Analogue Solutions unveils the Filtopia, a monophonic analogue synthesiser that flips the usual logic on its head: instead of a single filter, it lines up five of them in parallel. Handmade in Great Britain, limited to 200 units and priced at £1,799, the instrument targets a sonic territory that most monosynths barely touch – formant tones and multi-band sweeps.
Five parallel filters: the real point of the Filtopia
The name doesn’t lie. The heart of the Filtopia is not its sound source but its bank of five parallel-wired multimode analogue filters. Where a classic synth sends the signal through a single VCF, the Filtopia splits it into five simultaneous paths, each with its own resonance, level and modulation routing. You’re not filtering one sound: you are breaking it into five bands and sculpting each one independently.
The musical consequence is straightforward. By offsetting the cutoff frequencies of the five filters and pushing the resonance, you recreate the formant peaks that characterise the human voice: vowels, spoken-like sounds, “singing” textures that are impossible to get from a single filter. It’s the principle of formant synthesis, but carried out in pure analogue and controllable in real time. The five cells are not identical: the first goes from low-pass to high-pass, the three in the middle are band-pass variants with offset adjustment, and the fifth goes from band-pass to low-pass. This lets you cover the whole spectrum instead of stacking the same response five times.
A sound source designed to feed the filter bank
A filter bank this ambitious demands a rich raw material. Analogue Solutions does not hold back: three multi-waveform VCOs with PWM, sync and cross-modulation (XMOD), backed up by two sub-oscillators and a noise generator. A mixer stage lets you balance these sources before they hit the five filters. This is where the instrument’s logic really makes sense: the denser and more harmonically loaded the incoming spectrum, the more substance the five filters have to carve out, and the more spectacular the formant and combing effects become.
Here you find the signature of a brand which, under Tom Carpenter’s guidance, has been building resolutely analogue machines for years, with the bare minimum of digital on board. The Filtopia fits into this lineage of character synths rather than do‑it‑all Swiss Army knives, much like what Erica Synths is doing with its Razornator resonator: a single‑purpose object, but one that excels at its job.
Modulation, sequencer and connectivity
On the modulation side, the Filtopia offers three ADSR envelopes (filter, VCA, auxiliary) and two multi-waveform LFOs. Each of the five filters can be addressed by EG1, LFO1, LFO2 and the sequencer – this network of routings is what turns the filter bank into a living instrument rather than a static EQ. The eight-step CV sequencer doesn’t just drive pitch: it also animates filter parameters, creating rhythmic formant movements that are impossible to perform by hand.
Two VCAs round things off, one of which includes a built-in echo (time, feedback, level). Connectivity is kept lean and in line with the brand’s philosophy: an audio input to process external sources through the filter bank, stereo output on two 6.35 mm jacks, and MIDI In/Thru converted internally to CV. Nothing superfluous, but the audio input is a crucial detail: it also makes the Filtopia a fully fledged filter processor for the rest of the studio.
| Section | Specification |
|---|---|
| Oscillators | 3 VCOs (PWM, sync, XMOD) + 2 subs + noise |
| Filters | 5 parallel multimode VCFs (bank) |
| Envelopes / LFO | 3 ADSR / 2 multi-waveform LFOs |
| Sequencer | 8-step CV (pitch + parameters) |
| Outputs | Stereo (2× 6.35 mm jack), built-in echo |
| Price / run | £1,799, 200 units, handmade in the UK |
A specialist instrument – and that’s exactly the point
Let’s be clear: the Filtopia is not a first synth. At £1,799 for a hand‑built, limited‑run monosynth, it is aimed at people who know exactly what a filter bank brings to the table and why a single filter will never replace it. On that front, I have always stood by a simple position, forged both as a studio technical director and behind a mixing desk: a hardware link in the chain earns its place when it produces something audible that you can’t just recreate with a click. A sweep of five resonant filters in parallel, with all the formant shifts and comb effects that go with it, fits squarely into that category. This isn’t analogue dogma: it’s a sound with a clear signature.
The Filtopia thus joins a small family of instruments that bet on a strong idea rather than completeness, alongside devices like the Frap Tools Magnolia or, in a much more affordable vein, the Behringer AKS Mini. The 200‑unit limited run and British artisanal manufacturing confirm the positioning: a niche tool, unapologetically so, for electronic music producers and sound designers seeking a character that doesn’t sound like everything else.
The Filtopia is available now directly from the manufacturer, at a pre‑tax price of £1,799. What remains is to hear the beast in action: at the time of writing, no official demo has yet been released, and that’s really the only thing missing to judge firsthand what these five filters are truly capable of. Official product page.
