Not Old, Not Borrowed, Not Blue...But New
In this day when it seems like so many are just resurrecting the past, we, at Artisan Electronic Instruments think art and technology have moved forward. And we want to bring something new into the world of synthesis. Iliad is a unique and powerful Multi-Timbral Polyphonic Analog-Hybrid Synthesizer that combines the sound design of East and West Coast ideas, blends Analog and Digital technologies, and packs a vast sound palette into an intuitive user aesthetic.
A Beast Of Raw Sonic Power
Iliad fills any harmonic space with its complex 3 Oscillator block, 8 pole Dual-Peak filter, 50+ modulation sources and its 24 bit Effects. Its analog and digital circuits churn out some serious walls of sound.
This instrument not only sings, it ROARS!
Oscillator 1 is based on an analog discrete FET circuit providing those classic Saw, Triangle, and variable pulse/PWM waveforms. Tied into it is a modulate-able 4 stage Wavefolder for awesome metallic tones. The Sub-Oscillator has its own variable PWM and mix.
Oscillator 2 is also a fully discrete analog design with Saw, PWM, and PWM with Sub-Octave. But that’s just the start. It also has a selectable 2 or 3 stage Digital Ring Modulator. The DRM combines the waveforms of all three Oscillators for some amazing tones heard nowhere else. If that were not enough, Oscillator 2 can Hard-Sync to a separately controlled digital 4th oscillator. And when not in Hard Sync, it can be Frequency Modulated by Oscillator 3 through a dedicated VCA controlling the FM depth in real-time.
Oscillator 3 is digital, why? To provide those unique sounds only found in the digital world. It still provides some clean anti-aliased standard shapes, like Sine and Saw, but adds 10 Morphing Wavetables, String tones using the Karplus-Strong physical model, and a variable color noise source.
And you can modulate just about anything! From pitch, wave-shape, and mix levels and the oscillator “special effects” of sub-shape, hard-sync frequency, FM depth, and wavetable position.
Character and More Character
The Iliad Filter is awesome in its own right. It offers a unique cascade multi-mode design. The filter runs in 2 pole Low Pass, Bandpass, and High Pass modes, as well as 4 pole versions of each. It’s the Dual-path Regeneration and 8-pole design that really give a unique character to the Bandpass modes, providing variable and modulate-able bandwidth and dual peak resonance. Since the filter can track over a wide range you can “play” these peaks and get a 5-oscillator sound!
The filter has modulation inputs for cutoff, resonance, and filter shape. And after all that, the asymmetrical soft clipping circuits can bring in some much loved “dirt”. Just crank that Overdrive knob.
Modulation Mania Until You Drop
With all this sonic power, the Artisan Iliad Synthesizer controls it all with an deep and powerful modulation matrix. There are 50+ modulation sources and 30+ destinations that are all available simultaneously.
Iliad has 4 six-stage Envelope Generators (delay, attack, hold, decay, sustain, release), with looping, linear, and expo shapes with time and sustain modulation.
3 LFOs provide variable slope waveshapes , key-sync, delay, and rate modulation.
2 external expression pedal inputs, pitchbend, velocity and modwheel add more real-time modulation control.
And then it gets wild. You can take those modulations sources and Add, Multiply, Average, Lag, Quantize, Switch, Cross-fade, Contour, and Delay them to create new modulation effects.
The Iliad modulation engine is far more extensive than any other poly synth today.
Iliad employs the Spin-FX 24 bit DSP to provide silky smooth and shimmery reverbs, chorus , Tremolo and Flanging and then extends it into the wild world by providing real time modulation over every parameter..
And then there is the mundane stuff (as if anything on Iliad is mundane), such as...
- 250 user patch storage
- 4 banks of 10 Instant Recall patches
- Arpeggiator
- Drone Mode
- 2 Sound Macro Knobs that allow simultaneous multi-parameter morphing
- Multi-Timbrality in Poly, Layered and Monophonic/Unison modes
- Individual Voice outputs
- Up 12 voices with the 5 octave keyboard
- Auto-tune
- SYSEX patch load and save