Last Updated on May 3, 2018 by Gareth Patch
The ‘teaser’, borrowed from Hollywood but now de rigueur for most marketing campaigns, has counted down on IK Multimedia’s website for the last week, slowly revealing a schematic/pattern of a new piece of hardware. Finally confirmed, the latest product from the Italian developers is indeed a new monophonic analogue synth that appears to head for familiar territory, until you delve deeper.
The UNO synth has been designed as multi-use, meaning its form-factor is small enough to be portable but its sound is big enough to be serious. It has an all-analog audio path, with 2 VCOs, a noise generator and resonant multimode VCF and VCA. The 2 VCOs are independent and can generate Saw, Triangle and Pulse waveforms with continuously variable shape. You can also choose from 7 LFO waveforms (Sine, Triangle, Square, Up Saw, Down Saw, Random & Sample-and-hold) that can modulate Pitch, Filter and Amp as well as VCO shapes.
Although the synth is monophonic, as the 2 VCOs are independent they can be tuned to different intervals or octaves to create pad-like sounds.
The unit itself has a 27-note, multi-touch keyboard and 40 on-board controls, along with a built-in arpeggiator. It comes with 100 presets, 80 of which are rewritable and a 100-pattern sequencer that can be programmed in realtime or in step mode. It can be battery or USB powered, has audio input as well as output and MIDI In/Out with the included breakout cables, which means it can be integrated into a hardware or DAW setup.
The UNO is available for pre-order now from the IK Multimedia online store and worldwide dealers with shipping scheduled for July 2018, priced at US$/EU€199.99 (excluding local taxes).
For more information and some demo audio tracks go to the IKM UNO product page or check out the video showing some of the functions and performance tools below. Frankly, we can’t wait to get our hands on one to try it out!
