Modulr Twin

Two groups of four voices, a resonant filter with its own envelope, a chorus and a digital reverb and delay, played from your keyboard as a VST3 and Audio Unit.

Modulr Twin is a polyphonic synthesizer after the grammar of the 1983 Poly-800: two groups of four voices, each with its own oscillator, octave and level, three six-stage envelopes, one resonant low-pass filter with an envelope of its own, a modulation generator, a bender and a detune, a chorus and a digital reverb and delay, all as sliders over a 61-key bed that splits in two. It is a VST3 and Audio Unit plug-in.

Plug-in · VST3 and Audio Unit

Add to basket · $25→Legendary→

54 controlsthe engine’s own, every one automatable in the host

6 soundsforty-one patches that each load every control, six distinct tones

VST3 · AUApple silicon, macOS 11 or later

Hear it

Six sounds, played as they ship.

Each clip is the plug-in itself: a patch is picked in the drawer and loaded, then a played line sounds on it, the way it is played into the plug-in from a keyboard. The bank holds forty-one patches that make six distinct sounds; these are one of each. No effects added, no mastering.

Orbital · ChimeBass · SawAfter Orbital, “Chime” (1989): a bass line on the saw, the lower voice carrying it. The settings are this product’s reading of the role, not any artist’s.

Depeche Mode · Black Celebration tourKeys · PluckAfter Alan Wilder’s keys on the Black Celebration tour (1986): a short, bright pluck. The settings are this product’s reading of the role, not any artist’s.

Duran Duran · stage rigPad · WarmAfter Nick Rhodes’s stage rig in the 1980s: a slow warm pad, chorus on. The settings are this product’s reading of the role, not any artist’s.

Bicep · studio stapleLead · DistortedAfter the lead Bicep call a studio staple (c. 2019): a darker lead with some grit. The settings are this product’s reading of the role, not any artist’s.

John Miles · UK tourLead · PlainAfter the lead on John Miles’s UK tour (1984): a plain lead. The settings are this product’s reading of the role, not any artist’s.

Vangelis · mid-1980s studioStudio · SightingThe engine as built: Vangelis’s mid-1980s studio is a sighting, with no documented sound, so this patch loads the instrument’s starting values and nothing else.

The study

The editor, and the module it becomes.

The plug-in is built; the Eurorack module drawn from the same study, with its macro knobs and the control jacks under them, is not.

The Modulr Twin plug-in editor, playing a patch — The Modulr Twin editor, as the plug-in shows it: a grey-brown panel of sliders, two voices, a filter, a digital section and a voicing strip, and a 61-key bed split in two.

The Modulr Twin Eurorack module, 28 HP, in its case — The Modulr Twin as a 28 HP module: a red two-digit patch display, eight black macro knobs with their control jacks, and a dark jack tray.

Mock UI — drawn by the specification’s own kit, not a screenshot of a shipped editor. Values are illustrative, not measured. The study is Poly-800’s grammar, redrawn in Modulr’s own words, and nothing on it is measured against the instrument.

The instrument it studies

Poly-800, 1983.

The instrument’s own grammar, as the catalogue recalls it: the sections, the controls and the look the study borrows.

The split-voice polysynth grammar: two voices side by side, each with its own oscillator, mixer and filter, the two filters carrying the headline with a balance slider between them, and a digital reverb and delay section behind them with its own display.

A grey-brown plastic panel in 28 HP with white lettering and engraved rules: a red two-digit patch display over four coloured membranes, eight black knobs with white pointers, the jack tray dark at the foot.

A keyboard split into two halves, each with its own oscillator (octave, waveform), its own mixer and its own filter
Two low-pass filters with a cutoff, a resonance and a balance between them
A digital reverb and a digital delay with their own levels and a mix
A two-digit display of the patch number with a small row of buttons under it
A bank of patch buttons
A 61-key keyboard

The spec sheet

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
F1 Cut	vcf1.cut	20 Hz – 20 kHz	20 kHz
F2 Cut	vcf2.cut	20 Hz – 20 kHz	20 kHz
Balance	flt.balance	I – II	C
Reso	vcf.res	0–100%	0%
Reverb	fx.reverb	0–100%	0%
Delay	fx.delay	0–100%	0%
Mix	fx.mix	0–100%	50%
Spatial	out.spatial	0–100%	50%

Side	Jacks
In	Note (MIDI), V/Oct (CV), Gate (CV), Bend (CV)
Out	Out (Audio), Phones (Audio)

The plug-in is built and on sale. The module is not.On saleModulr Twin is a working VST3 and Audio Unit and it is $25. It is not a copy of any instrument: no maker’s name or logo is drawn on a panel, and nothing is measured against the original. It is signed ad hoc, not notarized, so macOS will ask you to allow it. A downloaded copy stays silent until it is licensed, and there is no automatic way yet for a customer to receive a licence file. It has no sequencer, and the keys on the drawn keyboard play nothing: notes come from your host. The instrument has one filter, so the second filter, the balance between them, and the pan, sub, pulse-width and velocity sliders are drawn dimmed and do nothing, and the patch-bank keys are the plug-in’s own drawer instead. The sound bank is forty-one patches of six distinct tones; they are the product’s reading of a role, and none is an artist’s own setting.

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.