Free from deep menu diving, the Ephemere is straightforward: patch a CV source to the Input, hit Record, and you have a recorded CV free for you to loop either in whole or just small sections. You can select the resolution, which ranges from four seconds at 44.1 kHz, 16-bit resolution or up to 1074 seconds (~18 minutes) at 172 Hz sampling rate. This is great for melodic lines, sequences, or random voltages to give you an extra bit of variation, especially when limiting the loop window and using the Scan knob and CV input. With the Speed control, you can also create musical divisions of up to 5x and down to 1/5 the original speed.

Ephemere also works as an audio looper, letting you grab 4s of 44.1k audio. Use the controls to dial in short loops, slow those down, speed them up, and scan through at your recording. By slowing it down, you can get nasty, aliased sounds which is handy for creating unique pads and textures. You can decrease the fidelity of the initial recording for noisier and longer samples which can be synced to a clock or synced modulation source.

On the top, there's a built in tilt EQ that will emphasize highs or lows of the first voice depending on the knob position. An easy trick is to patch Voice 2 into the Ext. In which mixes it with Voice 1 in the EQ, letting you create rich textures. There's even CV control for the control knob for a nice organic feel. While the EQ is normalized to function with only Voice 1, Voice 2 has its own discrete parameter, too: the Fold control. This introduces a bit of dirt to the voice by wavefolding the signal. Both Voices are affected differently by the Accent input, with Voice 1's Release time doubling and Voice 2's halving.

Both voices share the same bank of 11 waveforms moving from noise, through classic waveforms, bell-like, vocaloid, and everywhere in between. To mimic the acoustic properties of drums, a two stage pitch envelope is built in letting you sweep up or down in pitch with the Start and End knobs. The Rate has its own control with a minimum turning it off and the maximum giving you slow sweeps. Both voices have their own pitch sweep independently triggered, allowing you to get some truly spacey sounds.

Looking at the Maschine+'s internal software alone, you have a healthy amount of tools for sound designing and mixing any kind of material you throw at it. On top of all the amazing Maschine instruments, samples, and effects, you also have access to some of NI's amazingly renowned soft synths and effect plugins for even further sonic creation. One of the most amazing instruments inside of Maschine+ is the sampler, and with the inclusion of two line inputs and one dynamic mic input, you can sample external sources directly into Maschine+ without the immediate need for an audio interface. Of course, with the two USB host ports and the SD slot, you have room for not only expanding your audio I/O capabilities, but also project and sample storage as well as room for bringing in external MIDI gear such as keyboards and fader/knob controllers.

Performing and producing on Maschine+ is a cinch with the amount of control you're presented, including velocity and pressure sensitive RGB pads, robust and smooth knobs, as well as a flexible and multi-faceted touch strip. Maschine+ offers a multitude of ways for entering notes and parameter changes, be it per step, live recorded, or even different pad and performance modes, such as keyboard, chord, step, and many more. For further detail, the OLED screens let you see all the details of the Maschine sequencer for easy and precision editing. Easily create patterns to sequence into fully fledged tracks, and mix them on the fly in the mixing view, great for balancing levels, panning, and creating sends and returns. Group your instruments and tracks into eight easy to access groupings, represented by the buttons A through G, and if you need more, Maschine+ can always create additional groups for your personal needs.

But where M breaks new ground is in its flexibility as a powerful performance and recording instrument, including its capabilities as a four-part, multitimbral instrument. Its eight-voice polyphony may be split across the four parts in any possible combination, meaning you could devote five voices to flourishing pads, while leaving one each available for leads, basses, and textural sounds, or construct elaborate timbral counterpoint between parts. Plus, in addition to its main stereo outputs, M provides four assignable auxiliary outputs, meaning that you could easily multi-track all four parts. Add in the performance arpeggiator with a number of playback patterns, and you have a highly capable instrument drawing from the legacy of some of the most beloved wavetable synths of all time.

