The detail that caught me off guard: this single console carries five different synthesizer engines. Inside it there is a wavetable voice, an emulation inspired by the C64 SID, a Casio CZ-101 style voice, four-operator FM, and an analog-style synthesis built on three oscillators. The maker even mentions plenty more features beyond the listed ones, which is a bold claim for one box.
As a physical object, it is a console in a black enclosure sitting on a desk alongside other studio gear. The control surface mixes big green push buttons with smaller white, yellow and red ones, plus miniature metal toggle switches and rotary potentiometers. Handwritten white labels mark everything from FILTER, LFO and MIX through to ARR, MUTE, TR1, PLAY, STOP and CONFIG, and the small monochrome OLED serves up BPM values, step sequencer grids, parameter graphs and oscillator waveforms.
The demonstration runs through a sequenced beat with percussion and chords, drone tones, resonant filter sweeps, waveform modulations and high-pitched frequency adjustments, with the demonstrator working the buttons, switches and pots to shape both sound generation and signal processing.
One open point: no units have found buyers yet, according to the maker. Anyone curious can try the device at the maker's stand at Synthfest UK on 24 October, and the maker hopes a YouTuber might test it. An XL version doing something similar to running an actual SID is also mentioned, though not at the same price. The maker hails from Belgium, self-described as hidden in deep forests, and I find that the whole project has a wonderfully clandestine feel to it.