It's something I would've never dreamed of doing without much trial and error using other hardware, and this is basically all I need to use. If you're creative, you can make this do anything - and I mean in a *new* way, not a "oh this sounds like that old synth" (which is curious to me, because most old synths sound pretty boring after the modular).

To the guy below, who was asking about max polyphony: I just made up a patch here with 16 note polyphony, and it includes an ADSR filter. Can anyone beat 16? :D

However, I usually make patches that push the 98-99.9% mark, so I usually don't care about polyphony :D

you can hear my stuff at www.eggytoast.com, all made with JUST the modular, usually played "live."

This is the best value synth on the market. It's stupidly cheap for what it does. Just about any sound you can imagine is obtainable from the modular sound engine. The audio pathway is crystal clear, thanks to 18-bit a/d/a converters. You have two audio inputs, just as on the full modular, so you can use it as an effects processor as well as a synth - I have several patches that I use for mastering finished recordings. Frankly, every time I read of a review of an interesting piece of studio gear, I usually find that I can duplicate its functionality with the Micro.

The only weak point is that it doesn't have any long delays; this sucks because modulating a long (1 or 2) second delay line with the modular engine would make some wicked effects. But you could get a MIDI effects box like an Akesis Midiverb for a cheap price, feed one side of the output into it, pipe the delay back through the inputs for more processing, and take the final signal from the other output, while controlling the delay effects with the knobs on the Micro...heh heh.

It's impossible to underestimate the power of the synthesis engine. As well as infinite patchability for single sounds, with tasty filters and beefy oscillators, the sequencer modules mean that you can easily build a complete track within the thing; I've produced complete tracks from a single patch, and I would not be ashamed to play a live techno set with just the Micro and some sort of controller like a MIDI fader box.

Right now the operating system lacks a few things, like MIDI output of module data (so you can't make it drive a sampler from an internal sequencer module, say), MIDI sync of LFOs (you can reset them and so on, but you have to tune the LFO speed by hand...though you could use a sequencer module connected to a portamento module for much the same effect), or a pitch shifter, which would be handy (though you can cheat by using a ring modulator with the same signal at both inputs). But Clavia have already made 3 versions of the operating system, and a new one is due out by summer 2001. As the new Nord lead uses the same DSP and has LFO sync and a few other new things, we can expect many further refinements.

The bottom line is that anyone who makes electronic music should have one of these. Even if you were too chicken to edit your own patches, there are some 8000 patches already on the net. At the price, it's the most powerful synth on the market.

Olaf