Dreadbox Nymphes review: Despite a fiddly workflow, this affordable synth’s siren song is seductive

Dreadbox is gaining a status for its distinctive urge for food for the leftfield. Its stomp containers, Hypnosis results processor and modular elements are unashamedly zany, and its newest synth is available in a field that reads: “They arrive from the springs, they arrive from groves, they arrive from the sacred rivers flowing seawards.” By no means has Homer’s Odyssey been quoted on a synth to have arrived in our studio earlier than however Nymphes, the six-voice, all-analogue desktop module isn’t like some other synth we’ve performed earlier than both.

Construction and design

The core construction of Nymphes will be simply understood by anybody acquainted with subtractive synths – with a number of caveats. Nymphes affords a minimum of two capabilities per slider, with the parameters listed throughout the underside being the primary capabilities and the secondary set accessed by way of the Shift button. It’s odd that Dreadbox labelled it this fashion, because the names of every of the synth’s modules is above. So that you’ll have to show your mind to learn from the underside up, fairly than the opposite means round.

On the left hand aspect is the oscillator part, that includes noticed, sq. and triangle waves with intermediate positions out there by way of the slider. Subsequent to that is an total degree management for the primary waveform, and a sub slider that introduces a decrease octave to thicken and fatten sounds. A separate noise generator, which can be utilized by itself, comes earlier than an LFO part into the oscillator stage.

The principle filter is a resonant low-pass design, with these two sliders joined by an envelope generator quantity controller. This part highlights probably the most Marmite design choice that Dreadbox has made inside Nymphes: the ADSR sliders throughout the underside management the filter part’s envelope, fairly than that for the amplifier. The latter requires that you simply use the Shift button to manage quantity over time. You’ll both like it or hate it however we’d fairly attain for an envelope to manage quantity form fairly than tone, so this feels much less intuitive.

LFO1’s controls mislead the precise. Its two sliders management charge (pace) and wave form, with triangle, ramp (up and down), sq. and random shapes out there. Then come the choices afforded by the Shift button. You’ll be able to both click on and maintain this to briefly entry the second lane of instructions or double click on it to stay in Shift mode for longer, leaving each arms free to regulate these secondary parameters.

Shift turns the oscillator wave dial right into a pulse width management, and supplies glide, detune, chord and envelope generator controls for the remaining sliders on this class. The higher pane of choices within the filter part supply a Roland Juno-style highpass filter, keyboard monitoring and introduction of the LFO to the filter stage.

As beforehand mentioned, Shift controls the amp envelope’s form, however manipulation of the onboard reverb is achieved by way of the Menu. The second LFO will be launched by these secondary instructions as properly, with delay and fade quantities mapped to the sliders, although implementation of this second LFO additionally requires the Menu choices.

What’s on the menu?

To date, so simple – albeit with a few eyebrow-raising design selections. Now come the elements which might be distinctive to Nymphes and which is able to maybe take probably the most getting used to.

Within the high right-hand nook is a rotary dial, labelled Preset Management – however this function does greater than choose presets. To decide on one, first you might want to press the Load button, under the rotary. Keep in mind, that is the decrease label of this button, with the higher possibility, Save, the secondary command. By urgent Load, the sunshine flashes after which, by urgent Shift, you may rotate the dial to pick out a financial institution from A-G. Then, in case you let go of Shift, you should use the identical rotary to pick out one of many seven sounds inside that financial institution.

Now you might want to watch out. To pick out a Person sound that you simply’ve made and saved beforehand, press the Load button shortly and a kind of 49 places will likely be recalled. To pick out one of many manufacturing unit presets, maintain the Load button for longer as an alternative. Received it? No? Nicely, it took us some time too. When you’ve discovered the system, it really works advantageous. But it surely received’t be dedicated to muscle-memory in a single day.

The rotary within the high proper hand nook can also be how one can entry the in depth Menu choices. Right here’s an instance: If you wish to change the reverb controls, you press Menu and rotate the dial to ‘3’, as per the reverb printed label within the backside right-hand nook. Now, the 4 controls within the envelope part – measurement, decay, filter and blend – management the reverb parameters.

To assign LFO 2, you’d press Menu, flip the dial to ‘2’ after which use the sliders to pick out locations and quantities, the place applicable. Mode ‘1’ is Play Mode, the place you get to decide on whether or not you overwrite the six-voice polysynth nature of Nymphes in favour of two flavours of Unison, Duo, Mono or Chord modes, the latter of which helps you to entry the Chord editor, which you’ll be able to introduce utilizing the slider within the ocillator part.

Spirits, sprites and sirens

If all of that sounds over-complicated, relaxation assured that Nymphes’ quirks are overcome in time and, much more importantly, are value getting previous as a result of the sound of this instrument justifies the worth of entry.

Nymphes affords a number of sonic personalities, with rasping basses, ethereal pads, spiky, wonky melodies, blunt sounds good for sequencing and a bunch of choices for digital percussion. Its sound is deep, broad and versatile however, simply as considerably, it’s not awash with flashy gimmicks attempting to impress you.

The digital reverb is brilliantly bizarre; extra like a spring reverb than anything, with a curiously bloated vibe all of its personal. We like it; it’s a singular flavour and in case you don’t prefer it, you’re probably going to modify it off and add your {hardware} or software program reverb of alternative anyway.

A full MIDI CC map of parameters will be founud within the handbook, that means you might program a management floor to drive Nymphes fully remotely in case you wished. Both means, this can be a six-voice, all-analogue polysynth for underneath £500.

Take Nymphes’ title and Homer quote with as a lot of a pinch of salt as you want however be in little doubt that in case you’re in search of a compact, self-contained {hardware} synth with a spirit of its personal, Nymphes has loads to get enthusiastic about.