Fresh off of their reissue of the Prophet-5, Sequential's Take 5 encapsulates a lot of similar concepts in a package that is comparatively much more affordable. Five voices, each having two VCOs paired with the same rich filter from the Prophet-5, combined with effects, an arpeggiator, and sequencer make the Take 5 a synth that easily holds its own when compared with other two or three times its price. But features aside, it simply sounds full, lush, and really good, just as we'd hope any good analog polysynth to be.

But Take 5 has a few other tricks up its sleeve, further solidifying its status as a small but mighty synthesizer. Like Sequential's other recent instruments, the beloved Vintage knob makes another appearance here, allowing you to dial in those subtle quirks which might be found on the synths of yesteryear. And if you find yourself missing the extended range sacrificed by the Take 5's slim 44-key format, the handy Low Split feature allows the keyboard to be divided into two zones, of which the lower one may be dropped down another octave or two from the other. While it's not the same as having a 61 or 88-note keyboard, the additional range is certainly appreciated.

Compared to a lot of its peers, even within the Boutique family, the JU-06A is a rather straightforward instrument. But what it lacks in features it more than makes up for in sounding rather incredible—in fact, you usually have to go out of your way to make a Juno sound bad. All the basic sonic building blocks are here: an LFO, one DCO per voice with pulse, sawtooth, and sub-square waveforms, highpass and resonant lowpass filters, VCA, and ADSR envelope generator. But with the classic Juno synths, the chorus effect is what really brings things to life, and on the JU-06A you have the option of choosing the 60 or the 106 version of the chorus. Roland has also added a delay effect, meaning that you no longer have to rely upon external effects to give arpeggios and sequences a bit more dimension to them.

The original Juno-60 featured an arpeggiator, which was removed from the 106 in favor of MIDI control, but now with the JU-06A, you get both. In fact, there's even an onboard sequencer, meaning that the JU-06A offers nearly everything you need to craft excellent sounds and musical ideas within the synth itself. But like any Juno, it plays nicely with other instruments, too, and could be a compact addition to any studio or hardware-based performance rig. Should you find yourself craving the beloved sound of Roland's early analog polysynths, complete with the swirling chorus and all, JU-06A will certainly get you there.

Saïch features a single 1V/Oct input shared between its four oscillators, and three additional 1V/Oct inputs for oscillators II, III, and IV, respectively. Oscillators II, III, and IV also offer individual detune potentiometers, making it easily possible to dial in everything from swarm monophonic lines to seemingly independent behavior between its oscillators (given the right CV source!). The oscillators can be globally frequency modulated (with a choice of linear or exponential FM), and Oscillator I can be switched into Sub oscillator mode, with options for saw, pulse, and continuously pulse-width modulated pulse shapes.

It's important to note that Saïch has only one audio output that produces a sum of all of its oscillators. Saïch's most interesting feature, though, is the multi-function slider located at the bottom of the module. This slider can be used in a wide range of ways...but in performance, it is typically used as a "smart VCA" with seven "mix profiles." In one mix profile, for instance, all oscillators' volumes are scaled linearly with respect to the slider; however, in other modes, moving the slider results in patterns of crossfades or hard cuts between individual oscillators and/or combinations of oscillators. This means that with a single slider (and corresponding CV input) you can accomplish chordal movement, arpeggios, crossfading, or simple VCA-like behavior. Paired with the right multi-output quantizer (Harmonaig, for instance?), this becomes an easy way to create quite complex textural and harmonic movement...offering yet another clever take on polyphony in modular synths. Suddenly, that single audio output doesn't seem like a limitation at all.

Perhaps the most compelling aspect of Strega is simply is peculiarity: by presenting users with a peculiar, non-standard signal flow and a somewhat cryptic user interface, it becomes nearly impossible to rely on your own synth "habits" and creative impulses. Instead, you need to get to know Strega's own personality over time, gradually learning how controls interact with one another and how its overall nonlinearites can unfold into compelling, unpredictable gestures and textures. Strega is an instrument that rewards careful listening and subtle changes, often making you reconsider your own approaches to music altogether.

We've said it before, and we'll say it again: if you're looking for an instrument with a load of character, an instrument capable of thick drones and distant melodies, an instrument ideal for noise improvisation, or simply an instrument to help open your ears, Strega is sure to be a promising pick.