Sknote Realthing analog synth thingamabob...

This is a cool idea, but I’m not too sure about the execution. The Italian company Sknote is apparently thinking about making a hybrid VSTi/analog synth. (Whack the “software” button when you get to their frame-a-thon of a site. Didn’t they get the memo about frames back in, like, ’97?)

Anyways, Realthing is (or rather “will be” assuming it gets out of its vaporous state) a 1U analog monosynth of the 2 OSC variety, which, if I’m reading this right, is entirely controlled via a VSTi interface. This is a most excellent idea, but if I’m parsing things out correctly, I don’t believe the audio appears in the DAW via the VSTi itself. Rather, you have to pipe it in the old-fashioned way. The VSTi is just a mechanism for sending it MIDI CC messages, I believe, and is thus just front panel with delusions of grandeur.

I think a 1U rackmount analog synth with just a USB 2.0 interface on the back which could be addressed via a VSTi, or maybe use the filters as an insert effect, would be a much cooler (albeit more complicated) device. If anyone has the skinny on this, I’d be more than happy to be utterly wrong in my detective work. All that aside, I kind of want to hold it and pet it and put it in a rack and call it “George” anyways. (Or “Giorgio,” as the case may be.)