At SynthFest France 2022, Kodamo has unveiled Infini, a new innovative multi-engine digital Synthesizer featuring new synthesis types, an intelligent modulation matrix & more.
Last week the French developer Kodamo, creator of EssenceFM, teased a new product. Today, on the first day of SynthFest France 2022 in Nantes, Kodamo officially unveiled the Infini, a new flagship digital Synthesizer. It is a “work in progress” prototype.
So there will be many changes, especially on the interface. This should serve as a “concept first look” at what the young developers from France are currently working on. A big thanks to my friends from the French YouTube channel Les Sondiers who kindly sent me a series of photos from the prototype. There is an exclusive first look video with sound demos on their YouTube channel, which is also linked here.
Kodamo Infini
Kodamo’s new synthesizer will be called Infini, French for infinite. So the first hardware Synthesizer that promises endless sound design fun? Interesting promise, the engine is definitely very densely packed.
Infini is a multi-engine Synthesizer with 24 voices (prototype) offering various classic and novel synthesis forms. From the classic side, there is high-resolution subtractive virtual analog synthesis and FM with operators. To me, the VA engine already sounds very warm and round in the sound demos. Could almost be an analog synth. Besides these, there are two unusual synthesis forms, formant, and bitmask.
Formant gives you the possibility to create voice-like sounds using two formant operators (per voice) and with a bunch of deep parameters (spread, phase…). And in combination with the fully customizable pitch envelope, you can craft leads, pads… that are very similar to a human voice.
Then there is Bitmasks, a newly invented synthesis by Kodamo. It basically cuts waveforms in bits, manipulates them, and re-glues them somewhere else resulting in tons of different waveform variations. Infini has two filters that are inspired by the Sequential Oberheim OB-6 and offers lowpass, notch, high pass, and bandpass characteristics.
Very interesting, you can combine the individual synthesis operators with each other like in FM synthesis (12:39 in the video). So you can combine, for example, an FM operator with a novel bitmasks oscillator. According to the video demo, it also offers voice splitting making it multi-timbral. So you have multiple sounds on a single keyboard.
The I-Matrix
Modulation side, you get three LFOs and three envelopes per voice. All this is powered by the novel I-matrix, a new modulation matrix that has a clever/intelligent core. It reads your playing style and creates unique modulation settings. There are many unusual modulation sources including the amount of played notes, space between the notes, legato…). This gives each note a slightly different setting and makes the sounds livelier and organic. The final product will also host a sequencer.
According to the developer, the case, interface, and keyboard will be completely changed. However, they confirmed that there will be a 37-key and 61-key version with velocity and monophonic aftertouch.
On the backside, it will have MIDI, a USB connection with Audio support, a USB device port for MIDI controllers, 2 symmetric stereo (l/r) outputs, a headphone output, and two pedal inputs.
First Look
French YouTube channel Les Sondiers has an exclusive first look with “funny” English subtitles. Thanks for this guys.
At first glance a highly exciting new digital Synthesizer. No April 1st joke in that case. The Infini prototype can already convince with the sound. It pleases me to see that developers dare to try something new and innovative. The device will not be cheap but it is a very exciting project.
Kodamo Infini will be available in late 2022 or 2023 depending on the chip and other resource situations. The 37-key version of the Infini will have an estimated price of under 2000€, the 61-key version of under 3000€.
More information here: Kodamo
So nice to see something in the synth world that I actually haven’t seen before. I swear, one more cheap mono and I’m gonna flip this table…
huh, can’t do a barrel shifter synthesis, grey coding, compare and swap? not interested. if a digital synth can’t do shared memory semantics, what good is it?
the PPG Wave bitwise interleaved wavetables instead of mixing them. so again; nothing new.
What?
HUH!??
Nothing new here. Needs more knobs thou.
2000€ ~ 3000€? Montage anyone?
They succeeded in making a horrible looking piece of furniture with a computer inside to do things no one asked for.
The whole user interface is dated. The screen is from the 80’s, and why would anyone want to play the synth touching the screen when you have keys? Why would anyone perform all the programming on the screen with menu diving?
There’s a point where less is more, and just adding so much complexity it totally misses it. You sit down for an hour (or whichever golden little time you manage to save) and spend ages touching a screen fiddling around instead of playing music. Again, for that, it’s better a PC with proper UI.
You probably forgot to read the article. It says: it’s a prototype and that the interface is changing in the next months. Every musician has a different workflow. And if your workflow doesn’t fit this user interface it’s fine and understandable. Every user has his own working preferences. For example, I don’t have a major problem working with touch displays.