Carbon Electra 2 Upgrade from Carbon Electra

Note: this is an upgrade for owners of Carbon Electra, the full version of Carbon Electra 2 is available here.

Synth power meets musical intelligence

Create sounds, grooves and chord progressions with Waveterrain oscillators, Scale Lock, musical filters and a scale-aware note/chord sequencer.

Scale Lock

Carbon Electra was built with harmony and musicality front of mind. With Scale Lock activated and a scale selected, your patch now reacts in a more musical way, with oscillators and filters able to act in key. Use Filter 2’s cutoff to emphasise notes of the scale for a more musical effect, and build stacks of oscillators that move in tune with your music. Your scale also affects note and chord information in the sequencer.

Wave Terrain Oscillators

What’s the next evolution of the wavetable? Carbon Electra’s Waveterrain synthesis calculates a 3D surface over which a 2D harmonic curve moves and modulates. The resulting oscillator waveform changes in a way that’s more dynamic and more musically related. Classic wavetables and basic analogue shapes are also in stock, and oscillators let you introduce FM, employ hard sync, and activate unison.

Key-aware Sequencing

Carbon Electra 2’s sequencer understands the key you’re in, helping you to make musical patterns intuitively. Being cut from the same cloth as Scaler, it lets you work in Chord mode to sequence meaningful chords that work in your key, and to sequence inversions and parallel substitutions. All this besides the usual sequencer parameters like swing and playback direction, with presets to get things moving instantly.

Musical Filter Scale Lock

Turn on Keytrack and Scale Lock to create a resonant bank of band-pass filters that bubble in key with your track. Arrange the filters by Scale, Chord or Interval, then shape the movement with Resonance, Density, Focus and Window controls. Filter 2 is Carbon Electra 2’s musical filter, while Filter 1 provides traditional filter types, a morphing Vowel filter and dedicated Envelope Amount control.

Modulation

Three LFOs and two envelopes are available to affect synthesis controls and onboard effects parameters, and LFOs can self-modulate or be routed to one another. The sequencer’s dedicated modulation lane can be routed to the same targets, and offers a curve shape per step, to create animated movements for oscillators or other parameters. Modulation assignments work from a convenient drag and drop.

Five Effects Onboard

Delay, Distortion, Chorus, EQ and Reverb are onboard to provide extra depth and customisation to your sound. Choose one in each of Carbon Electra’s five effect slots, with no limits set on using the same processor two or even five times. Drag to re-order effects to put the finishing touches on a patch, and modulate effects parameters with the sequencer, LFOs or envelopes.
 

Features

Scale Lock and Musical Control

• Oscillators can lock to musical scale degrees instead of only traditional pitch values.
• Sequencer can lock to diatonic notes and chords within the selected scale.
• Musical filter can lock to scale notes, incoming chord tones or interval relationships.
• Designed to keep sound design, sequencing and modulation musically connected.

Wave Terrain Oscillators

• All-new Waveterrain oscillator mode based on topographic terrain-style sound generation.
• Upload your own terrain images in .png format to create custom oscillator behaviour.
• Control how the sound interacts with terrain edges in 3D aspect.
• Adjust terrain size and movement for different tonal results.
• A new alternative to wavetable synthesis, with its own movement, texture and character.
• Also includes classic analogue waveforms and wavetable oscillator modes.

Four-Oscillator Synth Engine

• Four independent oscillators.
• Classic, wavetable and waveterrain oscillator options.
• Per-oscillator pitch, tune, width, cascading FM and position-style controls depending on oscillator type.
• Unison support across oscillators.
• Flexible oscillator blending through the central mixer.

Note and Chord Sequencer

• Scale-based note and chord sequencer.
• Write freely in chromatic mode or stay locked to the chosen scale.
• Chord mode allows diatonic chord programming.
• Supports chord extensions and inversions.
• Ideal for musical riffs, basslines, arps, chord patterns and evolving harmonic sequences.

Multi-Shape Step Sequencer

• Multi-shape modulation step sequencer.
• Assignable to multiple parameters.
• Can run independently from the note/chord sequencer.
• Timing can be divided or multiplied against the main sequencer rate.
• Useful for rhythmic movement, filter patterns, pitch modulation, wavetable movement and FX automation.

Musical Filter System

• New musical filter modes including interval, chord and scale-based behaviour.
• Filter movement can follow musical relationships rather than only static cutoff values.
• Designed for harmonic filtering, resonant movement and scale-aware sound shaping.
• Includes traditional filter controls such as cutoff/offset, resonance, focus / window and keytracking.

Flexible Mixer and Routing

• Four-channel oscillator mixer.
• Per-oscillator level and panning.
• Re-routable oscillator/filter paths.
• Optional gain boost mode.
• Designed for complex layering and movement between oscillator sources.

Reorderable FX Stack

• Powerful onboard effects section.
• Includes delay, distortion, chorus, EQ and reverb.
• Effects can be reordered.
• FX parameters can be modulated.
• Designed for creating finished sounds directly inside the instrument.

New Assignable Modulation System

• Flexible modulation assignment workflow.
• Assign modulation sources to multiple destinations.
• Clear visual destination lists per modulation source.
• Supports LFOs, envelopes, sequencer modulation and performance controls.

Multiple LFOs and Envelopes

• Three dedicated LFOs.
• Amp envelope and modulation envelope.
• LFO sync, trigger and mono modes.
• Adjustable LFO waveforms and destinations.
• Velocity control for envelope behaviour.

Performance and Voice Controls

• Main output section with level control.
• Mono, retrigger, legato and limiter options.
• Unison voice controls.
• Detune, width, tune, pitch bend range and glide controls.
• Mod wheel assignment support.

Advanced Preset and Sequence System

• User sequence area with visual waveform/shape display.
• Save and recall musical sequences and arps.
• Designed for both sound design and musical phrase creation.
• Stronger link between preset design, harmony and performance.
• Includes 362 presets in total, with artist presets from producers including Carl Cox, Timo Garcia, Faze Action and Christian Laffitte.