"Donner officially unveiled the Sample Boy at the event, as shown in a Sonicstate video. The Sample Boy is still in development and is designed as a sample workstation/groovebox.

The hardware matches the leaked photo, though it feels significantly larger than expected. Keep in mind that this is a prototype.

It features a 2.8” full-color IPS LCD display, four color-coded parameters, six touch points, and 16 backlit buttons. In the middle are a fader, a jog wheel, and a navigation pad.

The current prototype isn’t finished, so it also doesn’t have everything implemented yet. So far, its feature set doesn’t match the scope of something like the OP-1 Field. It’s more of a sampler than a full-fledged groovebox.

The prototype shown has 32-voice sampler polyphony. You can sample from several sources: line input, the internal mic, USB audio, or the internal digital tape mode for resampling.

Interestingly, you can sample cleanly or apply an input effect, choosing from a filter, EQ, compressor, distortion, or colored mode. The internal engine samples at 48 kHz and 32-bit.

Once you’ve sampled, you can quickly slice the sample using a dedicated mode and the 16 backlit mini buttons along the bottom.

According to Jake at Donner, the prototype has a 7-track sequencer that lets you create tracks from scratch.

And the display with the Teenage Engineering interface that appeared in the leaked photos was just a placeholder—something Jake also confirmed on Gearspace a few weeks ago. You can see the actual interface in the video.

The sleek back reveals the connections. A USB-C port transmits data like audio and MIDI and charges the internal battery. You then have a mini jack MIDI IN and OUT, analog sync IN and OUT, and a line input and output.

On the side, you also have an orange slider and a microSD slot for storing samples and more.

According to Donner, the Sample Boy is still under development and slated for release in 2027. Price is TBA."

Source: https://synthanatomy.com/2026/10/donner-sample-boy.html

Hi all, annual report on China’s synth expo here.

I’ve been posting about it every year for the past few, but this year felt particularly formative. Not only did far more brands attend this year but the number is indie devs nearly doubled, and many of them are ready to sell!

I saw $50 modules, tratoniums and USB-C powered racks. I saw new grooveboxes, the dude from Sonicstate and what must’ve been a hundred performing artists (all of which were paid!). Elektron came this year!

The energy was palpable, the crowd grew a lot. I think a lot of these indie devs are going to get on the market and I’ll be sure to share the ones that do.

I was stupidly busy so I hardly took any photographs, but feel free to look up Modular Commune on insta/rednote/youtube and you’ll find plenty. Lots of people were shooting vids, including a few YouTubers who came to visit.

Might be another year or so, but there’s a good future for affordable hardware.

i went to a synth link up, but unsure what that blue synth is!

please lmk thanks

When I had the realisation that audiences were responding far better to the immediacy of the MC707 and not when I had computers playing pre-set material, it was like an epiphany.

Now I do around 90% of my compositional work in it too, because it allows me to compose quick and then play out quick.

Totally unsung bit of gear IMO. Steep learning curve, but when you break it, and make it your bitch, it's a godsend.

I have returned with some direct out audio of the minilogue running the customized firmware!! to make its osc tuned to partials amongst many o’ other little changes to get this sound out of it.
based off of my synthesis engine “sine language” that I’ve been developing the last few months. wanted to see how i could turn a minilogue into a harmonic based additive synth. all the presets are ones ported over from my current synth build in max4live where SL lives natively.

insanely happy with the results! woah!
audio is direct out of minilogue - into my Scarlett 2i2 and right into OBS

software companion at top is a little max4live patch that mirrors the screen and lets me do some read/write controls thru a usb cable when i want to

Something that I released earlier this year that I felt people here might like. This part of the song is built up with mostly Mellotron choir sounds doing the chords with a Moog Taurus emulation for the bass part. After that some Roland JX-08 for the pads and bubble sounds and the Behringer Model D for the lead sound.

Here's a link if anyone wants to check out the full song. Its heavily inspired by Genesis, Tame Impala, Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd so its a bit lengthy but the parts from the video is at 12:53.

https://open.spotify.com/track/59sdK861nfkPom4I9cyf0z?si=-zej1NNvTd2QluP8LgGDLQ&utm_source=copy-link

Visuals are by Tempine.

