The Modal Electronics Skulpt Synth SE did arrive yesterday, but between the day gig and a 7Souls band rehearsal last night, I had just enough time to plug it in and make sure that it beeped and booped. I had a little play with it this evening, just to get some idea of what it can get into and made a couple little sample tracks.
Tonight’s setup was a little simpler than my Craft Synth test setup, and consisted of the Skulpt being controlled by an Arturia Keystep 37 so I could use it’s arpeggiator. Both patches are quickies whipped up using the Modal App (this time on the PC) for the sound design, and I recorded them into Studio One where I normalized the volumes and exported the stems.
I did discover something peculiar, too. Apparently Windows 10 thinks that it should be about routing MIDI over USB for me. I had expected to be using the USB to power the Keystep and to power and control the Skulpt, and that I’d use a standard MIDI cable to actually play the synth. However, they both passed the MIDI data, and that gave me the impression that I was only getting half the voices I was expected. The truth was that since each note was received twice, the synth dutifully played both notes in unison. Once I figured that out and yanked the MIDI cable out, everything was golden.
Since I was just fooling around, I didn’t save the patches. I was going to save one, but my PC decided it would be a good time to “have a problem” that it just had to tell Microsoft about, and immediately reboot. That locked the Skulpt up, and I couldn’t save the preset. Damn. I rather liked that second one!
Like the Craft Synth, I’ve got a lot more to say about the Skulpt! But, I’m wanting to save something for some future videos, so stay tuned. I’m really pumped about these, and about how my little “Creation Station” is coming together.