Back in stock: All genres

Review: Mint Condition continues its run of strong reissues of house and techno music. Originally released on the cult label Robs records in 1995, Kilowatt's 'The Last EP' is finally getting the much deserved repress. Included is the wicked acid banger 'Loose End' which is a diamond of the mid-90s bleep house sound. 'The End' is another standout track on this release that gives us great memories of all the exciting IDM related going ons in the mid 90s - not least in the club of the same name - with echoes of 808 State from the late 80s too. Sometimes you aren't sure why a record's been reissued, but this one is definitely a worthy case. Expect these copies to go fast.

Review: One of the greatest things to happen to the vinyl industry, the beloved Australian rock collective are a force to be reckoned with in terms of releases. For all their conceptual and experimental releases however, 'Omnium Gatherum' works exactly as prescribed - a latin phrase roughly translating to "just a bunch of stuff". The double LP is a collection of reworked unreleased material, as well as original music tacked on to boot - King Gizzard fans never have to worry about getting bang for their buck. Expect frenzied shredding, nu-metal cuts and the occasional synth-pop banger. The real highlight here is 'The Grim Reaper', a fusion of hip-hop and medieval instrumentation if you can believe it. Kenny-Smith's flow is no doubt influenced by the Beastie Boys era of hip-hop, a style being repopularised by the likes of Joey Valence & Brae. The album is a crazy patchwork of genres that feels not unlike watching your favourite movie in the form of a highlight reel.

Review: Experimental musician Leyland Kirby has been skirting round the edges of electronic music since the tail end of the '90s, delivering curious concept albums under a dizzying variety of pseudonyms (The Caretaker, The Stranger, Billy Ray Cyrix, Butcher Claws and Bored in Columbia, amongst many others). Here he dons his familiar V/VM alias for a discordant trip into drone territory supposedly inspired by fading memories of the last throes of early '90s outdoor raves. In truth, there's little in the music - a typically hissing, dystopian fusion of murky textures and becalmed electronic tones - to justify the concept, but it matters little. Kirby is a master at creating vaguely spooky, industrial-influenced soundscapes, and The Death of a Rave (A Partial Flashback) only enhances his reputation.

Review: RECOMMENDED
If 2020, and the coronavirus pandemic, did anything good for music it was forcing a long overdue reevaluation of the role technology plays. Video games had a bumper year, and it didn't take long for the historic relationship between computer entertainment and contemporary musical compositions to start finding favour with content-starved editorial teams.

They say there's no turning back, ever, and as such the smart money is on albums like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice not just becoming more commonplace, but taken more seriously going forward. Soundtrack to Activision's critically acclaimed video game of the same name, in which players take on the role of a shinobi in feudal Japan, as you'd expect it's a deeply atmospheric collection that invokes misty mountaintops, shadows dancing off bamboo and patient heroics. An OST equal to any major movie.

Review: A selection of fifteen pieces from the soundtrack of the cult anime Dragon Ball Z, on a limited 2xLP edition, fully licensed, including the main opening track 'CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA'. This soundtrack accompanies the anime's key moment in which Dragon Ball Z resumes five years after Son Goku's wedding. Radditz, a mysterious warrior, arrives on Earth to find Goku, who learns that he comes from a planet of warriors from a planet of warriors, of which only four remain. The plot is based on a succession of increasingly strong opponents to be fought, but there's often a quest or travel motif that adds interest beyond the duels. All this, and more, is bolstered by this electrifying soundtrack edition.

Notes: Two oscillators independently set as VCO, LFO, or random generator

This new version replaces the original Twin Waves. All features of the former are retained. You can check all videos, reviews and comments of V1, being sure to benefit of all in the MKII version :-)

Features in VCO mode:

V/Oct tracking over 10 octaves
Tuning lock with octave selection
Through zero and linear FM
Sub-octave output
Hard & soft synchronization
VCA control and CV algorithms selection
Quantizer with various scales
20 algorithm-based synthesis types among:
Wave shaping
Phase modulation
Phase positioning of multiple waves
Up to 5 stacked oscillators in tunable unison
Self-sync with phantom oscillator
Additive synthesis (7 waves)
Variable bit reduction (bit-crushing)
Ring modulator with its own 2nd oscillator
Noise with LPF, BPF, or resonant filter

Features in LFO mode:

Simultaneous signal and trigger outputs
External wave synchronization
Clock controlled rate with voltage controlled multiplier and divider
CV and knob control of output level
Algorithm based wave engine with a selection of:
Wave shaping
Phase modulation
Random levels and vectors (also Brownian)
Randomly spaced triggers and waves
Display with contextual icons and instant reminder help text
LEDs indicating potentiometer vs. value matching, switch settings and output signals
Automatically saved settings for instant recall at power on
Firmware update by playing an audio file via the front panel
Compact and skiff-friendly module

