In a single, fader-covered box with a capacious patchbay, Alt brings together creative, generative sound worlds beneath a unified interface. FM, dual filters, random slew, scales, light sensors, a mic: it’s not every day you see a device so obsessed with exploration. And now it’s in preorder mode, shipping in December, making me wish for a residency somewhere in a cozy arctic cabin or something.
The Superbooth debut of Alt was impressive, but it did feel like a sketch — too easy for it to fall beneath the background noise of that show’s wacky inventions. (Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention Alt has a noise source. But I digress.)
Now, it really feels like a compositional playground. The new video is a perfect walkthrough.
From the description:
after 3 years of development, ALT is finally ready. this video shows the final version of the instrument and goes over the concept, the main features, and what has been added since the prototype version that was shown last year, such as custom scales, a second filter, FM and AM, new MIDI modes and more. we also show different ways to play ALT with sequencers, and how to use its filters and delay on external instruments.
ALT will be available to pre-order next week [this week as of publication], and will be shipped in december.
It’s giving Buchla Music Easel, but 2020s. Start with 5 oscillators you can shape, white noise, and mic input, then detune and feed those elements into free-ranging wanderings or one of 14 scales. There’s a just intonation option, too.*
Then you have stereo filters with resonance, delay with feedback, LFOs, S&H, an envelope follower, arpeggiator, all the goodies. There’s even a peg-style mod matrix. (That’s the one that’s known to laypeople as, “you sunk my battleship,” at least if they were exposed to US toy ads.)
It’s rare to have this amount of free-ranging flexibility, as you might in a modular, in a single, compact instrument rather than a sprawling skiff. And happily it still has full I/O, with voice split, monophonic, or “silent tonic change” modes. So if you thought you were just getting a sort of weird island, as many of these devices turn out to be, they’ve put it in a modern form.
Oh, plus it has gorgeous typography and panel design.
It’s really lovely work. I’m eager to watch this one.
More info, more pics, the full manual, and preorder notifications:
Earlier video on how to play this:
(*I’m still waiting for more hardware with full tuning support. I want a spatial maqam synth that could sell to, let’s be honest, like four people, but four really amazing people. Call me. That said, if the illustration below just means 12-TET scale degrees and doesn’t adjust tuning, we need to have a sit-down, as you haven’t been listening. Like, really not at all. Just give us custom modes, on the other hand, and we’ll be delighted!)
