SynthFest France 2026: Nanopolis Antigone 2.0 is a massive update to the multi-timbral synth voice, featuring new synthesis engines, including granular synthesis, and more.
Update: SynthFest demo added
For the past three years, I’ve been following the development and evolution of the digital Eurorack synth voice Antigone from the young French studio Nanopolis. It was first presented at SynthFest France 2023.
At this SynthFest, Antigone will receive its biggest update yet. Nanopolis will be presenting Antigone 2.0 (v2) update.
Nanopolis Antigone 2.0
As a reminder: Antigone was a 4-voice multi-timbral digital synth voice for Eurorack with wavetable synthesis, sampler, modulation, and more. Firmware 2.0 overhauls all this and levels it impressively.
The developer says he has completely rewritten the module, now with 6-voice polyphony and a fully optimized audio engine that delivers better performance, supports more simultaneous modules, and improves sound quality. And plenty of new features.
First, the update introduces a brand-new wavetable engine that is smoother, cleaner, and supports real-time spectral transformations. Better, all synthesis algorithms are now unified in the algorithm synth, including the wavetable, and you can now run two independent wavetable engines per instrument.
The built-in FM engine will also benefit from a major boost. It’s a reimagined FM engine inspired by legendary chips but pushed way further. This also comes with a refined Casio-style phase distortion (CZ) engine.
Chiptune, Drum Synthesis & More
Firmware 2.0 also introduces new chip algorithms based on chiptune and emulations of classic consoles. (chiptune, emulation of classic consoles). If you wanted to work with drums, you were previously limited to the built-in sample engine. That changes with the new firmware.
Nanopolis will add in Antigone 2.0 dedicated drum synth machines, including kicks, snare, hi-hat, FM, noises, glitches… and more. Details about the depth of these details are not yet known, but I will add them as updates become available.
That’s not all. There are more highlights. Firmware 2.0 will also add new granular synthesis and resonator engines derived from MI Rings and Elements algorithms. They also come with 15 additional modes, custom strikes and supports sample-based strike (excitation)
They let you create rich, polyphonic physical modeling sounds right in the voice. MI Rings based, who knows? It also offers a simple, pure oscillator with all algorithms, no filters, and maximum quality.
Plus, the sample player now supports multi-slots, slice mode, and dedicated FX.
New Filters, Envelopes & More
Okay, that was just the oscillator range. There are more major changes. Firmware 2.0 also introduces new filters: OTA and Steiner-Parker, and previous filters have been rewritten/recalibrated. Modulation is also better than before.
You can now work with 6 modulation slots per instrument (shared or per-voice). The wavetable-based LFO now supports one-shot mode, so you can use it as a complex envelope. With the update, you also get new multi-segment envelope type (MSEG) to experiment with.
There is a new per-instrument arpeggiator, chord modes, scale, and new rhythm generators (Euclidean, Binary, Akask…). Nanopolis says that it will be possible to shape, sequence, and generate ideas like never before.
Lastly, Nanopolis also changed the built-in mixer, which now has an integrated FX bus with per-track sends. It has various reverbs (space, room, plate), delays (delay, tape echo), chorus, flanger, phaser, and more.
I’m excited for this update. If it all works as promised, it would be a huge leap forward for the Antigone synth voice.
The Nanopolis Antigone module is available now only on request. The firmware will be showcased for the first time at SynthFest France 2026.
More info here: Nanopolis
Update July 21, 2025
Good news for users of the Nanopolis Antigone synth voice. The new firmware 1.1.5 is out now. This update brings a wave of new sound-shaping tools, smarter voice handling, and improved performance across the board.
Firmware 1.1.5 brings major upgrades to the wavetable engine, a new range of waveform modifiers (transform modes), including triangle, fractal, bounce, gravity, tidal, magnetic, crystal, steps, quantum, and fade & collapse.
These make the wavetable engine significantly more complex and interesting. Then, there is a new sub-oscillator mode with a fully pitchable second oscillator, now capable of using the same wavetable as the main oscillator for richer layering.
Additionally, there are modulation fixes, LFO wavetable enhancements, and smarter MIDI voice allocation that improve MIDI note stealing. Voices with the lowest output volume are now prioritized when voices run out, leading to smoother polyphony management.
The new firmware also brings CPU optimizations across the wavetable synth and engine components for better efficiency.
It’s great to see that Antigone and the engine are being further developed.
The new firmware is now available. Nanopolis Antigone is currently only available from the developer upon request.
Update from April 29, 2024
Last year, the new French company Nanopolis introduced Antigone at Superbooth. It is a four-part multitimbral synth voice for Eurorack with wavetable, virtual-analog, FM synthesis, sampler player, and more.
The module is now finished and going on sale. At SynthFest France 2024, I made a first-look video with the developer.
Nanopolis Antigone will be available for 649€, and the expander for 99€. The module will start shipping in 1-2 months.
Article from May 9, 2023
A modular Synthesizer can be built from individual modules: multiple oscillators, filters, envelopes, etc. You can also build it an easy and convenient way with a whole synth voice. Especially helpful when building polyphonic setups.
At Superbooth 23, the new company Nanopolis will premiere its first module called Antigone. It’s a new 4-voice digital synth voice.
Nanopolis Antigone Features
- Full multi-machine 4-voice synthesizer (multi-timbral)
- audio engine: 32-bit 48kHz
- 4 individual voices (link capability to work as monophonic, polyphonic, paraphonic), each voice are composed of one machine slot (an audio generator like wavetable, sample player ect…) + 4 modulations slots (ADSR, LFO, s&h, etc…)
- Unlimited presets for projects and voices (saved on the SD card, limited by the SDCard capacity)
- 1 note processor slot per project (basic, chords, arp…)
- 4 global modulation slots per project
- Mixer with routing & panning for the 4 voices
- External clock/reset sync
- All parameters are assignable to internal and/or external modulations (2 modulations per param)
- When the voices are linked (for poly mode per example) voice 1 act as master, all other voices are replica of the voice 1, but you can offset all params on other voices !
Hardware Features
- 26HP
- four individual 16-bit audio outputs (routable as 4 mono, or 2 stereo, or 1 stereo + 2 mono), AC-coupled, high end DAC & op-amp
- 6 CV inputs (-5V / +5V , assignable to almost any parameters)
- 4 Gate/Trig/Clock inputs
- OLED Screen 256×64 pixels (4-bit greyscale – 16 levels), color : yellow or blue
- MicroSD slot on the rear of the module (tested up to 128gb)
- 16mb of RAM to load samples & wavetables
- 4 smooth endless pots & 1 digital (quadrature) clickable encoder
- Microcontroller board : removable teensy 4.1
First Impression
At first glance, an interesting new synth voice from a new developer.
Nanopolis will be at Superbooth 23 on Booth 0435.
More information here: website
I can’t wait for this to come out!