This year at Winter NAMM, the Britain based FXpansion exhibits D-CAM: Synth Squad, which highlights FXpansion's proprietary advanced modeling technology. It is composed of three synth models named Strobe, Cypher and Amber -- which I assume were named after Charlie's Angels despite never having seen it. This trio combines the most sought after features in classic synthesizers with the synthesizers of tomorrow . . . today! "Fusor" brings all three together in a semi-modular synth-layering environment.

Getting a bit deeper, Strobe is a no-frills performance synth. It's as simple as classic monophonic synths to program with more modernized features like polyphony, osc stacking / detuning and a multimode filter. It earned its degree in ripping analog leads, its masters in sick basses and its doctoral thesis was on complex pads.

Cypher gets a bit more complex, catering itself to various types of audio-rate modulations. It offers variable-depth sync, polyphonic waveshaping and syncable beat-detune. Analog FM synthesis gets a real kick forward in time with such features, only possible through digital.

Amber is a string-synth with a focus on divide-down oscillator architecture. It benefits from the addition of formant filtering and three chorus models. Thick, creamy and psychedelic -- that, my friends, is Amber.

Finally, Fusor mashes them all together in one screaming, gnarled entanglement. This semi-modular synth-layering environment includes extra LFOs, envelope followers, step sequencers and a wide load of circuit-modeled effects usable as inserts and aux sends on any of the three synths or on the master output. FuseMod, an inter-modulation system, even lets you control parameters on one synth with LFOs and envelopes from another.

Fast Features:

• Drive stages to add 'grit and attitude'
• Analog noise simulates the instability and chaos inherent in real analog circuits
• LFOs that feature pulse width modulation and swing
• Powerful and intuitive modulation system for anything from subtly expressive movement to seismic timbral shifts
• MIDI Learn, BPM synced LFOs and envelopes, multiple oversampling for offline rendering, intuitive visualization and all the other conveniences you have come to expect from software synthesis.