Hey,

At Lambda Synthetics we build physical tools for the creation of electronic music. With our instruments, we try to offer you a new approach to live electronics.

On the 23rd of October 2023 the PolyPulse launched on Kickstarter and with help of 34 backers production will start in 2024. You can now pre-order the PolyPulse below.

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The PolyPulse

The PolyPulse is an algorithmic performance workstation which combines the playfulness and performability of physical instruments with the precision and sonic detail of digital music production techniques into a single package!

Its 5 tracks each have an algorithmic sequencer, a polyphonic sound engine of your choice, customizable audio effects chain and morphing touchpad. The algorithmic sequencer allows you to easily create long evolving rhythms and melodies. With the touchpads you can fluently morph between four presets per track to create expressive and dynamic changes in sound and texture.

The PolyPulse has four audio inputs which can be sampled, and has eight audio outputs allowing for various routings including individual outputs per track or spatialized multi-speaker setups. It can be synced using MIDI, sample accurate clock signals and it even talks Open Sound Control. MIDI can be used to sequence external synthesizers and with CC messages you can morph sounds on your favorite synthesizer module!

Algorithmic sequencer

With the PolyPulse you create rhythms using an algorithmic sequencer controlled by a set of parameters. This allows you to quickly create a variation on a groove by turning just a single knob. Melodies are created using 'note lists'. When a note is triggered by the sequencer, it picks a pitch from the note list and sends that to the sound engine. Due to the separation between rhythms and melodies you can mix and match to try out new combinations and to discover wonderful sequences.

The algorithmic sequencer is free from conventional limitations like the number of steps a sequence can have, specific time signatures and can use custom tuning systems. Each pattern can have its own length and patterns on different tracks can shift against each other creating constantly evolving melodies.

While the sequencer is capable of a lot of things, it does so without menu diving and is as knob-per-function as possible with 16 encoders always accessible for direct manipulation!

Morphing and mixing

With the touchpads you have expressive control over all sound engine and audio effects parameters. On each corner of a touchpad a sound can be stored. These sounds can be modified on-the-fly, or prepared beforehand and stored in the project.

Each track also has a dedicated volume knob and effects sends knob. The effects send can be routed internally, or you can send signal to your favorite external effects processor!

Sound engines

On each track you can select a sound engine with up to eight voices of polyphony:

• A configurable drumkit with synthesized drums and a sample player that plays sequences of samples so you can quickly create complex drum patterns.
• A subtractive synthesizer with four oscillators, noise source, harmonic ring modulation, and a 24dB lowpass filter or 12dB morphing filter.
• A four operator FM synthesizer with modulation matrix so you can create custom FM algorithms, and even morph between different algorithms!
• An additive synthesizer with up to 32 sine waves per voice, for those complex digital sounds and glitchy textures!
• A physical modelling synthesizer with noise and samples as excitation source and two feedback loops to blend between positive and negative feedback.

Audio effects

You can add up to four audio effects per track. Additionally four effects can be added to the master bus. The PolyPulse has a multichannel audio effects system. This means you have the freedom to apply audio effects to a mix of the sound engines voices, but also to the individual voices of a sound engine. The user chooses when (and how) channels are summed, so the PolyPulse can also be used in spatial audio setups with up to eight speakers.

Currently, the following audio effects are included in the PolyPulse software:

• Amplitude modulator is a multichannel tremolo effect.
• Compressor can be used to constrain the dynamic range, increase the punchiness of a sound or slam a drum bus.
• Degrade is a tape simulation to add a degraded character to your sounds.
• Delay can be tempo synced, has a multichannel ping-pong mode and has several algorithms with unique characters.
• Drive has several distortion algorithms so you can add a bit (or a lot) of crunchiness!
• Equalizer has a low-shelf, bell and high-shelf filter with frequency and gain controls.
• Fade delay is a granular delay effect with pitch shifter and feedback sustainer to create long and heavenly drones from simple sounds.
• Filter is a 12dB resonant filter than can morph from lowpass ➝ bandpass ➝ highpass ➝ notch ➝ lowpass.
• Mono mixes the incoming signals to a single output.
• Multiband splits audio up into multiple frequency bands, so you can apply effects to different frequency bands.
• Reroute connects individual synth voices to various audio outputs and can be used as spatial panner during multispeaker performances.
• Reverb allows you to add space to your sound.
• Stereo spreads and pans signals over a stereo spectrum. Each new note starts in a random position and can slowly move around in the stereo field.

Technical specifications

• Solid metal enclosure
• Hands-on interface:
  • 32 high resolution encoders, with coarse and fine-tune control
  • 5 capacitive touchpads
  • 13 metal-shaft potentiometers
  • 65 key switches
  • OLED display with excellent viewing angles
• 1GHz ARM® Cortex-A8 processor with 512MB RAM
• 24 bit / 48 kHz high quality, low noise audio on 6.35mm jacks:
  • 2 balanced line inputs
  • 2 microphone inputs with pad and gain controls
  • 8 balanced line outputs
  • Stereo headphone amplifier with volume control
• Trigger in/out
  • 2 sample accurate trigger inputs (48 kHz)
  • 2 sample accurate trigger outputs (48 kHz)
  • 3 trigger outputs (750 Hz)
• Full size MIDI IN/OUT
• RJ45 ethernet connection:
  • Can be used to connect to the file manager to backup projects, upload samples and update firmware
  • Open Sound Control

Workflow

Convinced? Pre-order your PolyPulse now!

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