Rebel Technology launches 3 new compact modular synths on Kickstarter

Rebel Technology has announced the launch of not one, not two, but three new compact modular synths as part of a crowdfunding campaign.

The Magus is the biggest of the three and at its heart is a programmable, patchable synth. You can create your own patches within a variety of languages, or from a library with over 200 patches.

Whether you want granular, additive, FM, subtractive, spectral, chaotic or stochastic synthesis, Magus gives you the freedom to pick the right algorithm for the job.

The Magus' little brother is the Wizard. It runs the same patches and is also patchable as well as programmable. This means that you can change the signal flow on the fly and connect it to other kit. 

This compact little number sports five assignable control knobs and four buttons, and a total of six patch points. Like the Magus it has both USB MIDI device and host connections so that you can plug your favourite controller straight in - be it keyboard, drum pads, sequencer, grid, or multidimensional controller. 

At the bottom of the pile is the smallest sibling of them all, the Alchemist. With four knobs, two trigger buttons, one mode button and trigger and CV inputs it fits in your hand.

All three devices have a USB socket and can be powered by USB or by an external DC supply.

For the Kickstarter campaign, the Alchemist is priced at £90, the Wizard at £160 and the Magus at £420 (£430 for the Eurorack version). There some grouped offers too, with the Alchemist and Wizard bundled for £240 and the complete bundle (including all three synths, a t-shirt and patch cables) comes in at £620. If you want to get pledging on some of this algorithmic magic, then go check out the Kickstarter page.

Tech specs

  • 48kHz 24-bit stereo audio
  • 32-bit floating point DSP
  • Powerful ARM Cortex M4 processor
  • 8 Megabyte RAM
  • Latency down to less than 1 millisecond
  • 3.5mm stereo headphone / line level output
  • 3.5mm stereo line level input
  • 20x 12-bit bidirectional CV patch points (Magus only)
  • 128x64 OLED display (Magus)
  • Dual mono audio inputs and outputs (Magus)
  • 2x CV in and 2x CV out, 12-bit (Wizard)
  • 1x trigger input, 1x trigger output (Wizard)
  • 1x trigger input, 1x CV input (Alchemist)
  • USB MIDI Host interface (Magus and Wizard)
  • USB MIDI Device interface
  • 16x RGB LEDs (Magus)
  • 1x RGB LED (Wizard and Alchemist)
  • DC Power Jack, 2.1mm centre positive
Simon Arblaster
Video Producer & Reviews Editor

I take care of the reviews on MusicRadar and Future Music magazine, though can sometimes be spotted in front of a camera talking little sense in the presence of real musicians. For the past 30 years, I have been unable to decide on which instrument to master, so haven't bothered. Currently, a lover of all things high-gain in the guitar stakes and never one to resist churning out sub-standard funky breaks, the likes of which you'll never hear.