Having twice turned heads and opened ears thanks to show-stealing showcases at SUPERBOOTH25, May 8-10, FEZ-Berlin, Germany and Machina Bristronica 2025, September 27-28, Bristol, UK, Morphor marks upcoming availability of its eagerly-awaited ECHON 6 — being billed as the world’s first polyphonic synthesizer based around BBD (Bucket-Brigade Delay) resonators, building upon the Belgium-based collective of artists, engineers, and musicians with a passion for creative sound experience and radical acoustic ideas’ illustrious Eurorack expertise in that area as its inaugural standalone (rack-mountable) desktop design — by announcing the opening of pre-orders as of October 23…
As an ANALOGUE POLYPHONIC MULTI-TIMBRAL BBD SYNTHESIZER — helpfully highlighted by the on point wording worked tastefully into its fitting front panel design’s execution, ECHON 6 brings the principals of modal synthesis into the analogue domain. Far from reimagining a digital concept with modern analogue circuitry, it readily redefines how resonance and excitation can interact. And as the world’s first polyphonic synthesizer based around BBD resonators, no less, each of its six voices features a discrete BBD RESONATOR that tracks the keyboard, producing organic overtones and complex harmonic depth. Duly allowing its users to excite those resonators in creative ways, ECHON 6 can generate anything from plucked and bowed strings over leads and basses to big pads and evolving soundscapes. Combining comprehensive multi-timbral capabilities, a 9 x 32 modulation matrix, a full analogue signal path, and a one-knob-per-function approach, ECHON 6 ultimately unites experimental sound design with classic polyphony. Indeed, its architecture invites exploration at every stage of that analogue signal path.
Put it this way: with physical instruments, much of a sound’s identity is born from a resonance chamber — as evidenced by the likes of a drum, guitar, violin, or flute, for example. But by offering complete control over this resonance space, ECHON 6 enables the shaping of acoustic behaviours that go far beyond the limits of the physical world. However, how that space is excited is equally crucial. Clearly, playing technique defines a physical instrument; it is only fitting, therefore, that ECHON 6 responds to a rich and expressive input system feeding its resonators.
Rather than a closed ‘black-box’ exciter, Morphor has drawn from familiar synthesis methods to create an EXCITER section that is deep yet transparent, allowing users to understand and sculpt every nuance of excitation. ECHON 6’s EXCITER section combines fully analogue VCO (Voltage-Controlled Oscillator) waveforms — with or without external audio — and noise sources — from continuous analogue white NOISE to S&H (Sample-and-Hold) — shaped by a loop-able ATTACK, DECAY, SUSTAIN, and RELEASE envelope with adjustable ONSET DELAY. All allow for anything from sharp, percussive transients to slowly emerging harmonic swells. Saying that, then, the nature of the morphing sound controls and the wide range of quantised noise enable complex timbral sculpting — even before sound hits any filters.
Each EXCITER output is fed into its own BBD RESONATOR, each of which consists of a pitched delay-feedback network with analogue low-pass filters in both INPUT FILTER and FEEDBACK FILTER paths, enabling dynamic control over tone, texture, and decay. Fine FEEDBACK control, INVERT (polarity), PANNING, and DRY / WET mix make every voice into a living acoustic space within the stereo field.
Furthermore, ECHON 6 embraces the creative power of modulation rooted in modular synthesis, bolstered by an intuitive patching and storage workflow. With that in mind, the 9 x 32 modulation matrix links the ENVELOPE, QUAD LFO (Low-Frequency Oscillator), MODWHEEL, VELOCITY, polyphonic AFTERTOUCH, and KEY FOLLOW to almost any destination parameter, while global modulation attenuverters offer precise control over depth and polarity.
For more information, visit morphor.io.
