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A wilderness of synthesis
Taiga is the sub-arctic boreal forest climate, situated around the crown of the world. The Pittsburgh Taiga Paraphonic Modular Synthesizer is so named because it is a vast and diverse desktop synth, with a creative palate as wide as the northern global ecosystem. It produces traditional sounds you would expect from an analog synth as well as immersive warped waveforms with a complex nature. The Taiga's unique voice is characterised by three Pittsburgh modular innovations that synergise to create intricate and melodic sounds.
Pittsburgh Modular developed a three-oscillator system with in-depth waveshaping and folding properties, a signature Pittsburgh filter tailored to the Taiga, and the Dynamics controller VCA to give the taiga its charisma. It also has a huge range of patching abilities and almost limitless customisation and integration properties.
Triple oscillators and wave shaping
The taiga generates pitch with three oscillators, each with an independent waveshaping engine that produce contemporary waveforms beyond standard geometric shapes. The oscillators are controlled by three white dials on the top left of the control panels and the wave shaping parameters sit below them. Each waveshaper can produce four traditional waveshapes: sine, saw triangle and pulse, which can be combined offering more sound design options.
The waveforms can then be folded with the six-stage wave folding shape control voltage, deepening the sonic complexity of the Taiga. The wave folders intricately manipulate the waveshapes, they fold them back through the circuit to broaden the harmonic content. They use proprietary chips to fold previously unfoldable waveforms, giving you the ability to create contemporary and immersive sounds.
Pittsburgh filter and Dual ADSR
The Pittsburgh filter is a sound-defining feature of the Taiga that the Pittsburgh Modular team has developed to perfection. The signature Pittsburgh filter sweeps the entire frequency range with a rich and smooth curve, leaving no dead spots and preventing low-end roll-off. This generation of the Pittsburgh filter is designed to smoothly co-operate with the Taiga oscillators, giving you a serene filtration of your oscillations.
Two analog ADSR envelope generators smooth the shape of incoming gates and triggers. You can use the envelope output to control oscillator amplitude, filter cut-off and any other feature of the Taiga that accepts control voltages. The envelopes of the Taiga are based on the snappy and percussive ADSR of the Pittsburgh Lifeforms SV-1. You can easily decrease the sharp attack time by adjusting the Attack knob.
Dynamics controller and Echoes
The Dynamics controller of the Taiga is a unique, cutting edge VCA and low pass gate system. It controls harmonics and amplitude creating a more organic sonic profile than one VCAs. Dynamics uses a bespoke processing circuit that simulates physical world sound properties. It has three processing modes to choose from: VCA, low pass gate and plucked low pass gate mode. Using the low pass gate mode reduces the harmonic content of your sounds as the volume decreases This is authentic to the response of physical soundwaves, giving your sounds a warmer and refined tone.
Echoes is the analog delay section of the Taiga. Consisting of two BDD chips that produce a voltage controlled analog delay signal, the delay gives your audio signals a pristine harmonic echo effect. BBD stands for bucket brigade device and works like a chain of people passing buckets down a line. The chips each have over 4000 capacitors, an audio signal is passed between these within the BDD chips once per clock step. Slower clock times produce a longer delay and a faster clock creates a shorter delay. Clean delay time varies between 16ms and 250ms.You can increase the maximum delay time to a peak of 500ms with the Echoes time CV input, however, longer clock times will degrade fidelity and result in HF clock noise bleed.
Modular adaptability
The Taiga produces a traditional signal path so you can generate sounds with the oscillators straight away without patch cables. The pre-set signal path is designed to create the most used route through the Taiga circuits, but you can completely customise the signal path with patch cables. MIDI to CV conversion, an arpeggiator and digital modulation tools are organised in the control section. The Taiga also features a mixer, an LFO a preamp, and an internal clock with tap tempo. Utilising Taiga's versatile routing in your music will give you endless sound-shaping abilities. There are endless connectivity possibilities with the 60 CV inputs and outputs. This Pittsburgh Modular Synth is a groundbreaking desktop machine that can be used for both fun and professional music production, ideal for anyone looking for a compact analog synth with almost unlimited potential.
Features
- Semi modular desktop synthesizer with ultimate customisation and a deep sound palette
- Three high powered oscillators each with an independent complex wave shaper
- Six stage wavefolding allows you to fold waveforms and increase the harmonic content
- Warm Pittsburgh filter with full frequency range sweep and no dead spots or LF roll off
- Two ADSR envelope generators with extensive envelope application and customisation
- Dynamics controller VCA and low pass gate applies a physical tone to your audio signals
- Echoes in depth analog delay runs on two BDD chips with over 4000 capacitors each
- Pre-set signal path without patch cables and extensive signal customisation with them
Specifications
- Panel size: 60hp.
- Module depth: 40mm.
- Power consumption: +12v 650 mA, -12v 475 mA
- LFO Ranges:
- High: 2 Hz to 500 Hz
- Low: 41 seconds to 5 Hz
- Dimensions: 428 x 195 x 142 mm
- Weight: 2.62kg
- Product code: TAIGA
