The Syncussion goes berserk with Aly James' beastly SY-4X drum synth plugin

Released in 1979, the Pearl Syncussion SY-1 was an analogue drum synth favoured by a long list of artists that includes Prince and Herbie Hancock, and later utilized by electronic music producers like Luke Vibert and Aphex Twin.

An OG Syncussion will set you back a pretty penny these days, but thanks to Aly James Lab, you can put not one, but four Syncussion modules into your DAW with the developer's new software emulation: SY-4X.

The original machine was a two-voice drum synth, but SY-4X quadruples that percussion power and gives you enough polyphony to dial in an eight-voice drum kit or four-voice polysynth. Along with the extra voices, the plugin also adds new oscillator modes, enhanced envelope control, a 'Berserk Mode' for clipping and bitcrushing, and more options for pitch-tracking and scaling.

Aly James has precisely recreated the SY-1's original circuits, allowing you to dial in an emulation of its CMOS-based oscillators that captures their sonic quirks, producing distorted waveforms and additional harmonics. The SY-1's unique filter design has been emulated, too, giving you a two-stage low-pass state-variable filter that models the original's distinctive tone and behaviour.

The six oscillator configurations offered by the SY-1 (single oscillator, FM, dual oscillator mix, dynamic oscillator mix, FM/Custom Ramp OSC, and pure noise) are joined by two new modes that cover oscillator sync and cross-ring modulation; a new trigger-controlled mode scanning feature can be used to switch to a random oscillator mode at a rate of up to 50 times per second.

SY-4's aptly-titled Berserk Mode turns the plugin into a "nastier beast" by introducing asymmetrical clipping before the filter or bitcrushing after the filter, with the option to reign in both effects through a Stability control.

SY-4X Syncussion will set you back €51 and is available now in VST3/AU formats for macOS and Windows.

Find out more on Aly James Lab's website.