Various test recordings of a number of custom and low volume studio equipment designs over the years by D.A.Wilson (Hideaway Studio) including a number of tube hybrid rackmount audio processors originally conceived and built for Jean-Michel Jarre...

Studio Equipment by Hideaway Studio in Action...

NEWS UPDATE: The second batch of 25 pre-production units are nearing completion and am now taking pre-orders for delivery in June. A new Patch Editor/Librarian App & VST/AU plugin with full automation has also been developed complete with a new library of over 250 sound patches for Win/Mac/Linux and will be free to all Elfin-04 and 01 owners.

Introducing Elfin-04, Hideaway Studio's Compact New 4-Voice Polysynth Expander...
 
I have been working round the clock for weeks now on my dinky little 8-bit 4-Voice (4 x [2osc+1sub+LFO]) VA Poly Expander with 1960's style transformer-mixed output voicing and finally No's.000 thru 010 are born to the world and receiving very positive feedback from their new owners....... this 4-voice polysynth measuring just 16x12x3cm has full real-time control over her 32 parameters via simple midi ccs and 16 built-in patches. 

Based on an expanded form of a customized software synth-core design by ISGK in Japan, I think the Elfin-04's unique voice ouput/mixing transformers do add something for sure - they are driven full-swing with 60KHz PWM resulting in a lot of additional harmonics/mirror frequencies and some saturation that all gets trapped within the transformers which adds a richness/darkness to the sound (no-doubt inspired in part by my beloved DK Synergy). In the Elfin-04, the 4 voices are passively mixed but, unusually, by the topology of the output-transformers themselves which is a trick that used to be found in some more exotic 1960s valve test equipment where multiple signal outputs were mixed on isolated outputs (eg. my huge old Panoramic TTG-2 tube Dual Sinewave Generator). Also, each voice CPU is independently clocked so everything is genuinely free-wheeling across the voices so even the noise phases slowly when played on multiple notes and unison which is pretty cool.

Any questions, please PM me here on S/C or to EF86 on GearSpace.

All Sound Design & Recordings Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio 2025.

Hideaway's New Elfin-04 Polysynth: Detuned Unison Mode Montage 01

NEWS UPDATE: The second batch of 25 pre-production units are nearing completion and am now taking pre-orders for delivery in June. A new Patch Editor/Librarian App & VST/AU plugin with full automation has also been developed complete with a new library of over 250 sound patches for Win/Mac/Linux and will be free to all Elfin-04 and 01 owners.

Any questions, please PM me here on S/C or to EF86 on GearSpace.

Introducing Elfin-04, Hideaway Studio's Compact New 4-Voice Polysynth...
 
I have been working round the clock for weeks now on my dinky little 8-bit 4-Voice (4 x [2osc+1sub+LFO]) VA Poly Expander with 1960's style transformer-mixed output voicing and finally No's.000 thru 010 are born to the world and receiving very positive feedback from their new owners...... this 4-voice polysynth measuring just 16x12x3cm has full real-time control over her 32 parameters via simple midi ccs and 16 built-in patches. 

Based on an expanded form of a customized software synth-core design by ISGK in Japan, I think the Elfin-04's unique voice ouput/mixing transformers do add something for sure - they are driven full-swing with 60KHz PWM resulting in a lot of additional harmonics/mirror frequencies and some saturation that all gets trapped within the transformers which adds a richness/darkness to the sound (no-doubt inspired in part by my beloved DK Synergy). In the Elfin-04, the 4 voices are passively mixed but, unusually, by the topology of the output-transformers themselves which is a trick that used to be found in some more exotic 1960s valve test equipment where multiple signal outputs were mixed on isolated outputs (eg. my huge old Panoramic TTG-2 tube Dual Sinewave Generator). Also, each voice CPU is independently clocked so everything is genuinely free-wheeling across the voices so even the noise phases slowly when played on multiple notes and unison which is pretty cool.

All Sound Design & Recordings Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio 2025.

Hideaway's New Elfin-04 Polysynth: Polyphonic Patch Montage 01

Resident

DEPICT MIND 002 – FLX / [flux] – Mercredi 16 avril 2025 - 18h - 19h30 sur l’eko des garrigues, 88.5 France
L’émission musicale à destination des curieux, des rêveurs, des musiciens, des danseurs, des geeks, des hippies, et tous les autres ... consacrée à la braindance, l’ambient, et toutes les formes d’électro, break et techno expérimentale.
« Pour cette deuxième émission, je vais vous présenter un artiste des Etats Unis, c’est FLX, découvert, comme tant d’autres, sur soundcloud, dont j’admire la musique et avec qui j’ai pu un petit peu échanger. C’est de la musique hyper travaillée, très délire science fiction, pour laquelle j’ai beaucoup d’admiration. Paul »

SOUNDCLOUD : https://soundcloud.com/flux-tracks
BANDCAMP : https://flux-tracks.bandcamp.com/

Includes tracks from : FLX, bovaflux, Aphex Twin, Psychedelic Aliens and neniu

DEPICT MIND 002 about FLX / [flux] / ...– 16/04/2025 - radio eko des garrigues, 88.5

Every sound is generated by Behringer Syncussion.

syncussalo

NAZARENO [bassi] | NO/TEMPO
Pre-order July 3rd | 9 pm - https://adepta.bandcamp.com

Welcome to the second chapter of the Adepta Atanor Collection, an 8" vinyl series from Adepta Editions for seekers of precious sounds. This series focuses on artists who work in the shadows, presenting them under new aliases exclusively for Adepta Editions.

