PWM Mantis Duophonic Hybrid Synthesizer

£1,249.00

Co-developed the late, great Chris Huggett, and finalised by PWM's own Paul Whittington, the Mantis takes cues from two of Huggett's great creations; The EDP Wasp & Oxford's long-fetishised OSCar synthesizer. 

  • Hybrid-Analogue Synthesiser, powerful digital oscillators with dual analogue filters
  • With Mathematically Generated Oscillators with a Pure Analogue Signal Path
  • A Modernised Design Architecture based on the WASP with an OSCar style filter designed by the late, great Chris Huggett
  • Duophonic - Two Fully Independent Voices each with 2 Oscillators plus Sub-Oscillator per voice
  • Dual Filters - Multi-Mode State Variable VCF's with Overdrive per voice that can be combined in Series or Parallel with Width Control
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A Unique Duophonic Hybrid-Analogue Synthesiser with Dual Filter, Patches and full USBC-MIDI Control

Mantis is a unique, duophonic hybrid synthesizer that was co-developed by the late Chris Huggett (of EDP Wasp, OScar & more fame) and is dubbed as a spiritual successor to the OSCar, sporting precision digital oscillators, dual state variable filters and more.

Mantis is a premium synthesizer, sporting a high quality 37-note velocity and pressure sensitive keybed, SSI2164 IC's for the VCF's and VCA's, custom high performance processors for the oscillators coupled with a pristine analogue signal path, which features a twice amplified gain structure for maximum clipping capabilities plus lush stereo digital FX.

The modulation capabilities are vast with:

  • Two unique ADSR's that feature "sustain fall" that allows you to create a drop before release...even while a key is held for greater sound design possibilities. The envelopes can also be set to cycle.
  • Two tempo-syncable LFO's with four waves, fade in and fade out parameters and a seriously wide operating range.
  • Ring modulation available at the mixer
  • And a unique modulation routing controller with 6 choices of modulation parameters, 6 choices of modulation sources and scale control, which used to scale the effect of the modulation.

OSCILLATORS:
The OSCs are generated at boot-up using complex mathematics. They run on a DSP chip that gives ultimate stability and control without compromising the unique sound. This is what makes the synth a hybrid but don’t be fooled - everything after that through the mixer, gain staging and the filter is analogue.

VCF:
The Filter is a multi-mode state variable VCA Filter with overdrive. It is built using the SSI2164 chip in special configuration designed by Chris Huggett. There are two filters - one for each analogue signal path. They can be combined in series or parallel and used with the width control and width modulation to create that distinctive sound only heard on the OSCar.

FX:
The Mantis has two simple digital effects: Reverb and Chorus. Reverb has a time and level adjustment but also a high and low pass filter that can be switched in to limit unwanted lower mud and/or higher bouncy twinkles (!)

ENVELOPES:
Mantis has 2 ADSR envelopes but each has an additional ‘Sustain Fall’ parameter and negative and positive velocity modulation level hardwired for convenience. ‘Sustain Fall’ allows you to create a drop before release even while a key is held for greater sound design possibilities. Each envelope can also be put into repeat mode to act as a pseudo LFO if you wish.

VCA:
The gain staging on Mantis is, of course, all analogue and is run through the SSI2164 VCAs - we have a few of them in the design! The signal is actually twice amplified to ensure the overdriven sound is warm and clips naturally.

Key Features 

  • Duophonic with 2 discrete analogue signal paths
  • 2 Oscillators + sub oscillator per voice
- 2 Envelopes with sustain fall and envelope repeat 
- 2 LFOs with 4 waveform types and sync 
- 2 Multi-mode filters with drive, keytrack and frequency modulation
- Dual filter mode with width and modulation
  • 37 note full sized keybed with aftertouch
- Multi-function joystick and octave shift
  • Arpeggiator with 6 modes, tap tempo, swing and sync & unique duophonic arp mode 
- Reverb with low & high pass filtering and 4 chorus modes
  • Mixer with Noise and Ring Modulation

