“Deceptively simple to use and hugely varied in the tones it’s capable of”: Intellijel Atlantix review

Intellijel Atlantix: What is it?

If you’re dipping your toe in the modular waters, or looking to build a small rig, a good place to start can be with a synth voice, which will give you all the key ingredients to get started.

The benefits are clear. Not only do you get all you need to produce something musical but you get it in a neat package with lots of normalled connections, minimising patching, unless you want to.

Intellijel’s massively popular Atlantis has been heavily revised in its latest synth voice, now named Atlantix, much like their previous reincarnation of Metropolis(x). This module still has its roots in familiar Roland SH-101 territory but with much more on offer, breathing new life into an already great voice.

Intellijel Atlantix: Performance and verdict

Atlantix has two triangle core VCOs, the first of which has through -zero FM and sync, while the second has FM and sync but can run at audio rates or LFO rates. Both have an eight-octave range, as well as a fine tune knob. They both offer pulse and sawtooth wave shapes, independent levels of which can be controlled by the slider-based mixer, which also controls levels of sub and noise (switchable between white and pink), as well as two aux channels. These are normalled to the VCOs for a little extra flexibility.

A good synth voice needs a solid filter and envelope and Atlantix delivers here, with a snappy ADSR envelope that has three switchable speeds, from super snappy to slow and gentle. The envelopes are normalled to many destinations including the VCA, which has a drive section, offering both symmetrical and asymmetrical options, so it’s easy to dial in your preferred style of grit. Atlantix can get pretty growly should you so wish.

The filter is a multimode affair, with low pass, high pass and band pass and it’s a self resonant filter which sounds juicy and gorgeous.

Key to any good synth is modulation and Atlantix excels here too. There’s a lot here, from frequency modulation of varying flavours to sample & hold but the prize winner is the workflow. Two knobs are the heart of this, giving simple and fat access to the mod matrix, ranging from the VCO B’s wave shapes to sample & hold and both envelope and VCA. It’s an intuitive workflow that doesn’t get in the way of the user or music.

And that’s before you’ve even patched a cable. Kudos to Intellijel for keeping all the patch points together, where they will be easy to access but not get in the way of the controls. There are ports for everything you’ll need to integrate into your rig, with outputs colour-coded for easy navigation.

Atlantix sounds classic but has the ability to sound incredibly modern, clean and subtle to downright gnarly and heavy. The workflow is simple but belies the sophistication on offer and doesn’t disappoint users looking for a great voice for any genre of music. 

MusicRadar verdict: A do-it-all voice, in an easy to use package. It’s deceptively simple to use and hugely varied in the tones it’s capable of.

Intellijel Atlantix: Hands-on demos

Intellijel

Intellijel Atlantix & Atlx - YouTube

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mylarmelodies

Intellijel ATLANTIX: No Talking Acid Test 😋 - YouTube

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Limbic Bits

intellijel Atlantix Sound Demo (no talking) with Atlx 3 U and Sealegs - YouTube

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Intellijel Atlantix: Specifications

• KEY FEATURES: All in one synth voice, ADSR envelope, VCA with drive options, Multimode filter, Extensive mod matrix.
• CONTACT: Intellijel