Dreadbox Dysphonia, a new beginner-friendly DIY synth voice for Eurorack/desktop with analog and digital elements in an unbeatable patchable package.
The first steps into the Eurorack world can be expensive and tough. Choosing the right module set for your budget can take a long time.
Dreadbox today presented a complete synth voice that can be the gateway to the colorful Eurorack world. It’s affordable, is feature-rich, looks colorful and requires some DIY fun.
Dreadbox Dysphonia
After Antiphon comes Dysphonia, another super interesting DIY voice from Dreadbox. But this time it is much more classic than the latter release. But it’s colorful again. A mix of dark gray and purple which looks very lovely. A perfect match in my opinion. Dysphonia is a synth voice with an analog signal path but hosts a mix of analog and digital elements. It’s a DIY project but designed for beginners.
Dreadbox took over the most difficult section and ships the pre-assembled board with all SMD… parts on it. And of course, tested it in advance. So you only have to solder the sockets… etc. Thus it is also suitable for musicians with two left soldering hands like me.
Analog Meets Digital
Dysphonia is a full-feature synth voice for Eurorack. It comes along with a dedicated USB to Eurorack power converter giving you the option to use it also as a desktop synth. The synth is divided into 13 different sections, yes that are many. It all starts with an analog oscillator with 4 waves (square with PWM, saw, tri, noise), fine/tune controls, and each with its own output. Everything comes together in a 3-to-1 mixer section that supports audio and CV signals. Great for more advanced CV fun.
Then, you have two filters. The first one is a 24dB 4-pole analog self-oscillating lowpass filter while the second is a 12dB 2-pole analog multi-mode filter. Lots of filter options get a plus point. Also analog is the VCA section that consists of three VCAs made for amplification or modulation. That’s a lot but don’t forget you can never have enough VCAs in your system. Next to this, is a super handy 1-to -3 passive multiplier.
In the lower part, you can find a high-precision MIDI-to-CV/gate converter. A little downer is the use of a MIDI adapter, but for the reason of space, this is understandable. On the modulation side, you have a 1ms/stage snappy attack/decay envelope, and a wide range analog LFO. That sounds like little, yes, but that was just the analog part.
Dysphonia also has a digital modulator with 4 different modes. You can choose between a multi-wave LFO with delay function, S&H random generator, snappy 1ms/stage AD or AR envelope, or MIDI CC modulation (mod wheel, velocity, aftertouch, uni-/bipolar). At the signal end, you get a hybrid echo processor with CV control that can be found on the Erebus Synthesizer.
First Impression
There is no sound demo yet but at first glance a very coherent overall package. Visually but also from the features, very interesting. A lot of functionality at a very fair price
Dreadbox Dysphonia is available now for an early bird price of 185€ instead of 230€. It ships in 1-3 working days.
More information here: Dreadbox
Looks nice and very affordable. But I wouldn’t mind seeing the Env and LFO having two Outs each instead of one. That would make it easier to send the signals to 2 destinations without needing the passive multiple.
Does this one also smash the Patriarchy or is it the Matriarchy turn now? ?