Cypher 2 £159

It’s taken ten years, but the second version of FXpansion’s muscular virtual analogue synth was well worth the wait. Owners of MPEcapable (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) controllers – most pertinently, those of FXpansion’s parent company, ROLI – have the most to gain, as Cypher2 fully supports the standard. This brings a whole new dimension of live performance acrobatics via ‘5D’ pernote modulation. But that’s by no means the only reason to upgrade: everything from the oscillators to the filters to the modulation scheme has been dramatically improved, and the all-new sequencer is phenomenal.

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