as presets.
Interface
The Nymphes interface is super compact and thin. It’s very vintage-inspired as it has control elements for every feature on the interface. Some requires a shift key, but this is not a big problem for me, at least. A preset browser or an OLED display like the Typhon is completely missing here. Everything is programmed directly on the interface and presets are also stored mechanically with a big knob. It has memory for 98 presets (49 factory, 49 user).
On the backside, you have a single 1/4 mono TS jack out, 1/8 headphones out, MIDI on 3.5mm jack, and a USB port. The latter works with MIDI and can be used to power the unit. Yes, you can also use a power bank with it. A 20.000 mA power bank gives you 50 hours of analog synth fun. So you can plan your next long outdoor jam.
At first glance an exciting, compact poly analog Synthesizer from Dreadbox. The features remind me a lot of the Roland Juno architecture only in small and portable. A bit of a shame that it only offers MIDI on 3.5mm jack and power over USB. Both are great for mobile music making but not the most optimal solutions for noise-less productions.
Dreadbox Nymphes will premiere at Superbooth 21. It will be available at end of October/ begin of November for 499€ (incl. VAT).
More information here: Dreadbox
Available for pre-order at our partner
this migth be my first polysynth! better start saving now though. fak.
Not sure the shift functions are the good choice. Hope the sound makes up for it. I find the user interface a bit Spartan (greek pun intended).
In short the UI is actually a nightmare. In the interest of simplicity, Dreadbox is essentially place the burden on the end user to recall, memorise, and somehow be aware of complex settings with little to no visual feedback.
A small OLED screen could have alleviated all of this for more in depth or performance based requirements.
They claim this was done in the interest of lower cost….right, a $15 OLED module in place of a $350 iPad that is inevitable with a patch editor.
Article mentions DIN5 for MIDI but photograph of the back looks like a 3.5mm jack, huh ?
yep, a little glitch, I fixed it, thanks 🙂 it’s of course 3.5mmm jack 🙂