DecadeBridge Cadence is a new drone synth and utility box packed with analog oscillators, a filter, various routing options, and a LDR.
I have already reported twice about the British boutique synth manufacturer DecadeBridge, who have released several unique drone synths. For example, the Bora matrix drone synth with six oscillators in 2022 or the Diamonds In The Dust with four oscillators and a customizable purity.
These are synthesizers that are produced in small numbers and are only available from the developer’s own shop. They are often sold out. Yes, the drone synth community seems to be bigger than many think. And this year, Steven has another new drone synth called Cadence.
DecadeBridge Cadence
Cadence is a desktop synth and welcomes us in a beautiful blue and white layout. According to DecadeBridge, every unit is hand-made in his lab.
Like Bora or Diamonds In The Dust, Cadence is anything but a simple drone synth. It looks simple but it offers interesting deeper routings. The signal path starts with four analog oscillators that run through a “count” control that acts as a divider.
Each oscillator also has a dedicated pitch knob for precise adjustings. There are also three one-way switches with which you can sync the oscillators in various ways: B to A, C to B or D to C expanding the sound spectrum of Cadence significantly.
Then, the oscillators pass through several logic gates allwoing you to create rhythmic sounds without a sequencer. From here, it goes into a lowpass filter with cutoff, resonance, and amount control. It’s also CV-controllable.
Routing
A highlight of Cadence are the routing options. There is a input and output section on top of the synth. Each oscillator can be routed to it’s own individual, or grouped, output bypassing the filter for separate processing. This gives you a lot of flexibility in how you use the four oscillators.
If you use the oscillators with low frequency rates using the count knob, you can use the individual outputs as gates for external/modular equipment (creating interesting beats/clock signals/envelope triggers etc). Alternatively, it will also reset/sync the synth’s other oscillators at the same time.
There are also five flexible inputs that accepts different signals. These inputs, when connected, replace the relative oscillator with the incoming signal, again, sending this signal through “count” before the output section, says the developer.
It supports, for example, gate signals for reseting/syncing the oscillators, great for rhyhtmic soiunds, and also audio signals. Here the onboard oscillators are used to change the incoming sounds “cadence”.
Further, Decade Bridge also implemented in its latest drone synth Cadence LDRs (light dependent resistors) on its oscillators giving sound explorers the ability to interact with the oscillators. If a light source passes by or turns on/off, the oscillators reacts differently.
First Impression
With the Cadence, DecadeBridge has created another very unique drone synth. It’s nice that it’s not just a simple 4-oscillator drone synth with pitch control but more. I like the idea of expanding the oscillator with logic gates to create a rhythmic drone machine. Also that you can turn it into a utility box that you can easily dock to your existing modular system is very neat.
DecadeBridge Cadence is available now for 272,79€ + shipping from the developer’s official Etsy Shop.
More information here: Etsy Shop
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