200 Patches

  • All patches in RAM so can be overwritten
  • Bank A: 100 Factory presets
  • Bank B: 100 User presets (all set to initial patch)
  • Compare function
  • Initialise patch function

Duophonic with 2 analogue signal paths

  • Mathematically generated oscillators designed by Chris Huggett
  • Analogue signal path designed by Chris Huggett

2 Oscillators plus sub-oscillator per voice

  • Sine / Triangle / Saw / Pulse plus additional wave types
  • Shape control and shape modulation input
    Will create pulse width modulation on the pulse waveform with perfect square at the centre
  • Pitch modulation control
  • Octave selects per oscillator
  • OSC 1 SUB follows oscillator 1 parameters

Oscillator Drift

  • Creates random pitch variations between oscillators

Multi-mode state variable VCA filters with overdrive

  • 2 Analogue filters - 1 per signal path
  • Low Pass / Band Pass / High Pass in 12dB and 24dB configurations
  • Additional WBAND (series) and WSTOP (parallel) types
  • Filter Cutoff
  • Filter Cutoff Modulation
  • Filter Resonance
  • Filter Width
  • Filter Width Modulation
  • Filter Keytrack

LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator)

  • 2 LFOs
  • 4 waveshapes per oscillator
  • Fade In / Fade Out parameter
  • SYNCable
  • Rate control

Envelopes

  • 2 Independent envelopes
  • ENV 1 normalised to amplitude
  • ADSR
  • + Sustain Fall parameter for shaping during key-down
  • + Repeat which can be used to create looping envelopes
  • Velocity positive and negative control

Ring modulation

Mixer

  • First mix: OSC1 and OSC2
  • Second mix: OSCillators and noise
  • Third mix: OSCillators + noise and Ring modulator

VCA (Voltage Controlled Amplifier)

  • All amplification is done in the analogue domain in multi-stage VCAs

Modulation Routes

  • Control - 6 choices of modulation parameters
  • Source - 6 choices of effectors from envelopes and LFOs
  • Scale - choices of controls used to scale the effect of the modulation

Glide

  • Glide amount
  • Auto-glide mode

Indicator LEDs

  • Two LEDs for Voice
  • LED for Keyboard activity

Master tune

Master volume

Triggering

  •  ENV 1 Legato
  •  ENV 2 Legato
  •  LFO Keytrig
  •  LFO Keytrig

CONNECTIONS

  • Master power switch
  • DC 9V input
  • USBC
  • MIDI IN / OUT / THRU
  • Sustain pedal input (switch)
  • Pedal input (continuous)
  • Stereo 1/4” line Outs: L/Mono and R
  • Stereo 1/4” headphone out

Multi-function Joystick control

  • Left / right for pitch bend
  • Performable vibrato
  • Latching hold mode

Arpeggiator

  • 6 arpeggiator types
    Up, Down, Up/Down 1, Up/Down 2, Played & Random
  • Sync rates control from 2nds to 32nds
  • Tap tempo button
  • Swing including positive and negative swing
  • Auto clock sync
    Detects MIDI or USB-MIDI clock and synchronises the arpeggiator automatically
  • Latch via joystick HOLD
  • 6 Octave range

Dedicated tempo control

Duophonic mode control

  • Duo mode
  • Duo mode with simple filter
  • Pan control for duophonic voicing

Digital Effects

  • Reverb time
  • Reverb level
  • Reverb High Pass Filter
  • Reverb Low Pass Filter
  • Chorus level
  • Chorus type

Keyboard Control

  • 37 Full-size semi-weighted velocity-sensitive keys
  • Channel aftertouch
  • Octave shift

Weights and Dimensions (product unboxed)

  • 620 x 320 x 110 mm
  • 5.3 kg

Includes:

  • Power Supply (9V 600mA)
  • USB C lead
  • Getting Started Guide

 
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Product:

PWM Mantis Duophonic Hybrid Synthesizer

£1,249.00