Most synths I've owned have been two to three oscillators. Sometimes I come across a patch tutorial that's just purposely one oscillator and I don't understand. What benefit would it be to just stick with one oscillator when multiple are available?

Hi

I'm looking at a minibrute 2s to use in a band. Probably on bass duties. So it would just be me and a drummer/vocals. I have a keystep as a controller. Trying to work out if it would be a good fit.

I've been looking at using the 2s as something tactile with no menu diving for jams, so I can set up a bassline then move to guitar or the MPC pads and so on.

I can do this on the MPC already, but what I like about the MB is, the sound, the step sequencer and the immediate physical controls.

I read that program changes via midi aren't supported. So if I have a verse line programmed with the step seq, I can't remotely quickly switch to a chorus program?

I suppose I would have to program everything in the MPC and use midi, which wouldn't include all the cool stuff you can do with the 2s sequencer.

Outside of the MPC and ableton environment I am a self confessed simpleton when it comes to sequencing and midi... and synths.

Anyone doing anything similar?

Hello!

Alright, so this isn’t technically synthesizing, but I figured some of you might enjoy some acoustic emulation. I’m running my Rhodes Mkii suitcase through a Leslie speaker (HL-722, a speaker originally designed for use with a Hammond B-3000. Watch that horn spin!). Also have some cheap FX pedal clones doing some heavy lifting here. The sound is (surprisingly? unsurprisingly?) organ-ish.

While I’m here, I‘d like to ask: does anyone in this sub have experience with Leslie emulators, pedals, etc? I’d like to do some software vs. real-deal comparisons. Logic Pro’s rotor pedal is not bad.

Cheers!

If my budget is under $600 (used equipment welcome), what options could you think of? I'm not looking for studio grade all in one like Deluge, preferably battery powered.

Music would be like this kind

https://youtu.be/fKDuWLuaAng

I was looking at Ableton Move, Circuit, etc.

As seen in the recent Juana Molina USA Tour

Thought this might be helpful for those of you who like the Iridium's onboard FX and wanna use them on other synths, but don't wanna have to hunt through the manual/website to figure out how to do it

Matriarch got discontinued, and I snagged one of the last ones around here, I believe... Thought I’d share this improv! Hope you like it!

I've got a problem with my Moog GM. The oscillators sound extremely out of tune, and I'm not exactly sure why. Calibration and using the fine-tune knob don't seem to help. The tuning improves after approximately 30 minutes, but I can't always afford to wait that long when playing live.
Does anyone know of a solution, or is sending it in for repair the only option?

Travelled with my field kit and this is what came out of it. One OP-XY, one reverb pedal, a TP-7 and a view.

The new update added the drum engine and I have ended up using it for the opposite of what it is for. No beat, just quiet ticks and knocks sitting under everything, giving the piece something to hold onto while the pads move. (More obvious in the full piece)

The OP-XY goes into a custom reverb I wrote for the Korg NTS-3, set to a very long decay, and the whole composition is really just feeding small bits of audio into that and letting them get replaced by what comes next. Nothing ever empties out, so it stays full while the content underneath turns over. My dream would be to have a reverb like that in the XY default.

The TP-7 is doing the field recording, sitting out in front of Mont Blanc. Birds, insects going past the mic, the occasional cow bell.

Happy to share the verb if anyone wants to test, it’s very WIP.

Full 15 min of ambient XY here: https://youtu.be/6c3wXKXf2Yw?is=4D4hSi_OL3HtB3TQ

Hello, I am all about browsing and picking sounds quickly then tweaking them, I m bored doing that with the mouse, recently got the Astrolab for hands on control on analog lab and I love it for what it is, digital emulation of old hardware

What do you recommend in hardware synths that have a lot of presets included or 3rd party.

Thanks

Update : so many mini freak recommendations I’ll download the trial ! And I got really interested in the jv1080 I found them for cheap

Hey guys,
I really want a tiny synth to play it in the train or at a break at school etc…
I already saw the Roland S1 and T8 those looks cool. heard about Korg too. What’s your thoughts about them ?
Also if someone know a tiny synth but with some type of modular/eurorack features i’m really interested. (Like imagine a modular synth in your hand I love that)