Dimensions
8 HP
21 mm deep

Current Draw
52 mA +12V
17 mA -12V
0 mA 5V

Review: ***B-STOCK: Creasing to corner of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent condition***


During a record digging trip to South Africa a year or two back, Rush Hour co-founder Antal stumbled on an obscure local cover of Klein & MBO's Ron Hardy and Larry Levan favourite, "The MBO Theme". The Warrior version, which was recorded at some point in the early '80s, is a little slower and breezier than Klein and MBO's original, with even finer fretless bass flavours and the track's famous melodies re-played on some particularly spacey synthesizers. Helpfully, the Klein & MBO version is on the A-side, so you can easily compare the two: Warriors' little known cover is definitely our pick of the pair.

Review: UK producer Kloke has been on prolific form lately, dropping the science on Tim Reaper's Future Retro, Unknown To The Unknown, Fresh 86 and scores more labels besides. Now he's stepping up to Samurai sub label Mindgames in the wake of essential drops from Reaper and Eusebeia with some incredibly accomplished workouts which reach beyond formulaic limitations to offer the kind of bar-raising breaks juggling and considered production that truly stands out in this day and age. 'Eternity' is as compelling in its teasing, quasi-ambient lead in, taking some of the backroom surrealism of Photek's Modus Operandi and charging it with a vivid, underwater sound design flair. That's just one example - every track has its own distinctive intrigue and mind-bending ideas flying out of the speakers in high-definition.

Notes: *** NO POWER SUPPLY INCLUDED - USES GENERIC 12VAC ADAPTER ***

Basically, the Ekdahl Moisturizer is a spring reverb where the springs are exposed so they can be played/hit/fiddled with. As well as being capable of creating sound in itself, you can of course also play sound through the springs like a regular spring reverb - this makes for happy-fun-time finger-modulation of the reverb on whatever audio that's going through it. On top of this there's an analog multimode filter that can be used to attenuate or exaggerate certain frequencies in the sound, this is real handy while playing the springs as you can - for instance - cut all the highs and just make thunderous doomy sounds or do the opposite; cut all the lows and make that ear piercing high frequency special love. Also, it incorporates an LFO that's internally routable to the filter and that also has some external routing-stuff. The Ekdahl Moisturizer has tons of CV / Expression pedal options on the back for even more hillarious moments. The Moisturizer is a mono unit.

The Moisturizer was developed with the help of Jason Willett (Half Japanese, Leperchaun Catering), Martin Schmidt (Matmos, Instant Coffee), Joshua Atkins (Polygons, Major Powers), mom & dad and many more.

The Ekdahl Moisturizer contains exactly:
Preamp (up to 10 times gain)
Reverb
Reverb / Preamp wet/dry crossfader (Knob & CV/EP controllable)
State variable filter with
Lowpass/Bandpass/Highpass seamless crossover (Knob, CV/EP & LFO controllable)
Cutoff (Knob, CV/EP & LFO controllable)
Resonance (WITHOUT resonance limiter)
LFO with
Speed control (Knob & CV/EP controllable)
Square / Triangle crossover
External output with output amplitude knob
Filter / No filter wet/dry crossfader (Knob & CV/EP controllable)

The preamp section is designed for a max of 10 times gain, this to accomodate for low level output instruments such as guitars etc. The reverb tank has normal reverb signal gain on it, meaning that if you hit the springs hard they'll distort like crap which is real nice, if you hit them softly the sound won't be distorted.

The filter in the Ekdahl Moisturizer is abrasive, the fact that it doesn't have any resonance limiting makes it possible to get the filter to sound *really* bubbly & metallic (way more then any filter i've ever heard), but it's also of course capable of sounding completely "normal" - it all depends on the amount of resonance and/or gain. The fact that you can seamlessly fade inbetween lowpass, bandpass or highpass filter (or lowpass+bandpass and highpass+bandpass) makes the unit pretty damn versatile and by using the wet/dry filter/no filter crossfader there's some neat shit that can be done too. Now it should be said that due to the fact that there's no resonance limiter, if using very high gain, with high resonance and turning the cutoff frequency very high the filter might cut out - not to worry, just turn the cutoff back a bit and the filter pops in again. This happens because the filter gets overloaded and can be avoided with a resonance limiter, however if i had one of those all the super-awesome bounce would be gone and it'd sound like all the other filter out there.

The Ekdahl moisturizer has six CV/Expression pedal related jacks on the back, one of them is a LFO output so you can control other shit with The Moisturizer's LFO. All the other jacks are inputs and takes either CV or Expression pedal, they are: Reverb Mixture, VCF Cutoff, VCF Filter Mode (LP/BP/HP), Filter Mixture and LFO Speed.

