NINA: 12 Voice Analog Polysynth With Motorized Controls – Deep Dive

We’ve been big fans of NINA and have followed its progress ever since Melbourne Instruments revealed their beautiful synth – yes designed right here in Melbourne Australia! The philosophy behind their 12-voice polyphonic analog synth with motorized controls is just as cool as it sounds. Melbourne Instruments wanted to bring back the physical, tactile “analog experience of playing an instrument” that tends to be lost when using some synths, especially with software instruments. With NINA, they’ve successfully created a revolutionary synth interface with total patch recall, motorized knobs that feel like analog potentiometers, and that’s just the beginning! NINA’s fully analog signal path with 2x analog VCOs and a wavetable oscillator per voice emits a sound that can range from lush thick layered pad sounds to earthshaking bass and everything in-between from screaming leads to quirky sound effects. In this video, Dan from Melbourne Instruments takes us on a deep dive into many of NINA’s features.

Everyone who sees NINA in the flesh immediately remarks on its beautiful design; black panel with contrasting future-retro red buttons and an easy-to-read screen. If Stanley Kubrick designed a synth, this just might be it. The unit is not lightweight, and its build quality is spot on with a decent weight to it, or as Australians like to say built like a brick shithouse. The NINA has captured the interest of every synth-fluencer across the globe since its debut at NAMM earlier this year and is destined to be a future classic.

Key Features

• 12 Voices. Multitimbral and layering are possible.
• Fully analogue signal path.
• Discrete analogue circuitry for the VCOs and VCFs, not off-the-shelf synth chips.
• Digital oscillators, wavetables and samples.
• The stereo output from each voice and a unique unison stereo spin effect.
• Patch morphing between 2 sounds of all settings including the mod matrix.
• A powerful modulation matrix that gets very close to the anything-to-anything ideal, with unlimited bus connections.
• Interactive mod matrix setup mode using the motorized controls. • Large amount of overdrive possible.
• Useful and expressive haptic feedback when using the knobs.
• Hackable open-source software.

More info here

Visit Melbourne Instruments Website

Available at selected retail outlets from late-January 2023. MSRP $US3599 + local taxes / €3599 + local taxes / £3099 + local taxes / $AU5595 GST inc.