Is It Retro???
The concept of Evolver is to generate new sounds that, well, evolve. Sounds that change, subtly or dramatically. Look back at the Prophet-VS and Korg Wavestation as previous examples of instruments that are never static. Analog still has a warmer, more natural sound, partially because it is never perfect; it has that natural slop. Yes, there are some very cool digital synths out there also; even some that mathematically emulate analog synths have a nice edge to them.
So, Evolver has the analog components, and also some digital components. it generates new sounds via the interaction of analog and digital electronics. Best of both worlds. There is also extensive use of tunable feedback in Evolver, interconnecting the digital feedback loops with the analog electronics.
In fact, the product name came from playing with the synth, due to the organic nature of the synth. Organic did not fit the synth as a name, so the name Evolver popped up.
Specifications
- Evolver is a monophonic (one voice) synthesizer.
- Four oscillators in total: two analog, two digital
- Analog Oscillator waveshape are Sawtooth, Triangle, Saw-Triangle, and Pulse (with voltage-controlled analog Pulse-Width modulation)
- Digital Oscillators select from 96 wavetables from the Prophet-VS (128 x 12 bits), and 32 user-loadable (via MIDI) Wavetables (128 x 16 bits). The Digital Oscillators get trashy as the frequency gets higher, as with the original VS.
- Hard Sync on the analog oscillators
- FM and Ring Mod on the digital oscillators
- Separate Glide per oscillator
- Real voltage-controlled analog lowpass filters - not digital recreations. 4-pole/2-pole switchable, fully resonant. There are two separate filters, one for the left channel and one for the right.
- Analog Voltage Controlled Amplifiers (VCA), again one for each channel.
- Dual digital 4-pole Highpass filters (one per channel); place before or after analog electronics.
- Stereo audio inputs; Noise generator
- Envelope Follower and Peak Detect from External Input to use as modulation sources
- External Input can be used to gate envelopes and/or step the Sequencer
- Three snappy ADSR envelopes
- Four LFOs (sync with sequencer and MIDI)
- Dual (left and right channel) tunable feedback loops; modulate frequency and amount
- Delay with 3 taps; each with separate time and amount modulation. Syncs to sequencer/MIDI. Normal feedback and additional feedback path through analog filters
- Distortion! Digital, one for each channel, can be placed before or after analog electronics
- 3 Banks of 128 Programs for 384 total Programs - dump to/from MIDI
- 16 x 4 Analog-style sequencer - syncs with MIDI
- Extensive Modulation capabilities, including audio-range modulation. Bipolar (+/-) modulation.
- Easy to program matrix-style front panel with 8 endless-turn rotary encoders
- A bunch of MIDI stuff
- The internal computer and DSP chips can be reprogrammed via MIDI, for easy bug fixes and feature additions
- Evolver is 10.75" wide, 6" deep, and 1.5" high (27 x 15 x 4 cm)
Power
- Evolver's universal power supply runs virtually anywhere; 100 - 240 V AC, 50-60 Hz.
- It also includes a number of adapter plugs to make it easy:
or just 6 payments of $91.50 a month with no interest. 
