Kodamo has announced the MASK1EX desktop synthesiser is now available (except it’s currently sold out!)
As the little brother of the MASK1, it generates sound using its Bitmask synthesis, enhanced by digital filters and high quality stereo effects.
It also includes a variety of play modes, dynamically articulating and enlivening the notes played.
Comparing it to the MASK1, it has a slightly reduced polyphony of 10 versus 12, 8x oversampling instead of 16x, 2 channel multitimbral as opposed to five, 200 memory slots compared with 600, and of course it’s in modular form so has no keyboard.
Sadly, this was a one-off production batch, and it sold out extremely quickly. “It seems that this product was victim of its own success. We’re deeply sorry that we do not have more stock” the company wrote on the product page.
Specifications
| Synthesis type | Bitmask, Subtractive |
| Polyphony | 10 voices with optimized allocation |
| Play modes | Polyphonic, monophonic, slurred, mono portamento on legato, paraphonic, hybrid poly-mono on legato, slurred paraphonic, mono retrigger, poly retrigger |
| Multitimbrality | 1 part (2 in layered/split mode) |
| Oscillators | 20 digital bitmask oscillators (two per voice) with 8x oversampling, 512 masks each |
| Noise | 10 generators with programmable sample-and-hold frequency |
| Filter | 20 (two per voice), 12dB/oct or 24dB/oct, resonant with pitch tracking and 4 modes (low, high, band pass, notch). |
| Envelopes | 4 loopable ADSR per voice (osc1, osc2, noise, filter), 3 delta-decay (osc1 mask, osc2 mask, pitch) |
| LFO | 2 per part with 7 waveforms and noise, delay, decay and 16 destinations |
| Arpeggiator | 26 patterns with adaptive or fixed chords, latchable, retrig or pitch change modes. Arp do send note events to MIDI out. |
| Looper | Up to 10000 events, unlimited duration, single track. Records notes, pitch bend, mod wheel, aftertouch and sustain pedal. |
| Effects | Two stereo effects in series. First effect: chorus, phaser, distortion, bitcrusher, tremolo and ring mod (64 types). Second effect: delay, comb filter, reverb, room simulations and distortion (48 types) |
| Modulations | Velocity (6 destinations), modulation wheel (16 destinations), aftertouch (16 destinations), LFO1 and LFO2 (16 destinations each) |
| Split | Configurable split point, balance between voices, transpose, panning and tuning |
| Layer | Configurable balance between voices, transpose, panning and tuning |
| Misc | Voice pan spread, polyphonic portamento, keyboard envelope rate scaling |
| Memory | 377 factory presets, internal storage for 200 user voices. EEPROM-based (no battery required) |
| Audio outputs | 2 balanced 1/4″ TRS jack, pro audio level with +/-12V internal power supply, 1/4″ jack headphones |
| MIDI | 2 DIN (in, out), class-compliant USB type B, SysEx voice transmit/receive, CC-mapped voice parameters |
| Controls | 23 buttons, 2 rotary encoders |
| Display | 4-digit red display |
| Pedal input | Sustain, 1/4″ TS jack, adaptive polarity |
| Tuning | 400-470Hz. 6 temperaments including arabic tuning. |
| Size | 33 x 11 x 3cm |
| Weight | 458g |
| Power | External 12V DC adapter, AC 100-240V in |
| Panel | White, gold-plated |
