The first batch is sold out.
Orders placed before May 3rd will ship in early June. Pre-orders for the next batch are open now.
Next batch timing will be confirmed in the coming days. We'll email you with the shipping date once it's set, and if the timing doesn't work for you, you can cancel for a full refund.
Etches is a layered soundscape synthesizer. It's a palette for playing with sound, sketching melodic sections and building evolving tapestries. It moves between cinematic washes, percussive pizzicatos, and atmospheres worn smooth through ambient processing.
Inspired by live modular techniques, Etches is built upon classic synthesis and tape music traditions. Etches’s main engine includes a complex oscillator, a splice recorder and built in space processing.
We designed Etches to be performed. Every control is on the surface, and every gesture is audible the moment you make it. There are no traditional envelopes or filters here. You shape the timbre as you play.
Pick a root note and choose from twelve scales and modes and the pads stay locked to that key while you move. It's hard to play a wrong note, which means you can focus on phrasing instead of finger positions.
At the center is a monophonic voice generator and a splice recorder with overdub, so you can layer sounds into something bigger than individual patches. An internal LFO moves against each splice, modulating where the recording starts and ends. It's a behavior we first used in our LAPS and JOTS pedals. Around all of that: a tape-style delay, and a stereo space processor you can get lost in.
Etches Features:
• Four articulation pads that control contour, timbre-shaping and animation
• Musical overdrive with soft clipping
• 80-second multi-splice recorder for capturing ideas and layering sounds
• Stereo space processor with tape-style delay and a pristine reverb.
• Stereo output
• Runs on a standard Boss-style 9V power supply
See the Etches user manual for in depth details, sound design tips and more:
Download the Etches User Manual
Built in the open.
Etches is two PCBs joined by standoffs. We like it this way. The instrument is the object, and skipping the enclosure keeps it affordable too.
Handle with care.
Beautiful but also fragile, Etches is fine sitting on a desk, but if you're taking it to a gig or a friend's place, put it in something padded. A small keyboard case like this one works well (min 14"L x 8"W x 3"H / 36 × 21 × 8 cm)
What you'll need.
A couple of things aren't included. Etches runs on a standard Boss-style 9V power supply (center-negative), sold separately. The output is a single 1/8" (3.5mm) stereo jack, so you'll need a Y-splitter or a TRS-to-dual-TS cable to run it into a mixer, interface, or amp.
All audio demos below were performed and recorded live with only Etches processing. Demos by Taylor Deupree, Arovane and Micah Frank
