Ploytec πλ²
€99, ploytec.com
The tiny PL2 is visible in this shot of Huxley’s studio. A prize to the first person who spots it
The πλ² (“P L squared” or even PL2 if you prefer) is one of the smallest synths on our list, but also one of the most capable. Check out the synth’s architecture below before you judge this one:
Doesn’t that look like a proper synth? Two oscillators and a noise generator. Digital and analogue filters. An ADSR envelope, LFO, bit crusher and saturation effect. Pretty good, right? Now what if we told you that the entire synth fits in a little black box just a couple of inches square, powered from its MIDI input and entirely controlled by MIDI CCs?
OK, there’s no hands-on control over anything, but once you’ve come to terms that the πλ² is a proper synth that just has to be controlled remotely, you’re going to be hugely impressed by the sounds that come out of such a tiny module. Digital weirdness, psuedo-analogue staples and dirty grit are the main attractions here. Pound for pound, this tiny synth packs more character than modules 100 times the size.
The newly announced πλ² Leukos (“the white one”) is controlled via USB and has a MIDI output, which can feed into an original πλ² for double the fun. Whichever one you go for, it’s a hell of a lot of synth power for very little money.
09.50 PM
Ploytec is on the table behind the Bass Station 2… What do I win?
03.34 AM
Is that it behind his monitor controller??? or ai or whatev
05.56 PM
My next synth is definitly in that list!
12.21 AM
i think it not good the MICROGRANNY 2.1 . is supper
als the The Critter & Guitari Bolsa Bass is dupper
more supper synth,s on http://www.errorinstruments.com
04.50 AM
Was the Elektron Monomachine just too expensive to be included, or too old?
09.44 AM
@Clay – I’d personally say that’s it too old to make the list, the Monomachine MK2 came out 5-ish years ago now. That said, I just bought a new one from Elektron and it’s probably my favourite digital synth EVER (though the Machinedrum is probably parallel to that as well, yeh I’m a fanboy)
09.55 AM
We love the Monomachine but here we’re just focusing on more recent releases.
08.03 PM
I highly recommend the Audiothingies P6, it sounds more ‘analogue’ than modern analogue synths I’ve used, I’d take it over a load of more expensive synths any day.
Strong filter with lovely sqidgy resonance, snappy envelopes and a good mod matrix, this is a very flexible instrument with a very wide sweet spot.
Here’s a demo I made recently showing a wide range of sounds, I’ll be posting another one soon as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glZbjmJMHNU