"Do it yourself" kit called CRAFTsynth is something completely new in the development of Modal Electronics, which up to now has been producing sleek pricy synthesizers. This one costs only $100, but it has unprecedented functions for such a humble price.

CRAFTsynth is a monophonic digital synthesizer based on DSP, having 2 oscillators per voice and offering such waveforms as sine, triangle, saw, meander with PWM, as well as frequency modulation and noise generator, detune function of the second oscillator, unison function and even allocating of 4 virtual sub-oscillators to 1 main, and there are 2 main ones offered giving a total of 8 potential “detunes”. There is also the option of smooth note transition (Glide) and scale changes - major, minor, diatonic, blues. There is a memory for 16 patches, which can be controlled through the application CRAFTapp.

CRAFTsynth offers wide modulation capabilities with 6 destinations (amplitude of the attenuator, filter cutoff frequency, FM-synthesis ratio in the main signal, the proportion of the participation of 2 oscillators in the output signal, meander pulse width, pitch). LFO has 4 basic types of waves - a sine, a triangle, a saw, a rectangular, and can be MIDI synced.

As for the filter, there’s one LPF with resonance is available. There are 16 presets for the envelope generator, and in the future you can save your own presets directly into the patch. If you are not yet shocked by all this abundance, we’ll make your wallet open by mentioning the delay and distortion-overdrive effects!

This all is placed on 5 boards, which are also a power structure, since there’s no actual housing. They also have 8 potentiometers for controlling the synthesizer, as well as a USB connector for the computer. The manufacturer declares full USB and MIDI support. CRAFTapp software can be downloaded at the end of 2016. (And for many platforms - iOS, Mac, PC, and in a few months - Android). Among the outputs of the synthesizer there are headphone jacks and a line output.

There is no housing. But why would there be any? In fact, the housing is needed when there’s keyboard. And there are none either. Why would there be any keyboard? It can be connected via USB, and in general, Modal Electronics believes that you can use the 5-note touch panel, which comes with the kit. The same five touch buttons are assigned to the functions Glide, Scale, Volume, Octave, EG. No power supply. Why would there be any of that as well? If it can be USB- or battery-powered.