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Red Sound Darkstar
Small British company infiltrates bourgeois analog emulation world with proletariat synth module.
by Markkus Rovito
August 17, 2000
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Summing it Up
If you've been dying to try a digital analog-emulation synth, but don't want to shell out the bucks for one of the big boys, look no further than the Red Sound Darkstar. It may not have the same degree of programmability, user control, and effects as the monster synths, but it can still fire off some impressive timbres. And its sonic flexibility should be enough to hold you until your bank account fattens enough for an upgrade. Speaking of which, the Darkstar is easily upgradable with new EPROM chips, and the vocoder kit is available now. For less than US$500, nothing else comes close.
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Red Sound Systems hails from Buckinghamshire, England, and was heretofore known as a small maker of DJ equipment, such as effects units and audio-to-MIDI sync devices. And while their main thrust continues to be DJ gear, they've done what no DJ gear company has -- by branching off into the synth market. Their new Darkstar synth module is very much a working-class analog emulation synth: It delivers the essentials, it's short on frills, and best of all, it's affordable.
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The Darkstar's front-panel layout is unconventional, but fairly easy to master.
(click for a close-up)
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What you get for $499 are eight two-oscillator voices, five multitmbral parts, two LFOs, two ADSR envelopes, a resonant filter, pulse width modulation, some interesting modulation options, external inputs, and a joystick for mixing the oscillators with ring modulation. The Darkstar does lack some staple features of other virtual analog synths, like built-in effects, a large variety of oscillator waveforms, multiple filters, or an extensive modulation matrix. Also lacking are a headphone output, sub outputs, master volume control, and LCD display, and for some reason only MIDI instruments can be fed through the audio inputs.
Still, the only other analog emulation synth out there in this price range is the Korg Electribe A (also listing at US$499). And the Electribe is really two monosynths with a sequencer, so it's not geared for the same studio use as the Darkstar. Higher up the scale sits Korg's MS2000R ($850). It contains more sound generation features and effects, but still only four voices and two mutitimbral parts for more money.
So far, you may think the Darkstar is a great bargain. But how well does it work -- and how does it sound? Let's dive inside.
Next Page: Red Sound Darkstar....
Markkus Rovito is an assistant editor for Harmony Central. He was formerly assistant editor at Keyboard.
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