UDO Super 6 Desktop Analog-Hybrid Synth
UDO ships Super 6 Desktop designed to take unique analog-hybrid 12-voice synth with binaural spread to wider audience
7 December 2021
British musical instrument company UDO announces availability of the Super 6 Desktop — designed to take a re-engineered full-featured Super 6 to a wider audience by bringing its flexible and immediate control, analog sound, and great build quality into a more compact package.
The striking Super 6 Desktop design duly delivers versatile integration into any studio or stage setup courtesy of an ergonomic feature set, such as VESA mount compliance, optional 7U rack ears, and robust flip-up feet. Features such as a Drift control, independent control of the analog HPF, Pan spread control, advanced Envelopes, and polyphonic aftertouch are all additions on the original Super 6 design. Indeed, a future update will also add a 24-voice polychain option (with the Super 6) and MPE operability.
The familiar central design of the Super 6 is of course present on the Desktop: superior build quality and intuitive hands-on control for expressive performances with no menus or menu-diving distractions; FPGA-based oscillators featuring DDS (Direct Digital Synthesis) and downloadable waveforms, with DDS 1 (oscillator 1) being an FPGA-based super-wave oscillator core sampled at 50MHz with a centroid oscillator and six sister oscillators that can be dynamically de-phased in the stereo field — hence highlighted in its BINAURAL and SUPER-WAVE namesake; real analog VCF, reprising the SSM2044 of legacy chipmaker Solid State Micro Technology (believed by many to be the best-sounding analog synthesis IC ever produced), VCA, and modulators; loop-able Envelopes, LFOs, and modulators with audio rate modulation; MIDI-syncable, multi-mode Arpeggiator / Sequencer — straightforward in use; dual-mode stereo Chorus and syncable and modulate-able stereo Delay — both with 24-bit/192kHz processing… all are but the ‘edited highlights’ of both instruments’ impressive specification.
Super 6 Desktop’s I/O connectivity is identical to that of its Super 6 sibling, starting with USB I/O for MIDI, plus patch, sequence, and waveform management (via simple USB ‘memory stick’ type interface with no extra drivers or applications required), as well as easy OS upgrade; MIDI In, Out, and Thru on DIN connectors; self-explanatory Control and Sustain Pedal inputs; Audio In for stereo 1⁄4” jack — allowing users to process an external audio signal through the synthesiser’s signal path and threshold-based envelope and LFO triggering; main LR outputs for unbalanced 1⁄4” jacks; and a high-quality stereo headphone power amplifier output.
Super 6 designer — and UDO founder — George Hearn says, “I’m honoured and humbled to bring the Super 6 Desktop to musicians around the world. I love its solid and efficient construction, compact yet spacious design, and great flexibility it offers as a practical hardware instrument. The Super 6 has brought me a lot of joy to create and play, and I’m hoping that the Super 6 Desktop will help us share our love and enthusiasm for these products with an even wider audience of brilliant and creative people we are lucky to have in the global community that is music.”
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