Modal Argon8 has the sound of the 002 at a fraction of the price

Modal Argon8 has the sound of the 002 at a fraction of the price

The Modal Argon8 is the new addition to the Modal family, featuring the same oscillators as the acclaimed 002.

Since its release not too long ago, the Modal 002 has quickly garnered international acclaim for its incredibly vast wavetable capabilities. Not only does the new Modal Argon8 feature a large amount of the DNA that made the 002 what it is, it has a ton of features never seen before at this price point.

The Modal Argon8 is an eight-voice true-polyphonic synth, it comes pre-loaded with 120 wavetables – 24 banks of 5 morphable wavetables each. The oscillators have wavetable processors, which are similar to Serum’s warp-modes. The Modal Argon8 has a full-sized 37-key keybed with both velocity and aftertouch, it features a hugely powerful mod matrix with 11 modulation sources and 52 destinations. The synth features a two-pole morphing resonant filter, a dedicated distortion section and a huge range of possibilities with the three user-configurable stereo effects engines that can each create a variety of sounds from chorus and flanger to delays and reverbs.

The ins and outs…

The Modal Argon8 features an advanced arpeggiator and a very sophisticated real time step sequencer and MIDI recorder with built in quantizing capabilities. It works alongside the ModalApp which runs as a standalone or VST/AU plugin within your DAW. The app gives you direct access to all of the parameters of your synth, in real time.

The Argon8 features an audio input, allowing you to process external audio through the filter and effects engines. It’s got sync I/O, DIN MIDI I/O and has inputs for sustain and expression pedals.

The sheer number of features and high level of sophistication in the audio engine, one would expect to pay far more than the retail price set on the Modal Argon8. It’s going for USD $699 (Around R10 300 excl. duties), hopefully this sets a new precedent for upcoming high-end compact synthesizers.

For more information check out the Modal website here.