“You'll come for the hands-on tweaking but stay for the sound”: Modal Electronics Carbon8X review

What is it?

Modal Electronics has had a turbulent few years, running into financial difficulties in 2023 and consequently undergoing a fairly lengthy restructuring process. This delayed the release of the synth on test here, Carbon8X, first previewed at Superbooth in 2023 and now finally available in 37-, 61-key and module versions.

The company's range of synths has been varied to say the least, from high-end and very well-regarded synths like the 001 to the (much) more budget-friendly Skulpt and Craft Synth. In fact, all the synths have been pretty well received, so it was disappointing to see the company – a UK one at that – in trouble.

However, Modal appears to now be on less choppy waters (under the banner of Hong Kong-based WT Technology Development), and with a more streamlined set of products, which should help make the company's synth proposition much clearer and more attractive.

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Argon8 is Modal's 8-voice wavetable synth, packing a lot of the company's 00 synth into a much cheaper unit, while Cobalt8 is the company's more virtual analogue offering.

Carbon8 boasts double the power of these (although the same eight voices of polyphony) and can, in some ways, be seen as a 'best of' Modal synth, packing a lot of sonic punch and clout into a very solid synth proposition.

Performance

One thing you can't ignore is Carbon8X's build quality. This thing feels like it's built to last, with a steel and aluminium body, and could take on any gigging/transport situation… should you have the muscles to carry it. It's not light, put it that way, and if you have to lug a keyboard around, this might be off-putting, but at least you can be sure it's not going to get easily damaged should you manage to venture out with it.

The screen, at less than 4cm wide, is a bit small, but functional, and displays many features, like the envelopes and filters, with graphics not unlike a 1970s amusement arcade, but it certainly does enough without adding too much in the way of frills.

Probably the most important buttons are on either side of it, used for stepping through presets – which we'll cover later – or adjusting any parameter you like. Here you can access the 58 cores for both oscillators, which gives you an idea of how Carbon8X sounds on a ground level.

There are 38 wavetables and 18 algorithms, which give this synth a lot more sonic flexibility than others in its price range. Extra parameters here include a Contour dial to change the timbre of the selected Core, plus the Xmod/XCore. This controls the amount and type of extra cross modulation for oscillator 2, either with Osc 1 as the source or a so-called 'hidden' oscillator.

You can adjust six oscillator modifiers like phase distortion, wave shaping, ring or amplitude modulation – great for extra real-time control and well worth exploring as a sound design option in their own right. It's very easy, for example, to completely rebuild a preset from scratch and create your own right here, and that's before taking advantage of other modulation features.

These are pretty good too, with three LFOs (one with direct controls, two switchable), each with 16 shapes, and three envelopes for Amp, Mod and Filter. You get 12 sources and 55 destinations, but only eight slots to set up, which could be seen as a bit tight, but we'll assume these can be added to with a software update.

Setting these up is easy with the left-hand screen button, although with all selections, you are only given a few seconds to make your changes before the synth reverts back to its previous setting. Not really a problem, just something you might need to get used to.

A Shift option accesses a second layer of parameters on most buttons, and a couple of other nice touches include a joystick which can be (and has been) assigned to popular parameters to adjust in real time (think filter frequency, modulation depth and so on), and a Vintage dial to introduce gnarl and tuning issues just like an old analogue, which this clearly isn't.

Sounds

That said, some of the sounds are surprisingly lush and 'vintage', with lots taking advantage of the up-to-32-step arpeggiator for some full-on, classic synth movement, and even more can be created by way of a 512-note sequencer. Both steal the LEDs from other parameters to show you 16 steps of whatever mode you're in.

Meanwhile, the filter section adds the most diversity, featuring 34 filter types – analogue, digital and hybrid – and large Filter and Resonance dials to make the most of them. Here you get typical HP/LP/BP options plus a huge range of static, ladder, and dual 2-pole filters with continuous morphing.

It's really simple to get a feel of these in action with the screen pulling its weight and enabling you to see the different filter shapes and home in on the resonating frequencies for extra bite, not to mention the Warp dial, which allows you to add extra grit and drive.

A small niggle again comes down to the screen workflow where, as you step through filter types and adjust their frequency, you then have to go back to selecting filter type to keep auditioning – essentially the screen doesn't always seem to return to (or stay at) the parameter you hoped. Again, it's not a deal breaker, just a workflow step or two that you'll need to get used to.

While Carbon8X is clearly a digital synth at heart, it doesn't come with too much in the way of sonic harshness that (if you were our age) you might associate with the medium. In fact, it's right up there with one of our current favourites, Arturia's MiniFreak, in terms of sheer variety of sounds, with impressively programmed presets that you can easily and cheekily make your own, and plenty of hands-on action to call up should you wish.

You'll be tempted by that joystick, for example, and wonder why your favourite keyboard doesn't come with one as standard – Carbon8X makes it such a natural tweaking process. And use it you will to turn some already superb sounds into more dynamic and evolving textures. These are here aplenty, along with other pads, sequences, evolving and pretty nondescript atmospheres, and imaginative key, pluck and bell sounds.

We should also finally mention the three effects engines, each with 26 options to choose from, which add even more to your already bristling list of design options.

Verdict

Carbon8X has some features and workflow niggles, small ones if we're honest, and which might be sorted with system updates. But really, its sound blows these away and we were surprised by how much we were drawn in by what's here sonically, and what you can do with it.

The synth certainly wears its digital credentials proudly and has a character of its own which can really be appreciated by stepping through those presets – few synths boast quite as good a set of sonic adverts as this, and if you do nothing else, audition these sounds in your local dealer if you can.

This character is its clear raison d'etre and big draw, and a necessary one as hardware synths have really got to work for their lodgings in your studio over your plugins. However, it's joining a fairly crowded line-up of digital hardware synths – think Korg and that Arturia (see our alternatives for more) – which all offer a great deal of sonic mayhem for similar or less cash.

However, Carbon8X is pretty unique, even compared to some of the more unruly and 'trying to be out there' contenders, all within a (very solid) package. Of the three Carbon8Xs on offer, we'd probably opt for one of the keyboard versions over the module, simply for the extra controls that make using them much more intuitive, and for not much extra cash, but whatever you opt for, you'll wrestle some fantastic new textures out of it and create some inspiring and cutting-edge sounds.

Alternatives

Arturia MiniFreak: £499 at arturia.com

Very rare that we don't mention this as a synth alternative – one of the most flexible and easy digital synths out there, although the software version is almost too good. 

Read the full Arturia MiniFreak review

Korg multi/poly: £699 at korg.co.uk

Touted more as an analogue modeller, this does feature digital wavetables and waveshaper oscillators so is a flexible hybrid style synth.

Read more about Korg multi/poly

ASM Hydrasynth: £1,068 at ashunsoundmachines.com

8-voice digital synth with Wave Morphing synthesis, a powerful engine, modulation and effects. The cut-down version is more of a bargain offering much of the original for half the price. 

Read the full ASM Hydrasynth review

Specifications