Future Retro XS

What You See Is What You Get. Knobs, switches, and jacks for most adjustable parameters.
There are no presets except for the previous state of the knobs and switches.
Editing patches is easy for me.
The MIDI channel select (1-16) is an actual rotary switch!
The manual is pretty thorough and even gives example patches to dial up.

This is a single-voice monosynthesizer. No keyboard or onboard sequencer. Expansion-wise, there are many CV ins and outs to connect to various external voltage sources/sinks.

XS responds to MIDI and/or CV/Gate. Via MIDI: velocity, modwheel, and pitchbend. The LFO can sync to MIDI with selectable clock divisions - this is useful for externally driving some other analog sequencer or arpeggiator, besides having pitch and filter sweeps in rhythm with a sequence.

I (have) own(ed) many vintage and modern monosynths and I haven't found myself wishing for another knob or control option yet.

Very realistic and true analog leads and bases. Very realistic electric sound effects and analog percussion voices.
It's easy to use if you somewhat understand analog subtractive synthesis. It's also easy to use if you like to turn knobs and see what happens.
To me, XS works well with electronic music and/or industrial rock.
The only onboard 'effect' is a distortion parameter. This is an analog distortion and is quite unique and effective.
In my opinion, it reacts well to my playing. I usually control XS from a MIDI keyboard and play leads and bass. XS has a lead sound that I have been searching for - for 7 years or so...When I use it with a sequencer, I usually go for percussive/effect type sounds.
Velocity reaction is independently controllable for the filter and VCA and most importantly, the extra envelope that is triggered based on MIDI velocity.
As of yet (probably because I haven't tried very hard), I haven't been able to create the Sub-Terranian bass that I can easily achieve with my SCI Pro One.

It is absolutely dependable. I own every instrument made by Future Retro and this is the best-built one. No need for a backup, it's brand new.
I've had the XS since late spring '08 (5 months).

Future Retro is in a class of its own when it comes to customer service, friendliness, and helpfulness.

Overall, a 9. A 'high' 9. Not a 10, because there is no keyboard or onboard sequencer, which would set this thing apart from any true analog monosynth ever made.

If it were lost/stolen I would replace it. It is expensive, but I feel alright about the cost because it is so unique. I have been into electronic instruments for 8 years.

Instruments similar to the XS that I have owned/own: DSI Evolver, Moog Rogue, SCI Pro One, Roland MC 202, Future Retro 777/Revolution, my own custom modular (20 modules so far), Elektron SIDStation, Korg Mono/Poly, Electro Harmonix Mini-Synth...is that enough?

I would compare it to a Moog mixed with Pro One mixed with 777 that had been modified by someone who knew how to make cool sounds with circuits. Don't forget that this thing has LP/BP/HP/Notch filtering...which is a very rare VCF for an analog monosynth to have (I personally love the High-Pass filer - it's unlike any High-Pass I've ever used.)

I wish XS had its own keyboard - because I love using it as a lead synth. For the price, I give it a 9.
I bet that this review seems pretty positive, but I really think that XS will stand the test of time.

The manual is very good, the patch examples are very useful.

What you see is what you get: no memory, no sequencer, this is a machine with one purpose. I like that.

The components are best quality, this sounds like fisherspooner, daft punk, etc... The manual says to let the circuits heat up for a while before playing, but I never noticed any problem. Rock-solid electro/techno sound.

I can't see what could possibly fail with this. This would be my piece of gear of choice to hammer a nail.

Never had to contact them. it would be nice to have an user forum on the company's website, but I understand that futureretro is a very small operation

It does what it does extremely well

No presets here, all knobs and switches. Despite the amazing complexity of this machine, you can pick it up very quickly. The layout may feel a little alien at first, but once you get a feel for it, it's really amazingly intuitive. The manual is clear, precise, and extremely informative. They even have patch suggestions to get you started! It's not as easy to jump into as a simpler SH-101 style monosynth, but this machine runs laps around just about all of them, so that is saying A LOT!

Monosynth, has an overdrive circuit that can create some awesome distortion characteristics. The modulation capability w/ this machine allows you to go deep into getting nearly every step of the machine to groove the way you want to. It even has an accent circuit that controls attack and release envelopes via velocity. This machine is also a perfect match w/ the FR Revolution. Knobs are a little wiggly, but I'm not too worried about it, as they contribute to a much smoother action, so you can really get good performances out of filter sweeps, e.g.

12db (2-pole) Multi-mode self-oscillating filter, LP/HP/Band/Notch. Sounds INCREDIBLE. Very unique sound. This IS the modern MS-20.

No preset/memory/CPU stuff to deal with means this thing is not going to crap out in the middle of a live show. It's very light so great for hauling, that means alot to me. The chassis feels indestructible!

Jered is a really great guy when it comes to communication, he's always been incredibly prompt w/ emails and questions, and I've been talking to him for about 6 years now w/ that consistency. FR seriously rocks. I'm sure if I needed repairs or upgrades (which i haven't yet) they would be fantastic and prompt about them.

For considerably less than the price of a modular w/ similar features, you get what I consider to be the holy grail of modern analog synthesizers. If I could only have one monosynth, this would be it every time. Honestly this is a gift to every electronic musician on the planet. GET IT!

