Puremagnetik Etches will be the company’s first hardware Synthesizer with touch control and built-in looper.
Last September, I reported on the announcement of Puremagnetik’s first Synthesizer. Before that, they had made two pedals and several plugins with a very hands-on approach.
Good news from Micah Frank, founder of Puremagnetik: the Etches Synthesizer is ready for pre-order.
Puremagnetik Etches
As a reminder: Etches is a soundscape Synthesizer that combines classic synthesis with tape music traditions.
Etches’s synth engine is monophonic and includes a complex oscillator, a splice recorder, and built-in space processing, including echo and reverb.
The complex oscillator can be tweaked with four simple controls: cycle, edge, orbit, and flux. Instead of traditional filters or envelopes, Etches offers four built-in articulation pads on the right side that control the contour, timbre-shaping, and animation of your sounds.
By playing these, you can shape the sounds into their form in real-time. What filters or envelopes usually do, you can do here with your fingers. Plus, you have a touch keyboard on the left side.
You can assign a root note and a scale from twelve different keys to the pads, so they stay locked to that key while you move.
Another core feature of the Etches is an 80-second multi-splice recorder/sampler with overdub for capturing ideas and layering sounds. After sampling and layering, the splices remain in motion.
An internal LFO moves against each splice, modulating the recording’s start and end points, giving it an organic touch.
Puremagnetik Etches has a relatively simple engine that can still craft many diverse sounds: dark drones, bright FM plucks, pads with lots of harmonics, and more.
On the connection side, you have a stereo output and a power supply input. It runs on a standalone 9V power supply.
First Impression
An intriguing experimental performance Synthesizer that looks like a lot of fun. The engine is certainly rather weak, but the internal sampling and layering make it interesting again because you can easily create rich, multi-layered soundscapes.
If you’re looking for a versatile Synthesizer with almost endless options, I think this isn’t the right choice. But if you need a synth that is immediate and fun to use, with few parameters and you are into experimental sounds, you might want to check this one out.
Puremagnetik Etches is ready for pre-order for $350.
More information here: Puremagnetik
Article from September 16, 2025
Puremagnetik Etches will be the company’s first hardware Synthesizer with touch control and built-in looper.
Last November, Puremagnetik launched the LAPS, the company’s first hardware product, described as a multi-track collage machine. Micah Frank, founder of PM, is currently working on his next hardware product. Not a pedal, but a Synthesizer.
Puremagnetik Etches is a new touch-sensitive loopscape Synthesizer that is currently in development. Micah gave a preview of it on Instagram.
Puremagetik Etches
Etches is a new digital Synthesizer that is controllable with touch and pressure-sensitive pads and stripes. According to Puremagnetik, Etches runs on the Electrosmith Daisy Seed DSP platform with a custom engine.
The engine, in turn, is based around Mica Frank’s modular patch, which he uses in live performances with his music group LARUM. He bundled all the elements and packed them into a new, hard-wired digital version.
Etches has a digital synth engine, but we don’t yet know what synthesis it is based on. However, we already know that it has a shape and envelope control and a built-in quantizer. The latter has controls for the shift, root key, and the scale, offering up to 12 scales to choose from.
A highlight of the unit is the built-in looper based on one track of the LAPS pedal, allowing you to record instantly the engine and overdub the recordings on the fly.
Additionally, you can set start and end points, and work with a blend knob. The maximum loop length is not known.
To refine your sounds, it includes a delay processor with three controls (time, repeat, mix), and a reverb (space) inspired by the famous Make Noise Erbe-Verb.
Puremagnetik will only ship the Etches on a PCB without a case. So, very minimal, which can be nice. On this PCB, you can find pressure-sensitive pads to control the volume and the built-in overdrive.
Alongside the pads, there are also pressure-sensitive stripes for staccato articulations. In the two linked Instagram videos, you can see the synth in action. Note: The looper isn’t finished yet, so the developer uses the Laps pedal.
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At this point, it’s challenging to make a first impression due to the missing implementation of key features, such as the looper. But it looks intriguing at first glance. I’ll be following along and will add more info when I have it.
Puremagnetik Etches’ availability and price are TBA.
More information will follow here: Puremagnetik
so does it work without the other pedal? if you’re trying to sell something. use JUST THAT UNIT. I need to know what IT does not what it does with other attachments.
as written: the pedal is in use because Etches built-in looper is in development. I’m not the developer so I just report what the develops
tells us in the videos and official infos
bro relax LOL
sounds interesting and not expensive at all. I’ll have to 3d printing a case for it thou
Sounds like they don’t have any way to sync to other gear? That will be a bit limiting for lovely with any drum machine. Let me know if I missed something, as this would really interest me if it could sync to external gear. Set some drums and construct and deconstruct live…
Lovely should have been live play… thanks autocorrect,