Review: Toolroom head honcho Mark Knight has pulled out all the stops here and joined forces with some of house music's biggest names. His ow-slung new tune 'The Greatest Thing Alive' is a collab with the one and only Chicago don Green velvet plus James Hurr and it has already made an impact on global dancefloors since its digital release in October last year. Between these talents they all dig deep and cook up something perfectly chunky and detailed with fresh percussion. It's the sort of tune that will blow up in Miami and has the addition of Green Velvet's take on the classic 'Mannish Boy' from Muddy Waters.

Review: Konerytmi is quite a productive name in electro the last few years and in just a handful of earth cycles, the output of this Russian born audio warrior has reached staggering levels. Thankfully, the quality is there giving fans the joy to discover so much from him. One that definitely should be in your wantlist is the Saaristo EP. 'Hiekkalinna' is really good example at the strategy he employs when making tracks. 'Kesakauri' and 'Avaruukisko' add a bit of 80s nostalgia with some darker synth lines and an EBM balance to the electro. The title track ends the EP on a melancholy note and is perhaps, our favorite of the four. Konerytmi continues to give us terrific electro to enjoy.

Notes: ***B-STOCK: Box damaged, product in perfect working order***


Second-gen version of the excellent Opsix features major updates including 64-voice polyphony and an improved interface. Same powerful six-operator FM synth engine.

Supplier's Notes:
A Full-Spectrum Sound Experience

Opsix mk II is a digital synth like no other. Based on the sound engine of the original Opsix, the number of simultaneous voices and voicings has been expanded to an astounding 64 voices. The result is superior performance and precise control.

The Opsix Operator Mixer simplified FM synthesis for the first time, making it not just comprehensible but also controllable. With the addition of extra synthesis capabilities and programming, it offered a more efficient workflow and an even richer sound.

And, it is fully compatible with the sounds and samples from both the original opsix and the opsix Native software, including numerous high-quality libraries.

Evolved to an astounding 64 voices

The Opsix mk II has 64 voices, twice as many as the original 32 voices, allowing users to enjoy tone editing without having to worry about the number of simultaneous voices. In addition, the operator-mixer section, the most distinctive feature of this product, has been accented with a new image colour, green.

Get Illuminated with the Operator Mixer

At the heart of every sound is Opsix mk II's Operator Mixer - a simple set of six faders and knobs that invite exploration. Each part lights up red to indicate carriers or blue for modulators. Manipulating them opens up new sound-shaping possibilities to breathe fresh life into your musical ideas. This straightforward, hands-on workflow is part of what makes Opsix mk II so unique, just like the sounds it offers.

Direct Hands-On Control

Whether you're tweaking a preset or building a patch from the ground up, the six data entry knobs on the right give you quick access to the parameters you need and seamlessly sync with the large OLED display, giving you a clear, focused direction to your workflow. Coupled with the mixer, it makes creating fresh sounds super easy and, most importantly, fun!

Select from a full range of analogue-style filters, from the radical Korg MS-20 low-pass/high-pass filter to the powerful yet smooth KORG Polysix low-pass filter that gives your sound a vintage feel. There are also two or four-pole low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, and band-reject filters with resonance.

There's even a built-in spectrum analyser and oscilloscope that gives you visual feedback via the screen on the music you're making.

Six in One Synthesis

The core of Opsix mk II is nothing short of exponential. Since waveforms can be arranged and modulated in nearly infinite ways, Opsix mk II can easily do the sonic work that is similar to numerous types of synthesis:

Subtractive

Removing parts of the sound to get the sound you want; the most widely-used synthesis. Opsix mk II uses up to six envelopes and multi-modelled filters to achieve many cutting-edge and classical analogue synthesis tones.

Semi-Modular

Rerouting signal paths to change the sound. A spin through the Algorithm section will dramatically reshape the sound by changing how the signal routing between the operators work together, and no patch cables are needed. Analog-style controls and plenty of stackable waveforms take you from digital to analogue-sounding in no time. Enjoy deep basses, crisp leads, thick pad sounds, fuzzy brass tones, and so much more.

Analogue (Modeling)

Analogue-style controls and plenty of stackable waveforms take you from digital to analogue-sounding in no time. Enjoy deep basses, crisp leads, thick pad sounds, fuzzy brass tones, and so much more.

Waveshaping

Adding intentional distortion to the waveforms to achieve aggressive overtones that are either harmonic or inharmonic. This will help you achieve gritty, bitey tones dripping with character.

