NAMM 2022: Melbourne Instruments reveals its Nina synth, which comes with motorised encoders

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NAMM 2022: Nina’s motorised knobs were the talk of synth town in the run-up to the NAMM Show, and now we’ve had the chance to see them in action and find out a little more about the hardware they adorn.

Coming from Melbourne Instruments - a company based in the Australian city of the same name - Nina is a 12-voice analogue polysynth that features variable shape triangle oscillators. This means that you can continuously morph between triangle and sawtooth waves to create new sounds.

Other features include a 4-pole transistor ladder filter with modulatable resonance, voice-level filter overdrive, digital wavetable oscillators and sampling capability. There’s also a modulation matrix, digital effects and multitimbrality.

Really, though it’s those encoders that are the big story, as they enable a recallable and automatable control panel. In a bid to reassure potential customers about their longevity, Melbourne Instruments refers to them as “zero-wear”, adding that they offer the feel and precision of analogue pots.

Nina will be coming to Kickstarter soon. You can sign up to be notified when that is on the Melbourne Instruments website.