At a glance, FLEXfm certainly sounds like the hybrid groovebox that Twisted-Electrons Founder Alex Smith dreamed of — think eight-voice sound engine featuring four operators and four flexible LFOs (Low Frequency Oscillators) per voice; 16-pattern sequencer with eight voice lanes per pattern, up to 128 steps, and eight sub-steps per step; arrangement anchored around eight named song parts, each with eight pattern chain and eight key change cells; eight mono voice sample pools at 44.1 kHz — about 13 seconds each, with up to 16 slice markers; 32 GB internal storage for songs, patches, samples, recordings, snapshots, and updates; mono TS input, left/right main stereo output, phones (headphones) output, and eight mono TS individual voice outputs. On the face of it, dreamlike could already be a fitting description.
Digging deeper, each voice combines four operators — sound sources that can mix synthesis, samples, physical models, and drawn waves — with 30-plus operator engines, spanning classic synth waves, wavetables, vocal formants, and wavefolding, while the flexfm matrix decides how those four operators interact by connecting them using FM (Frequency Modulation), AM (Amplitude Modulation), or RM (Ring Modulation). Meanwhile, the (shifted) chord section handles chords, strums, arpeggiation, and voicing via various modes: 4OP MONO combines four interacting operators; POLY permits four overlapping notes; and CHORD provides voice and strummed harmonies; and SYNC links oscillators.
Then there are three ways to morph using the flexible FLEXfm’s joystick — by blending the parameters of four sound variations; steering between up to four patterns; or morphing between four algorithms, changing how those operators interact. Also acting as a piano cursor, the joystick can control pitch bends, scratches, phasing, and rhythmic effects. Elsewhere, an integrated piezo pad captures expressive playing, while sampling tools support slicing, multi-samples, and 12-pad kits.
Creativity continues with alternatives to FLEXfm’s analogue path made available via digital filters; synchronised movement, one-shots, and ADSR (Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release) contours, thanks to those four LFOs per voice; and joystick-drawn shapes.
Sequencer patterns have independent lengths and rates, per-note durations, probability, conditional steps, and parameter locks. And as if all that is not enough to be getting on with, groove transformations and tempoFlex curves add controlled variation. Elsewhere, effects shared in arrangements include stereo plate reverb with shimmer and synchronised pre-delay, a characterful delay with diffusion, and sidechain- capable comp (compression).
For more information, visit twisted-electrons.com.
