Nektar Technology Bolt
You might know this American company as a manufacturer of MIDI keyboards and controllers, but now they make synths, too!
Based on the ‘multi sine oscillator’ synthesis technology originally developed by Professor Dr Udo Zoelzer of Hamburg’s Helmut Schmidt University, the first ever softsynth from MIDI controller builders Nektar Technology is something of a… well, bolt from the blue! You see, what makes Bolt genuinely different to anything else that’s currently out there is the architecture of its two oscillators, which use a technique the developers have described as “harmonics synthesis”.
The way this works isn’t a million miles away from additive synthesis: a series of harmonics is generated and shaped directly to effectively produce what, in an analogue synth, would be the output of the filter – ie, there is no actual filter. Unlike an additive setup, though, where the harmonics are produced by a whole bank of sine wave oscillators, Bolt does it all in just one – it’s really rather clever.
Groundbreaking synthesis technology might be music to the marketing department’s ears, but if it doesn’t actually bring anything new to the table sonically, it’s all for nought. While Bolt won’t knock your perspective on synthesis off its axis in any sense (as we said in this issue’s 9/10 review, over on page 88), its unique parameter array and intuitive one-screen interface do push it in certain directions that other synths don’t, necessarily; and it sounds fantastic – punchy and energetic. At just £89, Bolt doesn’t let price stand as a barrier to entry into its slightly weird but genuinely wonderful world, either.
Easy to use, creatively rewarding and perfectly affordable, Bolt is this year’s first surprise softsynth hit.