With the Modal Electronics Argon8, Modal Electronics presents an eight-voice polyphonic keyboard synthesizer with wavetable sound generation. The velocity-sensitive Fatar TP9/S keyboard with aftertouch directly conveys a good playing feel. Dark wooden side panels the brushed steel surface together with the high quality controls make a great impression. Thanks to the OLED display, all important actions are always in view, even the waveform is displayed like on an oscilloscope.
At the heart of the Modal Electronics Argon8 are the two high-resolution wavetable oscillators, which produce their sounds from 120 wavetables organized into 24 banks of five sets each. By the way, these are the same wavetables that the Modal 002 synth had. Oscillator 2 also handles classic PWM and four noise variants. For processing the wavetables, 28 wavetable processors are available at oscillator level, which can handle wavefolding, wave rectification, bitcrushing, etc., and thus represent an amazing expansion of the already existing spectrum. Superior for both tone generators are eight additional oscillator modifications covering AM, FM, ring modulation, hard sync and others. The carefully generated sound is then processed by a resonant 12dB multimode morphing filter, which can morph continuously from lowpass to bandpass to highpass.
Boredom is a thing of the past with Modal Electronics Argon8, thanks to the flexibly assignable modulation sources. In addition to the three dedicated ADSR envelopes for VCA, VCF and Mod, there are two LFOs that can be operated either BPM-synchronous or up to the audio range. An X/Y joystick not only replaces the pitch and mod wheels, but is also an independent modulation source. Whatever modulation is not fixed can be freely assigned in the modulation matrix. A total of eight slots can be occupied by eleven sources and 52 destinations.
Three powerful and independent stereo effects processors add the finishing touch to every sound. Whether delays that make you forget time and space, versatile reverbs, jet-like flangers or pleasantly wafting phaser and chorus effects can be assigned to each patch. A distortion at the end of the signal chain gives the necessary bite, if desired. For effects combination, 100 memory slots are provided.
100 patterns find their place in Modal Electronics Argon8. Each pattern can be up to 512 steps (32 bars) long and can record up to four additional parameters in the sequence in addition to the note information. Alternatively to the sequencer, a highly developed, programmable arpeggiator with 32 steps length does its job. With 300 factory presets and 200 user patches you have 500 sounds in direct access for now. With the free MODALAPP, the instrument can be easily edited via iOS, OS X, Win7 (and higher) and Android 6 (and higher). The app also gives you access to further modulation sources and allows you to easily exchange memory locations or load new sounds.