Modulr Scarlet
Four morph groups, two oscillators with wave lists and a filter that changes type, played from your keyboard as a VST3 and Audio Unit.
Modulr Scarlet is a virtual-analog synthesizer after the grammar of the 1995 Nord Lead: four voices and four morph groups, two oscillators with wave lists, sync and FM into a filter that changes type, amp and modulation envelopes, an LFO with a fade, an arpeggiator, and a program number on three digits, on a bright red panel with two wheels and a 49-key bed. It is not a copy of any instrument: no maker’s name or logo is drawn on it, and nothing is measured against the original.
Nineteen sounds, played as they ship.
Each clip is the plug-in itself: the patch is picked in the drawer and loaded, the same phrase is played on it — held chords on the pads, the brass and the arpeggiated patches, a line on the rest — and the filter is swept over the take. Eighteen are after a record or a performance, and their settings are the plug-in’s own reading of that sound’s role, not the artist’s; the last is the instrument as it opens. 50 patches ship; these are one of every sound in the bank.
A virtual-analog synthesizer, played from your keyboard.
- Patches that load the whole sound.Pick a patch and every control moves to it at once; the drawer closes and the instrument is ready to play. The two arpeggiated patches also switch the arpeggiator on, and it plays whatever you hold.
- Hold to preview.Hold the drawer’s preview button to hear a patch’s tone on your own MIDI; let go and the instrument is exactly as it was.
- Four morph groups.Four groups of settings behind a pair of red source buttons, morphed by the wheel or by how hard you strike the key; the amount sets how far the morph reaches into the mix.
- Two oscillators with wave lists.Each carries saw, triangle, pulse and noise stops and a wave position; the second sits any interval away, with its own pulse width, a fine tune, sync and an FM amount into the first.
- A filter that changes type.Low-pass at two slopes, band-pass or high-pass, with cutoff, resonance, envelope amount and key tracking.
- Two envelopes and an LFO.The amplifier envelope carries attack, decay and release, a second envelope drives the sound, and the LFO offers five wave shapes, a fade-in, and pitch, filter or pulse width as its destination.
- An arpeggiator.Up, down, up/down or random, over one to four octaves, at its own tempo, with a gate length and a swing.
- The wheels and the keys.A pitch wheel that springs back and a mod wheel that holds, octave keys, and a 49-key bed.
- Services.Choose whether the instrument answers your host’s MIDI and clock, set its output level, and age it: the parts grow old by the engine’s own laws.
What it needs.
| Format | Systems | Licence |
|---|---|---|
| VST3 · Audio Unit | Apple silicon, macOS 11 or later | A licence is needed to make sound. Without one the editor opens and the output is silent. |
The editor, and the module it becomes.
The plug-in is built, and its editor is shown playing a patch. The module is the same study drawn as a Eurorack module with its macro knobs and the control jacks under them, and it is not built.
The editor is the plug-in’s own, captured as it plays. The module is drawn by the specification’s own kit, and its values are illustrative, not measured. The design is Nord Lead’s grammar, redrawn in Modulr’s own words, and nothing on it is measured against the instrument.
Nord Lead, 1995.
The instrument’s own grammar, as the catalogue recalls it: the sections, the controls and the look the study borrows.
The four-voice virtual-analog grammar: four morph groups, two oscillators with wave lists, sync and FM, a low-pass, band-pass or high-pass filter, amp and mod envelopes, an LFO, an arpeggiator and a program number on three digits.
A bright anodised-red panel with a brushed grain, metallic flake and a diagonal sheen, a three-digit red LED read-out, rubber buttons with amber LEDs, matte black knobs with white pointers (knurled for the big ones), white rounded section lines, black end cheeks, two wheels and a 49-key bed.
- Four morph groups, with a pair of red source buttons
- The oscillator section: OSC 1 and OSC 2 waveforms, pitch, fine tune, sync, FM amount and noise
- The filter: low-pass, band-pass or high-pass, with cutoff, resonance and frequency modulation from an envelope or an LFO
- The amp envelope: attack, decay and release
- A modulation envelope, and an LFO
- An arpeggiator
- A lit display of three digits for the program
- A pair of wheels, and a 49-key keyboard
The module, knob by knob.
The module is a design study and is not built. Its macros are the signature controls a player reaches for, not a generic set; each one has a control jack under it.
| Macro | Key | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cutoff | vcf.cut | 20 Hz – 20 kHz | 20 kHz |
| Reso | vcf.res | 0–100% | 0% |
| Env amt | vcf.env | 0–100% | 0% |
| FM amt | osc.fm | 0–100% | 0% |
| Morph | morph.amt | 0–100% | 0% |
| Detune | osc2.fine | ±100 ct | 0 ct |
| PW | osc1.pw | 5–95% | 50% |
| Rate | lfo.rate | 0.05–40 Hz | 4 Hz |
| Attack | env.attack | 1 ms – 5 s | 2 ms |
| Release | env.release | 1 ms – 5 s | 200 ms |
| Side | Jacks |
|---|---|
| In | Note (MIDI), V/Oct (CV), Gate (CV), Bend (CV), Mod (CV) |
| Out | Out (Audio), LFO (CV) |
Legendary is the catalogue of the Modulr Synths project: 43 design studies drawn with the specification’s own kit, 33 after the synthesizers of all time and 10 after the drum machines. The makers and years named here are the instrument’s; the names, the layouts and every value are Modulr’s own.