Double Helix Wavetable Processor to Return

2025 has already been a great year for synth releases - and now comes news that an intriguing lost wavetable module is to be reborn. Last Friday (the 21st), Richard Nicol joined me and Nick at Sonicstate HQ for a synth jam and general chitchat (Subscribe via Patreon to hear our entire conversation!). I brought along the prototype Double Helix Wavetable Processor module to jam with - an intriguing and rare 9-bit digital oscillator ("it's one better than 8-bit!" - Richard) that was teased in the mid 2010's - but never made it to market.

This naturally became an early focal point within our chat. As I made some scronchy AM sounds, Richard told us:

The original prototype...was ready to go to production. And at the last minute, I pulled it. Actually, after I already approved it for production, I pulled it, because we were just starting to work with Michael Johnson, who was our analogue engineer.

And being a little tiny company, you only have so much money to spend on things. So I decided to, instead of doing that, focus on Michael's designs. And that's where we've been.

So I made the mistake then, maybe three or four months ago, of sending one to Paulee. And it's been revived. It's like a Frankenstein moment.

You told me you put up the video, and I was like, OK, maybe one personal email or something. No, it was just a deluge of people saying, I heard you might have an extra one. If so, can I buy it?

Here's that deluge-inducing video by the way. I wasn't surprised that this unique module turned heads, but I was a little surprised (and excited) to hear of the Double Helix's rebirth.

We are remaking them. There's only going to be 100 of them, so we're not going to advertise them really, at all. I guess we're making them for the first time! I've decided to make the panels a little smaller because that prototype I think was 28 HP. It's ridiculously large. And it's also, for what I can tell it no reason at all, two PCBs deep so one. Yeah. It'll be much more in line with what modern Eurorack will appreciate.

We're still a couple of months away from release and although the aesthetic and dimensions (28 > 16HP) are being tweaked, the oscillator code and wavetables will, I hear, be 100% true to the original prototype. Brilliant then, I'll take four please!

Posted by MagicalSynthAdventure an expert in synthesis technology from last Century and Amiga enthusiast.

Pittsburgh Modular Social

• SonicLAB: Pittsburgh Modular Lifeforms SV-2 12-Aug-26
• Lifeforms SV-2 - Pittsburgh Modular's Redesigned Semi-Modular 11-Aug-26
• New From Pittsburgh - Crow 3 Filter, Double Helix Oscillator 03-Jul-25
• Superbooth 2025: Pittsburgh Modular - Boom Chick + Assembler 08-May-25
• Rare Digital VCO Prototype Taken for a Spin 30-Jan-25