Crows Electromusic Goes Fully Analog with the Five-Voice OVUM Analog Sound Explorer
Built by hand in eye-catching aluminum and wood, this USB-powered synth eschews the digital world altogether.
Crows Electromusic has launched a standalone tool designed for musicians eager to experiment with analog sound synthesis: the OVUM analog sound explorer.
"OVUM is designed for exploring pure tones, drones, and microtonal sound textures," the company explains of its creation. "Five independently controlled triangle-core oscillators give you five lush voices to layer and evolve. Each voice has a separate control for volume, pitch, and tone, and can be switched between a bright square wave and a crisp triangle wave."
What makes OVUM stand out from the competition, aside from the eye-catching wood and aluminum housing in which it is built, is that it's truly 100 per cent analog: there are no digital components involved at all, no screens, and no complex user interface, just knobs and sliders. The USB Type-C input on the back is purely for power, and there's a 3.5mm jack for headphones or as a line-out to external hardware.
A wheel on the back of the unit provides a volume control, while the machine's tone and pitch are set by two rows of jobs at the top — one for each of the five voices. A switch allows each voice to be independently toggled between square and triangle waveforms, and five sliders control the mixing of each voice — which are then sent to the headphone socket as a stereo mix.
The OVUM is now available to order on the Crows Electromusic Tindie store at $129; there's no internal battery, the company notes, but it can be made portable through the use of any USB powerbank.