For this occasion, the secret guest artist, performing under new alias Nazarenos [bassi], delights us with three pieces that challenge the ingrained conventions of contemporary electronic music, offering a deconstructed perspective on the notion of unity.

The mini-EP, titled No/Tempo, stands as the gravitational center of a "non-place": a space where everything exists in potential, the primordial origin of all unmanifested forms. In this exploration of the essential, the three tracks seem to explode in distinct and opposing directions, eluding any defined trajectory but sharing a common point of origin. It's as if something, long confined outside of time, suddenly manifests in a primordial burst.

Tune in to this unique 'Dadaist' machine, where styles and genres are not boundaries, but rather fundamental building blocks for a work of expansive vision.

Pre-order July 3rd

NAZARENO [bassi] | NO/TEMPO - SNIPPET

Elfin-08 No. 000 (basically two stock Hideaway Elfin-04 Poly Expanders bolted together running modified firmware with a stereo output) fires up for the first time on all 10 of its 8-bit processors and 8 output transformers!....

The allocation of the 8 voices has been distributed between the left and right audio outputs with even voices on one channel and odd voices on the other giving a rather pleasing stereo effect. The Detuned Unison Mode on the 8-voice is just massive!

All of the sounds in the test recording are factory Elfin-04 patches loaded up from the new Elfin Controller VST/AU/Standalone (win/mac/linux) patch editor which currently has around 260 patches built in.
 
NB: I am building these 8-Voice proof of concept variants in very limited numbers for those who can't wait for the official Elfin-08 otherwise the current Elfin-04 offers the very same sound but with less polyphony.

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio 2025

Hideaway Elfin-08: 8-Voice Functional Prototype Awakens...

~ LAAPS 046 ~ [SEQ.06 - LP46]

artist : Offthesky
album : Nocturnas
duration : 40.28 mn
date : August 28th, 2025

edition :
-  vinyl : limited to 200 copies / marble pink/purple LP / selective UV varnish (front+back) / hand numbered 
- cd : limited to 150 copies / pantone / hand numbered + handcrafted, sealed

----------------------------------------------------------------
pre-order : August 01st, 2025 / official release : August 28th, 2025
----------------------------------------------------------------

Sound and composition by Jason Corder
Vocals by Rin Howell
Created in Thailand and Colorado, 2022 - 2024

Mastered by Offthesky
Artwork by Gaël Bonnefon
Design by Sprflxgrfzm
 
----------------------------------------------------------------

Links :
https://laaps-records.com/
https://www.instagram.com/iikki_laaps/
https://offthesky.bandcamp.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------
℗ & © 2 0 2 5 - L A A P S - L A A P S 0 4 6

Offthesky - Dying Within Dreams

Tracey - When I choose to be here with you 
Karen Vogt - Left Me 
Midwife - Signs 
Caroline - when I get home 
clairaudience - grief guitare 
Nindramaya- my wait is (YOU) 
James K - Play 
heartcoregirl- Little sweet baby 
Nada El Shazly - Elnadaha 
Civilistjävel x Mayssa Jallad - Holiday Inn (January to March) 
Abdullah Miniawy - Million years, Papa مليون سنة، بابا 
Camille Keller x Dallae - Shot for me 
Need no Methoda - It’s just you

Everything's computer #2

Experimenting with new methods.
----------
Photo by Josh Sorenson @ pexels.

Bonus Breaks

A rich morning soundscape recorded on the banks of the Cuyabeno River deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Features the magical sounds of Russet-backed Oropendolas.

The Amazon: Oropendola Morning - Album Sample

Snippets : soundcloud.com/grid-records/doline-threnody-of-moaning-sparks-grid018

Doline is back with his sophomore album !
A one-of-a kind experimental and bassy release where stars meet hearts in the deepness of the universe. Thirteen tracks exploring emotions, from sorrow to happiness, from fear to serenity. A rich path into the unique and colourful world of the French producer, always evolving over his music researches.
This LP is another milestone for Grid, the fourth release from Doline and maybe his best piece of work so far.

