Synamodec Magnetar is a new desktop experimental black distortion noise/drone Synthesizer and FX processor.
The Synthesizer world map is colorful and diverse. I especially like reporting on small developers who bring their style to the synth industry. One of them is Miguel García Blanca, the head behind the one-man project Synamodec. In addition to Eurorack modules, the developer makes exciting, loud drone synths.
His new project, Magnetar is a little box that is both a synth and an FX processor.
Synamodec Magnetar
At its core, Magnetar is not a classic Synthesizer with oscillators, filters, envelopes, etc. Instead, it combines distortion and fuzz effects in series, modulated by an LFO and followed by a delay unit.
This weird combination produces noisy, harsh drone sounds, especially at setting regions where the LFO became an oscillator. At the same time, it is also an FX unit, as there is an external mono input.
Magnetar is a synth you explore by tweaking the hardware parameters. Analog tweaking with no presets. On the left side, it starts with the distortion.
The “In” knob controls the dry signal input to the distortion, and “Dist 1” sets the level of distortion. Then, you can tweak the hue/color of the distortion with a dedicated knob followed by an EQ control called tone.
You can also change the frequency and level of Synamodec Magnetar’s built-in LFO that modulates the delay’s GIG parameter. Crank it up here, and it gets wild and noisy.
In the middle, distortion sets the distortion’s feedback, and GIG controls the delay. The delay also has feedback (NXPDT) and dry/wet (D/W) controls.
Further, the right side of Synamodec Magnetar offers complete customization of the fuzz effect: input level, gain, level of fuzz distortion (dist 2), and character (Fog). Nice, it also has dedicated bypass switches.
First Impression
This is a wild, experimental synth and FX. It is certainly not to everyone’s taste, but I’m pretty sure noise and drone musicians could find it exciting. Since I follow Synamodec products, I am happy to see that there is a release from Miguel.
Synamodec Magnetar is available now for 345,95€ + VAT from retailers (Noisebug…)
More information here: Synamodec
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