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The Metatron V  |
The Metatron V is pretty much the digital version of a home built module based analog synth. It contains a computer, 8 analog outputs, digital effects, its own mixing surface and a 4 octave keyboard.
The concept came to me when I was working in the studio playing around with VST synths. The VSTs were being played out through the main recording computer - sending that output to the main console and then routing it back in. I felt was not intuitive and it required extra CPU cycles on the main system.
There are a couple devices on the market designed to playback VST synths. These things are overpriced ($1500+) and built from interesting hardware - which I'm sure will be quite easy to fix or upgrade in 2-3 years (yeah right). Really, at the end of the day, these are just computers.
Looking around I realized I had some extra computers more then powerful enough to run a bunch of VSTs or software synths/samplers. From there, I decided I also needed a way to route the signal to the main board - oh, look! An extra rack mount mixing board. Thinking about standard synths today most of them have on-board effects. Why not add some of my older FX into this mix. Hey, I've also got compressors, distortion, a patch bay, and an extra LCD monitor.
Do you see where this is going?
So, the whole mess is turing into its own unit. A modular stand-alone digital synth system. Next step is to build a groovy, quasi-futuristic enclosure to put it in.
I'll include some pretty photos later. Right now it's just a couple empty rack boxes (like pictured above), computer parts and some raw circuits (I'm building the VU meter arrays now).
Acquired: (started in 2007)
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