There's an old Russian proverb that still holds true today, and is relevant to the release of the new Image Line Software Sawer soft synth: "Держать генераторы Поливокс стабилизировано и в настройке как двигать кучу лягушек в реальном маштабе времени, тачкой. невозможно!" Man, totally! Now, I've got no direct proof, but I'm pretty sure that this adage was the direct inspiration behind the development of Sawer, a virtual synthesizer that does more than recreate the sounds of the rare, soviet-era Polivoks analog synth, it improves upon it.

Other than sporting a name with ambiguous pronunciation, Sawer was also the product of a bit of a "coding error," according to Image Line:

"While programming the SAW oscillator, Maxx [the coder, we're assuming] accidentally set some incorrect variables and immediately the sound gained bass, acquired some light but pleasing noise on the attack and an overall richer sonic spectra. Maxx realized this was no mistake but a discovery and built on this, adding some frequency modulation to give it a touch of analog authenticity and so 'Sawer' was born."

Which is all nice and good, but the real question is: how does it sound? I don't know, I've got a Mac. But if you run windows, you can download the free demo from the Image Line website and check out these sweet features:

• Main oscillator for subtractive synthesis: SAW shape with Sync frequency
• Sub oscillator (-2 to +2 octaves) with level, phase & detune controls
• 1 NOISE Oscillator
• Variable polyphony (1 to 24 voices)
• 8 voice UNISON with user-adjustable stereo panning, detune and 'Octaver'
• SYNC & RING frequency modulation
• 2 ADSR envelope generators (one user-assignable to modulation parameters)
• 4 FILTER modes - low pass (24 & 12 dB/Oct), band pass and high pass
• Chorus, Phaser, Delay & Reverb effects
• Muti-mode Arpeggiator