Additive

Stacking waveforms and blending their harmonics is key to an expansive range of harmonious, dissonant, and tension-driven sounds. With six operators available, the complete FM experience is possible, including the ability to go back in time for classic sounds you have heard throughout recording history.

Classic FM

Last but certainly not least, Opsix's highly flexible and powerful architecture starts with true six-Operator FM. As a result, it easily delivers signature sounds you have surely heard on thousands of hits from the '80s on through today, and with far more polyphony than other standalone FM synths available today.

With all of these ways to realize and explore sounds, Opsix mk II is uniquely suited as a "future-modern-classic" synth!

Altered Reality

What started as a legacy synthesis has evolved into something completely different. Opsix mk II is FM-based, but the similarities to the classic synthesis end there. The Altered FM architecture delivers sounds across a vast spectrum, far wider than any single synthesis has been able to cover before, thanks to new sound components; new waveforms, filters, shaping, effects, LFOs, envelopes, modulations, and more, all translating to its broad assortment of sounds.

Powerful Effects Processing

Opsix mk II provides three blocks of 30 types of high-definition effects that you can use together to enhance your sounds even further. There's everything from a great mix of usable standard effects like chorus, phaser, delay, and compressor to some world-class shimmering reverbs that will elevate your sound to the next level.

Specifications

Keyboard: 37 keys (velocity and release-velocity sensitive)
Sound generating system: Altered FM sound generator
Maximum Polyphony: 64 voices (varies depending on the setting)
Structure: 6 operators, 1 filter, 3 EGs, 3 LFOs, 3 effects, step sequencer, arpeggiator
Algorithm: 40 presets + user algorithm (unique to each program)
Operator: 6 modes (FM, Ring Mod., Filter, Filter FM, Wave Folder, Effect)
Oscillator waveform: 23 waveforms (Sine, Sine 12bit, Sine 8bit, Triangle, Saw, Saw HD, Square, Square HD, Additive Saw3, Additive Sqr3, Additive Tri3, Additive 12345, Additive 1+2, Additive 1+3, Additive 1+4, Additive 1+5, Additive 1+6, Additive 1+7, Additive 1+8, Noise S/H, Noise White, Noise Pink, Noise Blue)
Filter: 11 types (LPF 12, LPF 24, LPF MS-20, LPF POLY6, HPF 12, HPF 24, HPF MS-20, BPF 6, BPF 12, BRF 6, BRF 12)
EG: ADSR
LFO: 23 waveforms (Triangle, Saw Down, Saw Up, Square, Sine, Sample&Hold, Guitar, Exp. Triangle, Exp. Saw Down, Exp. Saw Up, Step4 Triangle, Step6 Triangle, Step4 Saw Down, Step6 Saw Down, StepRnd:Time, StepRnd:Lvl&Time, StepRnd:Level, Random:Time, Random:Lvl&Time, Triangle + , Saw Down + , Saw Up + , Square +)
V.Patch: 12 routings
Effect: 30 types (Chorus, Unison Ensemble, Phaser, Phaser (BPM) , Auto Pan, Auto Pan (BPM), Flanger, Flanger (BPM) , Rotary Speaker, Auto Wah, Exciter, Enhancer, LFO Filter, 3-Band EQ, Distortion, Guitar Amp, Decimator, Grain Shifter, Master Limiter, Compressor, Delay, Delay (BPM) , Autopan Dly, Autopan Dly (BPM), Tape Echo, Tape Echo (BPM) , Early Reflection, Reverb, Shimmer Reverb, Spring Reverb)
Sequencer: Step Sequencer (up to 16 steps, up to 6 notes per step), Motion Sequencer (up to 6 lanes)
Arpeggiator: 7 patterns (MANUAL, UP, DOWN, ALT1, ALT2, RANDOM, TRIGGER)
Number of programs: 500 (350 preset programs and 150 user programs as the factory-set default)
Favourite: 64 (16 Slots × 4 Banks)
Controllers: MODULATION wheel, PITCH wheel, RATIO OP 1-6 knobs, LEVEL OP 1-6 sliders, DATA ENTRY A-F knobs
Inputs/outputs: Headphone (6.3 mm stereo phone jack), OUTPUT L/MONO and R (impedance-balanced 6.3 mm TRS phone jacks), DAMPER (6.3 mm phone jack, half-damper not supported), MIDI IN and OUT connectors, USB B port
Power supply: AC adapter (DC12V)
Power consumption: 5 W
Dimensions (W × D × H): 565 × 338 × 90 mm / 22.24" × 13.31" × 3.54"
Weight: 2.9 kg / 6.93 lbs.
Included items: AC adapter
Accessories (sold separately): DS-1H damper pedal, PS-1 pedal switch, PS-3 pedal switch