NINA by Melbourne Instruments is an outstanding 12 voice hybrid synth.

NINA stands out. The colors and motorized faders immediately jump out at you. But it’s the sound that then pulled the rug out from under us. With the Infinite Stereo Panning of the special VCA circuit, NINA’s sounds swirl around you. While having a wonderful foundation at the same time. There are quite a few Hybrid Synths, but NINA does a lot of things …better. This synth can breathe vintage analog warmth, but also envelop you in cool, icy wavetable pads.

The motorized knobs instantly jump to the current values (including morphing & modulation values) when changing patches. The knob behavior is editable. The knob resistance can be changed, e.g. to create a better playing feel or to define end- or zero-points. The resolution of 16000 steps per rotation is really exceptionally exact.

The sound generation is hybrid: Two analog VCOs – morphable between triangle and sawtooth, crossfadeable to pulse wave – and a wavetable oscillator. You can load your own wavetables. The popular WaveEdit format is supported. Before the classic four-pole transistor ladder filter (lowpass) is an overdrive circuit, which can be dosed very well from clean to 11. The signal path leads into the four-quadrant stereo VCA developed by Melbourne Instruments. What sounds very much like Star Trek, means that NINA’s sounds can be placed and swirled in a 360degree panorama. Test this with headphones!

There are two LFOs with variable waveforms and two ADSRs. With the ADSRs, we again noticed how well Melbourne has chosen the control ranges and characteristics. Just like almost all the other units mentioned so far, the LFOs and the ADSR are sources and also destinations in the modulation matrix. In total, there are 16 sources and 27 destinations there. There are no limitations on the number of slots.

This is all per Layer. A Patch can contain up to four Layers. Layers can be layered, split or output independently on their own MIDI channel (and audio output). Since NINA also supports MPE, layers can also be expressively morphed into each other. As further “playing aids” there is an arpeggiator and sequencer per Patch. Patches can be morphed into each other with the A/B Patch Morphing.

The effects are on the Patch level at the end of the signal chain. But they can also be assigned exclusively to individual layers. There are three slots and a constantly growing selection of effects. Slots can work in parallel and serial in 96khz/24bit.

On the output side, there is another pair of jacks (3/4) in addition to the stereo sum (on which the effects are also located). There are four inputs: three Line/CV jacks, as well as a Line/XLR/CV combo jack. I.e. all inputs can be used as Line OR CV inputs. The classic MIDI trio is also on the back as well as two 3.0 USB A host and one USB-C 2.0 device jack (class compliant).

Since the OS of NINA is a modified Linux called Elk Audio OS and implemented on a Raspberry Pi 4, there are certainly many hacking and expansion options for the future – also for the effects, which are built on the flexible VST3 architecture. The individual parts and circuitry, the OS and CPU, and the spectacular interface are well matched. NINA feels like a solid piece of work. Bravo!

Because the people behind Melbourne Instruments listen to their customers there are now some interesting new features:

• Morph is now a modulation target
• There is an oscilloscope that can also act as a goniometer
• Octave Offset in the Layer menu (you can move layers in their octave)
• Envelope level can be found as a parameter in the EG1 and EG2 VCA menu
• Morph value is stored

Please refer to the NINA Website for the latest updates and newest preset packs.

Features:

• Motorized, recallable, automatable, assignable and robust control panel with high resolution.
• 12 voices, 4 part multitimbral
• 3 oscillators per voice: 2 analog VCOs, 1 digital wavetable oscillator
• sub-osc for square wave of VCO 1 / hard sync of oscillator 2 with VCO 1
• Wavetable oscillator with resolution 96kHz 24bit, switchable to LFO, user wavetables
• Variable digital noise source
• Classic 4-pole transistor ladder VCF with modulatable resonance and overdrive/low noise option
• Four-quadrant VCA -> Selectable polyphonic panning schemes with spin effect
• 2 digital LFOs with 6 waveforms each
• 2 ADSR envelopes
• Extensive modulation matrix (16 sources/27 destinations).
• Patch morphing
• Multitimbral layers (up to 4 layers for 4 timbres, controllable via MIDI channel and note ranges)
• 3 effect slots: Parallel or serial mix modes, 96kHz 24bit resolution
• 4 outputs, freely assignable: stereo main outputs with effects, aux output ¾
• Headphone output
• 3x USB: 2*USB-A host, 1*USB device, class compliant
• 4 inputs: 3 balanced TRS line or CV inputs/ 1 TRS/XLR combo as mic/line/CV input
• CV range selectable (0 to 10/ +5 to -5/etc.)