Boutique synth company Future Retro has announced that they go out of business due to global parts shortages and other reasons.
Shortly before the end of the first week of July, we received sad synth news. The current financial and parts shortage situation has hit another Synthesizer company hard.
The US-based boutique synth company Future Retro led by Jered Flickinger has announced that they are going out of business after 25 years of operation.
Official Future Retro Statement
Due to the current state of the world and global parts shortages, we are forced to close our doors. Thank you for 25 years of business, and all the relationships we had with our network of dealers and wonderful customers all around the world!
Future Retro Flashback
Future Retro was known for its very own instrument designs. Vectra is his last product but also one of the most exciting that he has developed so far, for me at least. It’s a hybrid vector Synthesizer with expressive playability via 4 joysticks and a touch keyboard.
A particular highlight is an extensive engine that goes very deep. It offers four digital oscillators with 500 waveforms, an analog filter, a rich modulation engine, and more. A super exciting Synthesizer but a pity that it was only available in such small numbers. Full article here.
Another special Synthesizer was the Revolution, a TB-style analog Synthesizer with built-in DSP effects and a versatile sequencer. The design of the Revolution was very unique. The interface was circular and resembled a remote control from a spaceship.
Jered Flickinger showed his love for analog TB-style synthesizers several times in products. Besides the spacey Revolution, he released in 1998 the 777, a monophonic analog Synthesizer with a digital sequencer. It sounded like another TB-303 replica on the paper but it was more than that.
One of the highlights was the filter design that offered switchable 3 or 7-pole slopes as well as other sound-shaping controls. Plus, you could modulate the filter cutoff with the oscillator B, decay envelope, or even the sequencer.
Thank you Future Retro for all your developments. You have built many exciting instruments in the past 25 years. I wish you and your family all the best for the future.
More information here: Future Retro
so sad
This obviously very sad news however 25 years and the basis of every synth seemed to be based around the TB 303 does not make for a sound business plan. One has to also wonder what are effects of the likes of Behringer on the synth industry with their bare pricing model.
yeah how many 303s can you actually make?
This is what happens when you leave all the manufacturing to China. Best luck to them and hope to see them back in the business, they made some beautiful machines.
The FR Zillion is one of my favorite pieces of equipment. Hopefully they will be resurrected in the future.
The 777 was beyond compare an analog monosynth that was unique and beyond compare