I ended up with 6th XS off the choping block.
As is the case with synths of this nature, there are no preset sounds, and patch wise, what you see is what you get (there is no patch storage).

The feature set of the XS is fairly extensive. To go over it all here would be largely pointless considering manuals or other such things can be easily referenced as a thorough means of doing such.

Some more notable features about the XS are that all 3 Osc are capable of going considerably below the audible range, and hence serving as LFOs, while dually being capable of going considerably above the human audible range (up to a 100khz in the case of Osc A and B), which in turn can have it's own interesting applications.
Osc C's behavior is largely tied to Osc B as it is capable of emitting a square wave 1 or 2 octaves below Osc B, acting as a ring modulated output of Osc A and B, or serving as an intake of external audio.
As Osc C is partially tied to Osc B, this can make for very interesting results when Osc B is synced to Osc A.

Osc A and B can be independently set to react to either MIDI or CV, which leads to some interesting possibilities. Pseudo duphonic actions are made possible for example.

All Oscs are independently capable of overdriving the filter, but there is also post filter overdrive available as well.

In regard to modulation sources and destinations, things may be routed to 7 different destinations and just about every individual paramater of the synth (that one would expect) can be routed out to serve as CV source.

The unit is also capable as serving as nice CV to MIDI converter, as everything from Pitch/Pitch Bend, Gate, and Velocity can be converted.

Where the dedicated LFO is concerned, it may be freely ran or synced to MIDI clock. Interestingly, it's phase is not hard set, which again can lead to some interesting variations. So, for example, if you have the LFO being freely ran, and then switch it to clock syncing, it will not reset the waves phase placement, and will simply begin syncing from where the phase had last been.
I'm sure there will be those that find such a thing annoying (as it may arguably cause difficulty in sought after patch re-creations), but personally I find it to be an interesting aspect of the synths personality; something that helps add to the uniqueness of any given patch.

The way the envelopes of the XS function is very interesting. I could do a small essay on describing the functionality of it's envelopes, but instead I will simply state that where you might expect it's 2 stage envelopes to feel more limited than a traditional four stage ADSR, for the most part I found them to actually feel just as flexible for the most part. *(though not always, I found that typically I was able to accomplish with the two stages what I would typically would have wanted to establish with a 4 stage)*
The fact that accented notes can be made to trigger an alternate set of envelope settings in the amp, filter, or both also lends towards some interesting results.

Another interesting facet of the synth is that when responding to MIDI, if a MIDI note on message is received and the channel of response is then changed before a note off message is received, infinite sustain can be made to happen.

Ultimately, given the modular nature of the XS, it's extremely difficult to really cover all of it's possible features....
It is in essence, a clump of lego pieces, ready to be combined with any number of things. Thus where it's limtations and/or feature set truly end are hard to define.

The XS sounds great for what it is. It's timbral pallete is wide and will quickly lend itself towards interesting effects, synth basses, leads, and more.

Is it going to pull off a wide array of great acoustic emulations?
No.
But then again, I highly doubt that anyone interested in a synth such as this is looking for it to do such.

Haven't had it long enough to truly attest to it's reliability. However, I have owned other FutureRetro products, including a 777 since 1998. If this shapes out anything like the 777, I'd say it's pretty darn reliable.

Future-Retro's support has literally been simply beyond anything that I think can or should be expected. 10 years of dealing with the company, and even when many, including myself, might feel that questions or issues I had with one of my pieces were redundant and not worth time, not only did FR consistently come back with quick responses, but was quite liberal in regard to the amount of time they would lend to such things.

My initial idea with the XS was to simply use it to the expand the capabilities of one of my FR-777 synths. As things stand however, I must that I quickly found it's possible applications much to diverse to confine it to so limited a role.

As stands, it's been used in conjunction with numerous synths of mine, as an effects unit, and I'm sure it's roles will only expand with time.

There's a number of oddities in regard to it's architecture that allow it not only to have a unique sound at times, but a sound that I'm sure will remain unique for quite some time to come.

I'll confess that up to this point in time, my favorite synth of all time has been the FR-777. The reasons for this have been that I think there is a balance to be sought for with any synth, and that is the balance between overall depth/timbral capability (you may want to call this "feature set" at times) and intuitiveness. The 777 to date I think comes closer to reaching the perfect balance than any other synth I've encountered.
The XS I feel comes close to matching the 777 in this balance, but ultimately is just shy of matching it's intuitiveness (but grants considerable further depth as a result).
I'll note that though I'm pointing this out about the XS, I'm not really sure that I would consider it a complaint about the synth.

Something that would have been a nice addition to the XS would have been, as with the prior two FR synths, it came packed with it's own sequencer or (in difference to any FR synth) with it's own keyboard controller. Again, this isn't something that I would hail as a complaint as ultimately I find this lacking to be of little consequence.

If my XS were for some reason to drop out of my line of items, I'd definitely look to replace it.
It's a solid and fairly unique piece with many uses, be that on it's own, or placed in combination with other items.
You can never really be certain on these matter, but I have a strong feeling that this will end up a fairly coveted and sought after piece in the passage of time.