SEMtex XL
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
You kids know about this thing? From Anyware Instruments of Germany, this is a 2-VCO patchable analog, in the same neck of the woods as an Oberheim SEM module (hence the name, I suppose.) It has a whole slew of MIDI->CV stuff, and doesn’t sound half bad, according to the samples on the website.
It is apparently 1200€, and I’m pretty sure I could get at least one real SEM for that, but then what do I know? Vishay pots, Neutrik & Switchcraft connectors, and there is at least one in actual existence.
UPDATE: one of the creators of this critter wrote to tell me the following: “uhm, the semtex is not a “SEM”, it is more a modular system based on a SEM plus lots of things.. like
the semtex has 2 Vcos plus 2 Subs and 3 very fast envs..
(the SEM has no subOSCs, the semtex has 2 of them)“ Apologies, but I call ’em like I see ’em. A two-vco tabletop synth with the name “semtex” is gonna be compared to a SEM module by a lot more people than me.
5 comments
Well. This SEMTEX is a must. I fall in love the first day i was able to play a bit with this "beast".
It lives! Check out www.synthesizerforum.de and check the SEMTEX
thread, IIRC you find also some samples.
Once i got more money, i'll definitely want one of those.
"A two-vco tabletop synth with the name "semtex" is gonna be compared to a SEM module by a lot more people than me."
Particularly when it has "analogue synthesizer expander module" written on the front.
Interesting mix of British and American spellings there. A bit like the TITLE tag on the Analog(ue) Industries homepage.
But yes, 1200 Euros is an Expander and an AvrX and change...
Heh. That's a holdover from the old site, where I spelled everything "Analogue." Good eye. I'll fix that someday.
Viz. the other stuff, the company is German, so I bet American English and English English look a lot alike to them, in much the same way that German, Austrian, and Swiss German look alike to us.
-CR
Did I say "Expander"? I meant "Evolver", of course. And you could get one of the latter, an AvrX *and* a x0xb0x for less than the SEMTEX (SemTex? Semtex? They're all there). But of course none of them are "as analog", I suppose. And you'd have to build two of them. And I repeat myself...
I used to have a Oberheim 4 voice, modded to death. Still, an SEM has an extremely limited range of sounds.
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