They dont even need to be good players, just show us some sounds! 
Okay, be honest, if this thing didn’t have motorized knobs, would you give it a second glance based on what you’ve heard so far?
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100% no.
I liked the sound on the Tonelab snips way back before i knew it had motors on the controls. The motors themselves don’t matter to me, but the morph function like on the PolyBrute i like.
There is a great mix with the three different oscillators with this.
It sounds good to ne.
12 voice analog polysynth with Moog ladder filters, um… yes please
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Did I hear him say it’s one analog and one digital oscillator per voice?
I’ve been dreaming of motorized knobs on a synth for years, it essentially makes a screen unnecessary even on a synth with lots of stored patches. It’s all about the price now, and reliability too I suppose. The morph feature with all the knobs twisting slowly simultaneously is awesome.
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What was described in the Sonic State video is three oscillators per voice, an analog oscillator, and FPGA oscillator, and a digital wavetable oscillator, plus a noise source, and XOR ring mod, a sub-oscillator, and a hard synch of the analog and FPGA oscillator.
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Albeit a bit different, the Korg Prologue has 2 analog VCOs and a digital oscillator per voice (which can be a bunch of different synthesis types).
Sorry I meant I’ve been dreaming of a synth w/ fully motorized knobs. Anyway with regards to the sound design tools, one analog osc+fpga+analog filter has got to be basically indistinguishable from a fully analog signal path for most ears. hope not having 2 vcos per voice shaves some $$ off the price.
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It will be interesting to see what form the user modifiable software portion will take. It could be relatively contained as on the Korg 'logues, or perhaps it’s something more open, perhaps even to open source, on that portion of the system.
( I strongly doubt things like the FPGA code will be open. )
ADDED : Their web-site says open source control, on a Raspberry Pi 4.
ADDED :
Still looking for more detail on the sampling ( do they mean to wavetable or something else ?? ), and more detail on the multitimbral capabilities. Also more information on the sequencer shown in the image.
I’m LOVING this thing so far.
I like the look, the features, what little sounds I’ve heard.
Hoping it does sound good and the price is right.
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Ignoring the knobs, synthesis feature wise this looks quite a bit like a korg prologue. 2x vco, 1x digital, low pass vcf, 1x lfo, 2x eg.
Sounds nice
I was at NAMM this morning and spoke with a rep. for NINA. I shared with him the concern about the longevity of the motorized knobs. He showed me one of the knobs encased in a plexiglass box. When used in drones, the motors rotate at thousands of times per second, and on the synth, only a couple hundred. I am no engineer, but the knob/motor assembly seemed pretty elegant and integrated. No extra belts or points of friction.
Also, the rep. made an issue of pointing out how (he hoped) the software/functions were going to be a community effort, with all kinds of new functions popping up in the future.
I asked about the row of 16 buttons, and he said the software/hardware supports a 16 step sequencer. I suggested to him that it might get bumped up to at least 64 steps in the future.
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Thank you aMunchkinElfGraduate, for telling us all what you saw and heard.
Did you get a chance to feel to controls ? In the Sonic State video the rep from Melbourne Instruments talked about how good the rotary knobs feel. That’s why i ask.
And you’re right about the reliability of the motors. Components like that get extensively tested by the manufacturer to measure and specify a mean time before failure ( MTBF ) and to measure the amount of use they will reliably provide. The use they will get in this application is considerably less than what they are engineered for. So the confidence factor for a long life can be pretty high.
The next few month’s development are important and we’ll get a chance to measure their progress before they crowdfund.
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I turned the encoder that was in the plexiglass box (but I didn’t touch the encoders on the unit. It had a smooth operation, less resistance than an encoder on my Digitone, but not spinning freely, either. The rep pointed out how the sensor for the encoder/motor was 1-2 mm away from the motor. I’m no engineer, but I think this means that the transfer of information between the motor and the sensor is done through the air.
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Oh, and also, the hardware in the encoder was very integrated looking. Not a kludgy mess at all. Clean looking.
And the encoder was endless, even though, on the unit’s panel, min and max values are shown sometimes at the 4:00 and 8:00 position.
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If you watch the French video link above you will see the interviewer experience the way the knobs feel and how the resistance and even stepping changes depending on parameter options. He was pretty amazed by it.
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/ English video. I did see that and was amused how the interview bounced back and forth between languages.
Yeah, i wondered about that watching that video, if the motors was also giving feedback to the feel as well ?
There are tremendous possibilities for enhancements down the line. In the Sonic Talk video, they were wondering about the possibility of motion capture and replay. It would also be possible to sequence positions step by step and then smoothly flow between as well.
Not that you should buy expecting any of this, just that if this is a commercial success, there are possibilities for pleasant surprises.