The album opens on Earth, Under Starry Dawn, linked to the last track of the previous LP, to take off straight to the hyperspace. Then Flutina continues the story, with suspens and discovery in weightlessness, floating towards a new world. Janus Complex is a post-trance track with Y2K vibes, like humans explaining their origins to someone new. Sensunreal and its deep synths shows Doline's groove before Through The Stellar Foam lost us into a thick fog trying to find a way out : Chœur, our wormhole to distant stars, where then Etherrestrial Xo suggest the joy and relief to find them, an emotional mood as Doline has the secret. Cockcrow will softly awake us with its AFX-like lo-fi tickling loop and his synth melodies, before Oniromance makes our heads shaking with its thin and unpredictable bass groove. For the last part of the album Carolus Ex-Lament, probably an unknown space conqueror, brings back trancy synths and melodies, while Before What's Beyond choose to show Doline oddness and his speaky synths again, reminding his 'Dompte Regard' era. Star Funeral, a tribute to his loved ones, shows once again Doline's talent for emo-pop melodies. Phœnix too, a brilliant closing track telling us there are always other new worlds to discover : it's already time to fly away!

https://gridrecords.bandcamp.com/album/threnody-of-moaning-sparks

https://soundcloud.com/grid-records
https://soundcloud.com/doline

PREMIERE: Doline - Etherrestrial Xo [Grid]

Hideaway Studio's ultra rare Dual Tube Hybrid Filter in Action - Originally designed and built for Jean-Michel Jarre in 2011 by D.A.Wilson as a live performance filter the unit features a complex and unusual union of a diode ladder with multi-mode input mixer and a resonant tube based band-pass filter tube buffered and mixed in parallel with a phase reversal option.  

The filter can be used in live performances via its 9 CV control channels using a modulation matrix and a hand controller.

The demo shows when used in this way various aspects of the filter can be sequenced as the filter is opened and closed.

Only two examples of this beast were ever built.

Composition & Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio 2011.

The Dual Tube Hybrid Filter In Action...

Need Sleep

A rare demonstration of what is perhaps one of the most complex and exotic analog phasers ever devised.   The Triple Tube Hybrid Phaser was originally designed for Jean-Michel Jarre by Dani Wilson at Hideaway Studio and is one of only a very small handful ever built.

On a huge custom pcb it comprises of three 4-stage phaser blocks similar to the Small Stone with tube (ECC83) pre-amp and post amps and tube buffers between each phaser.  The OTA based phasers are combined in an unusual series/parallel arrangement with their own regen paths each modulated by one phase of a triple phase LFO generator thus allowing the phase spread to be set between each phaser block from  all three on top of one another for a huge plunging effect to being 120 degrees out for a swirly effect.   There are variable controls for the LFO offset, depth, rate and spread as well as a variable regeneration level (heard being turned up in the first minute of the demo).

The stuttering effect heard later in the demo is where the spread control is being set to a new position thus allowing the phasers to realign and commence on new phase spread angles.

Please note the phaser was recorded into delay to generate some stereo spread.

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio

Triple Tube Hybrid Phaser: An Uber Rare Beast In Action!

Having another bash at improving the exponential pitch control calibration in the new Hz-V control firmware for the new Dual MIDI2CV interface.  The prototype has been retrofitted in a 1977 Korg Micro-preset M-500.

Here is the Micro-preset playing oboe and the Matrix 1000 playing Harpsichord.... (last movement of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No.5)

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio 2019

1977 KORG Micropreset M-500 & Matrix 1000: Lets Play Bach..

D.A.Wilson is an Electronic Engineer, Sound Designer & Vintage Synth Specialist with a particular interest in combining vintage tube, classic analog and modern digital technologies working as a synth engineer looking after a very considerable amount of vintage studio equipment for Will Gregory (Goldfrapp / Moog Ensemble) and a number of other internationally celebrated electronic musicians and producers.  Having undertaken several major restorations and produced custom electronic designs for a number of major artists including Jean-Michel Jarre, Dani is also known for fully restoring two out of the world's four remaining 1979 Crumar GDS and partially restoring 1938 Novachord 346 (the only known operational Novachord in the UK) to playable order along with developing and producing the new Elfin family of 8-bit polysynths and the popular MIDI Front Panel Animator (FPA), Filter Defeat Module (FDM) and XD-280 Drive Emulator upgrades for the AKAI S612 sampler.

Demos of the S612 Upgrades in Action: 

https://soundcloud.com/hideaway-studio/sets/hideaway-studios-s612-front


Hideaway Studio Kontakt Sound libraries may be purchased directly from: 
https://www.lootaudio.com/category/kontakt-instruments/hideaway-studios
 

..and a nice introduction by Cory Pelizzari to the Hideaway Studio Kontakt Libraries:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-C7a3ChC9U&feature=emb_title


For more on releases from Hideaway Studio for Kontakt please visit the blog at:  www.hideawaystudio.net

1977 KORG Micropreset M-500 & Matrix 1000: Lets Play Bach..

Hideaway Studio

Related tracks