New Instruments at Michigan Synth Works

Michigan Synth Works are a US-based maker of both modern & vintage-inspired synth designs. I last spoke to MSW in mid-2024 so felt it was time for a catch-up! I spoke to head honcho Raf about the latest developments.

Paulee: Nice to speak again! I see some cool new instruments in the MSW shop, including the "Caveman" module range? The Cave keys module seems like a brilliant idea for those of us who want traditional pitch control at panel level, is included in your new starter system - talk us through your design decisions here, what do you feel are the essential components of a modular starter system?

The approach we took (meaning me and Neutron Sound) was to design an ecosystem that offers simple, inexpensive modular building blocks without compromising on quality or design aspects. The mixer is a good example, simple 4 channels with 2 output buses but in 6HP.  This required a 2 sided, 4 layer PCB using 18 opamps to get to that size and features and is one of the more complex boards Neutron has designed.  While I get the appeal of the large complex module that does a million things, I really wanted a more classic approach where limitations are placed on the design from the start like size and cost and make the best possible module within those limitations.  That requires a bit more creativity and problem solving than normally required but the results speak for themselves.  The 3OSC (A TB-303 based osc!) went through dozen revisions to get right but the result is a beast and that work produced a novel hardsync that no one has tried in the 40 years that design has been out.

That's awesome! Talking of Roland-inspired designs - I'm a huge fan of the MSW-810 Monosynth. Admittedly a simple 1 VCO + Sub design, but wow, the sound! You're now about to release a feature-packed , 2 VCO sequel, the MSW-820. How does the design differ from the original instrument (outside of the extra VCO, of course!)

Design wise, it keeps to the fundamental Roland design philosophy of 810/101/202 (absolute classic monosynths! - Paulee), which are evolutions of earlier designs themselves.  The availability of silicon reproductions (Alfa Rpar have cloned many of the chips used in classic designs) made the 810/820 possible. Without those parts, none of this would have happened - but I think a more important aspect was the understanding gained of the underlying circuitry and why/how Roland did what they did back then. The 820 uses the same building blocks as the 810, so it is identical under the hood as far as plumbing goes - but we have expanded many aspects of those building blocks.  The sync and reset features of the VCOs are all new, the Sub OSC is the classic logic-based Roland design and hasn't been changed, the EG's are both identical to 101/202/810 - everyone loves those, so no changes.  The LFO and noise circuits are really the only fully modern additions to the device. I looked at using classic designs there and really, it would have severely limited what was possible, so both noise and LFOs are digitally generated.  This allows for many more options for shapes and noise flavors. The cross fading between LFO shapes; all the weird little spots you can find in the crossfades between the shapes and the LFO reset options, really add a tremendous pallette of timbres that almost transform the LFO from modulation source to tone generator.

The filter is really the star of the device, the concept of pole mixing is a fairly old one and mostly associated with the Oberheim Matrix 12. Émilie designed a Shruthi-1 filter based on that design (4 Pole Mission), which came onto my radar for a while, but applying those design ideas to a Roland 101 filter was not something anyone has done - and that's what the Caveman Totem filter became. When we dreamed up 820, our new design was the obvious choice.  The classic 4 pole Roland filter is present, but 15 additional modes turn the device into something unique sonically.  The modulation mixer for the VCF uses attenuverters instead of simple faders; which isn't common and allows a bit of negative modulation to each source (Env, pitch, LFO, and external CV).  A big gripe everyone had with 810, is that I didn't change the external input behavior to allow external audio to be routed through the VCF/VCA - so that has been added as a MIX (post VCA) or pre-VCF source.

"The MSW-820's connectivity is: MIDI IN (TRS MIDI), USB C (power and USB MIDI), V/OCT, GATE, Filter CV, LFO MOD Rate, Audio IN, Synth Out. The device was designed from the ground up to be both a desktop and euro device so there is a switch to toggle between euro and line levels."

That new filter seems capable of some truly experimental timbres - especially with CV control & external audio in, but back to simple pleasures, classic charm: Your yellow & black GNOT 1VCO monosynth also caught my eye. Alongside it's SPYDER sequencer, this seems a fitting tribute to EDP's legacy. What inspired you to create new versions of these designs?

I built a Jasper wasp clone and immediately fell in love with the sound and the design.  It's a weird device (all logic chips) and nothing else out there is like it.  I came across Gnat and quickly decided that was going to be something I wanted to take on.  By the time I finally got my hands on one, I had already done the SMD versions of the SY-1 and MSW-810 and figured Gnat would be a similar project - but I was dead wrong. The complexity of Gnat was way more than I was prepared for - I wanted to keep the foil identical to the real device (like SY-1) but the Gnat was a 2 layer board with an effective third layer of routing. The result was a complex 4 layer design which incorporated everything into a modern, machine-manufacturable circuit board.  A great surprise and a testament to Chris Hugget's design is that; other than one part, EVERYTHING to build Gnats is still in production. The pots, switches, all the logic chips, they're still available off the shelf so Gnot is as close to a Gnat as you can get, down to the special order Cliff knob caps. The Spider was an obvious choice for a follow up and was designed the same way, but had its own challenges - the PROMs used by that device are about as obscure as it gets, so sorting out those parts became a year long slog.  Thankfully, the EDP gods must have thought favorably of my effort since whenever I was ready to throw in the towel, some random event would get things back on track and ultimately, Spydur was done. Way too much time and money was poured into Spydur but tbh, the crazy journey it took me on was worth it.

I love hearing tales of such design dedication! Talking of revamped designs, you are known to create some fantastic re-imaginings of Mutable instrument's modules, do you have a favourite of Emilie's designs?

I really liked the synths. Ambika and Anushri are stand outs in my mind. Both had the foundations of ideas that would later get fleshed out into the euro modules and I really liked that.

Agreed. So what's next for MSW, any interesting prototypes in the pipeline?

Always; only about a quarter of prototypes ever see the light of day, but I think there is a gameplan for the next year or two, expanding the synth line, Caveman stuff, as well as some new Neutron modules. Its challenging being a US-based manufacturer right now so I really have to pick my battles carefully.

I can only imagine, good luck with everything and thanks for talking to us!

https://michigansynthworks.com/

• SonicLAB: Michigan Synth Works MSW 820 Synth Voice 13-Apr-26
• Send in the Clones: Michigan Synth Works MSW-810 & SY-1 03-Dec-23
• Xena 6-voice Hybrid Polysynth Based on Ambika 26-Nov-23