Never noticed it before but that’s an Evolver at the front right.
Don’t think it’s used in this track.
Wikipedia pop fact:
According to a CIA document entitled Guidelines for Interrogation Methods the song “Somewhat Damaged” was one of 13 songs played to detainees at Guantanamo Bay, supposedly as a means of torture.[16]
For those who are interested there’s a bunch of them to be bought on Audiofanzine with reasonable prices
Recently purchased one of these (few weeks back) second-hand and it is a delightful and inspiring little box 
… I bought it to pair with an Analog Rytm MK2 for live purposes and initial exploration with it is very promising/ exciting.
I had previously paired the Rytm with a small modular case, then the Digitone but each felt more complex, less flexible and less fun than I wanted for this setup.
On the other hand, the Evolver feels like a great match for the Rytm’s basic MIDI, in that you can run a simple sequence into it (or let it sequence itself!) and then use the modulation and live tweaking to take it into interesting and unexpected places each time you play it.
Sound definitely takes some care and work to avoid over-distorting, and keep things clean in the mix, but in my opinion the filter and delay give it a lovely character that suits the Rytm’s grimy texture very well 
I’ve barely even scratched the surface with the modulation routing, sequencers and so on, so looking forward to see how I grow with it and feels like a real long-term instrument to learn and master.
I love mine and still do not ‘get’ most of what it does although I understand the principles. It’s a completely unique synth if you ask me. I treated mine to a black overlay from Styleflip and some prophet knobs.
I do keep wanting the keyboard version with all those knobs and a screen though…
Supposedly they used some track from Skinny Puppy too but they sued to have it stopped.
According to an interview with them the lawsuit was more for the purpose of publicly calling attention to it. I don’t think they thought they’d actually win the suit. $666,000 if I remember correctly.
Does anyone happen to know the magic incantation to enable to the Evolver’s sequencer to only advance when it receives a MIDI note?
If I set Trigger Sel to NnC, then the sequencer advances in time with the clock and I get a second jump and an envelope every time the MD sends a note to the Evolver.
My goal is to have the MD send a single MIDI note from one trig in the MD sequence. This note will hit the Evolver and play and advance the sequencer (either order is fine, so long as it is well defined). That way, each time the trig comes around in the MD pattern, the Evolver plays a different step from the sequencer.
Edit: A partial solution is to turn off Temp Sync in the MD. This will work as long as the driving sequencer can turn off tempo sync. It also prevents sync’d LFOs.
It is a little bit shocking to deep dive on the Evolver in 2021 and find it wanting. I wish it had more modulation slots in the matrix as well as more destinations.
Hi, I’m looking to buy a MED and reading this tread I heard about the modification of the knobs, what are the differences and how do I distinguish them?
Do you mean swapping out the actual knobs or the difference between the original models with endless rotary encoders or the later PE models with (mainly) potentiometers?
DSI used to/still sell a knob upgrade kit whereby you could swap out the original black plastic knobs For the Prophet style black and silver ones. This was quite a popular upgrade I seem to remember.
There were issues with the encoders going bad over time on the Mono and Poly Evolver keyboards. I don’t think it was entirely as a result of this but they brought out the PE (Potentiometer Edition) models and offered upgrade boards so you could upgrade your encoder model to PE spec. If my memory serves me correctly they also offered new encoder spec boards with better encoders for those who didn’t want to go down the PE route.
I bought a set of PE boards for the MEK before I even had the MEK itself! I picked up an encoder MEK sometime later with the usual issues and swapped out the boards for the PE kit. I also swapped out the knobs for Prophet type ones some time later. My PEK was a PE Model from the factory. I seem to remember I had to update the OS/Firmware on two processors as part of the upgrade rather than just the one.
I’ve never owned an Evolver Desktop but I’m pretty sure they weren’t affected by the encoder issues as they used a different type of encoder. I stand to be corrected if I’m wrong, it was all a good few years ago now.
I hope this answers your question in a round about way!
@Masterblaster, @Bunker is right, I have a desktop evolver (I wish I had the money/space for the keyboard version!). I think the only mod you can do is changing the knobs, you can’t mod it to pots like on the MEK.
I bought prophet knobs and a black skin for mine and it looks great! See a few posts up…
Yeah, that looks a gem! Nice work.
I really need to double down and learn it properly. It’s hard to concentrate on focused learning when it spits out so many weird and amazing sounds!
Got to load these patches too, heard they are fantastic
Evolutionaries_2003_rev1.pdf (2.6 MB)
I must admit I don’t use mine as much as I should. I might crank up the MEK later for a spot of noodling. If you can find the space the MEK really is a nice keyboard. Fatar action and plenty of real time tweakability. I’ve not looked for a while but they could be had for low money not that long ago. Mine are further up the page at no. 75
When I say low money it’s all relative I know but they aren’t exactly thick on the ground compared to the desktop. PEk’s are rarer still and the PER rack expanders were/are like gold dust!
Just saw there is a one of the poly evolver rack units up for sale over on modwiggler. Would be quite tempted if I hadn’t just bought a new synth.
Ooh, what are they asking for it out of interest?
1700 I think
It’s a real tempter to be able to pair it with my PEK
But back in the real world it doesn’t get used enough as it is!
But but… 8 voice Evolver. Mmmmm…
Thanks, yes it was the answer I was looking for. I should buy a desktop version in a couple of days and did’t understand which “version” I was looking…
I’m reading the definitive guide and it is very well written, thanks to those who mentioned it in the posts
Yes it’s really good.
It’s probably the first thing I would buy if I can upgrade my studio corner to a studio room. They seem to go for £1K upwards now. There’s a really nice looking one with PE upgrade on Reverb just now for £1250.
I first got really interested after watching this, Evo, OT, Rytm and one of the Digi’s I think:
