Argon 8 number 1 (the buggy one):

This synth tested my patience like no other.

I order my Argon in April 2020. When it arrives, I fiddle around with it for 3 or 4 days and… for the first time in my life decide to use my right to return the product after the purchase. The synth seems half-baked and I’m not sure if it has a technical fault or whether it’s a matter of flawed design. The envelopes and sample & hold LFOs are poppy (they generate ugly clicks / pops).

More importantly, the synth is incredibly quiet – and in a weird way. If I make a starting patch it sounds ok, but the moment I begin to detune the oscillators or add the onboard chorus or reverb, the sound literally vanishes with each increment of the knobs to become almost inaudible at high settings.

Next: I discover quite a number of things in the Argon engine that make no sense and irritate me somewhat. Some of those things I do not understand because I had not read the manual. Some I understand after reading it, but they are still irritating or at least disappointing.

The synth has an onboard limiter. When it’s active (=when I set the patch volume over the value of 100, and many times I must do that to be able to hear anything), the limiter kicks in. So if I’m playing one note on the Argon 8, it’s loud, but if I hit more, it causes Argon to reduce the overall volume. This creates a kind of unexpected dynamic.

Next: Argon does not store settings like volume boost (off / normal / saturated) and tempo in the preset data. Also, it does not store the sequence – I have to save it separately as a sequence file in the sequence bank. But that’s not the end of it. Because the sequence also needs to be “linked” to the patch before saving the patch. Otherwise the patch will play a different sequence after restarting the synth – the one which randomly pops out after powering it up. I remember that Waldorf Q had a similar way of storing patches and sequences. I have no idea what the benefit of that is. Or maybe I do – it’s there to make the sequences freely available to be used in other presets. But hey – the ancient “copy & paste” feature would solve everything, just like in the case of Arturia Polybrute.

Also, Argon turns out to have a very clumsy sequencer control. It is impossible to edit one bad note out of a sequence, so if I make a mistake, I have to record the sequence all over again. Plus the most irritating bug: sending MIDI from my DAW causes my Argon to randomly start its sequencer and wreck (randomize) my patch.

Last but not least, another disappointment comes when I discover that some of the modulation combinations that seem obvious turn out to be impossible (or hard to predict). Some of the FX settings can be modulated, some cannot. If I want to route [note] to [lfo 1 speed] I get an error message that it is an invalid mod assigment. But doing it with [lfo 2] is okie-dokie! Go figure. I know, I know – one of the LFOs is global. Maybe I simply got spoilt by my Hydrasynth which didn’t have such limitations.

Argon 8 number 2 (the broken one):

Some time in August 2020 I learn that Modal had released a firmware update (v 2.0), boasting that they have improved this and that, removed some bugs and what not. They say the volume thing has been improved, the sequencer has been overhauled. So I decide to give it another try and order my second Argon, but this time I do it in a big European shop and decide to choose “B-stock”. I am kinda in two minds about it, but the shop says on their webpage that they “meticulously check” the B-stock items before resending them to customers. The box comes and it looks fine, so I don’t hold the courier up. But when I open the box in the treacherous privacy of my home, out of it comes a completely massacred Argon. Half of the keybed is broken, the metal corner is chipped away as if by hitting asphalt after a heavy fall. So I think it must have happened before the synth was shipped to me. I think to myself “Christ, this synth is cursed” and I return it for the second time. The shop says something that really pisses me off: that I should wait for the shipping company employee and if they don’t come, I should call the shipping company and schedule a meeting with them to do the paperwork. I am mad at everybody – the shop or the shipping company, at Modal. I feel like an idiot in this modern world, where instead of doing my thing I have to be a helper of shipping companies and a beta-tester for synth manufacturers that for some reason nowadays seem unable to release a fully finished product. Lesson learned: wait a year or 2 years before buying a brand-new synth so that it comes with a proper, de-bugged firmware. Or learn to accept the price of “cheap”. What you save in cash money you then have to give away in the immaterial currency of nerves and time. But the lord has given me so much patience that here I am, with my third Argon and…

Argon 8 number 3 (the good one):

Some of the issues / bugs that I mentioned in the rant above have been fixed by the firmware update (v 2.2), some not, so I don’t know what to say. My judgment is blocked. I don’t know if they are fixable and if they will be fixed in the next OS releases.

Anyways, I spend enough time with the Argon to finally overcome or forget all the minor hurdles and I have to say I do like it. I mean, I have a kind of like-love-hate relationship with it. At the beginning there’s hate. The bare waves sound like crap. There’s absolutely no vibe and no connection. The synth seems stiff and uncooperative.

Then, after a couple of days, patience brings lovable results and some remarkable sounds. I’m beginning to appreciate my Argon and I’m finding it wonderful in the area of ambient drones, textured pads and atonal soundtrack effects. I also find it very interesting for… let me put it this way: modest or beautiful digital sounds. Like choirs, glassy bells or ethereal synthy pianos. Some of the sounds bring genuine amazement. Maybe the volume “bug” (design) actually boosted the synth audio to another level. It’s full in all spectrums.

I’ve seen some people return their new Argons because it sounded “characterless”. On the one hand, I disagree. I can come up with many adjectives describing the Argon sound. Most of the time it’s glassy (this is the starting tone). But it can also get raw, rubbery, sparkling & squelchy. To my ears it’s a “dirty clean” sound. It’s either digi-dirty or laboratory-clean, or somewhere in-between, but it has an ingredient that makes it… listenable. I think the ingredient is smoothness (a kind of organicness / orgasmicness). I can put a sequence or a pad on repeat (sorry, I mean “sustain”) and just stand next to my audio monitors for several minutes and listen to this shimmering, ultra-smooth tone.

On the other hand, I can agree with the “characterlessness” argument. There’s not much going on with the basic sound. A simple chorused sine wave is enough to give you a strong & pretty timbre. But your pretty sine wave can sound like a cheesy ’70s organ if you add an untreated digital wave from the second oscillator. It’s tricky. If you do not have a bit more patience than with your Prophet, it’s easier to get discouraged or end up with something totally unusable.

We have to remember this is the way such (wavetable) synths work. It’s not an OB-6 or a Nord Lead – a you-get-what-you-see, one-sweet-spot, ready-to-consume synth. You have to spend more time to find its more numerous sweet spots, or rather “modifiers” (like wave re-shapers for example) to modify your sound into something nice or interesting. Once you start reshaping this and modulating that the Argon will yield some curious and outstanding textures.

However, there is a saboteur in the engine and I’m not sure who it is: the filter or the FX. I’ve heard the FX section is not of the best quality and that many folks skip it. But to tell you the truth, I’ve heard this argument so many times with almost every synth out there that it’s beginning to sound asinine to me. I’ve managed to make some routings of the FX that not only satisfy my ears, but also transform the timbre into something totally new, so I wouldn’t “skip” this section. It’s always a nice thing if the designers let you rearrange the FX routing, and Argon does just that. But to be 100% honest I have to say – YES, I can’t fully gel with with the filter and the FX. I have trouble finding the sweet spot of the individual modules.

The British competitor UDO Super-6 seems to be a better choice in this respect – it sounds “organic / orgasmic” from the get go and exhibits more “character” and / or “texture”. However, it’s less versatile and costs 4 times as much as Argon. Another British competitor, the Novation Peak / Summit, is somewhere halfway between in terms of price, and it can also be described as “characterless” yet orgasmically listenable. If I were to choose the sound that is leaning more towards all things analogue, warm & bassy, I’d take the Novation synths.

Argon-8 has one of the nicest designs and simply looking at it pleases my eye. The keyboard is well-built, the knobs and buttons are comfortable and precise, so don’t worry if someone calls them “cheap”. There are many “cheaper” synths out there for that price (like Korg Opsix). By the way, these are Bourns frictionless encoders – that’s why they might give the illusion of being “cheap” when you tweak them.

I need you to know one thing: one of these knobs is pushable. I myself dislike pushable knobs and I think implementing them is never a wise choice. Whenever I want to navigate & edit the settings of my Argon, I have to take part in this interplay of turning and pushing one or two knobs. Turn the left one > then push the right one > then turn the left one and once again push it. Sometimes this clickology gets in the way. It’s not a grudge, because that’s the way many deeper synths operate. However, not all. Ironically, I find the Hydrasynth more transparent and convenient to use than the Argon which seemingly has everything on the surface while the Hydra has things “buried”. But Hydra is a different kind of instrument – an instrument where thought comes first and the sound comes second. In Argon creation & experimentation is easier / faster.

ARGON VS MINILOGUE XD

Let me continue the comparison thread: I don’t know why but I have always made an association in my mind between Argon 8 and the Korg Minilogue XD. People rather compare the Argon with the Hydrasynth, since both are “8-voice wavetable synths”. I guess the feature that I thought to be the link between A8 and XD was the sequencer animation. However, the XD is a bestseller while Argon is not, and I can understand that when I look at the genius UI of the Korg XD and the sometimes convoluted interface of Argon. Programming the Argon sequencer is not as easy. Sometimes it’s even impossible (when you first record in realtime and then want to edit the steps of the sequence – Argon won’t allow it). Also, the Argon sequencer won’t allow “steppy” values like in the XD. That’s either because of low resolution of the animation lanes, or Modal’s decision to implement “parameter slewing”. Or maybe because the Argon has encoders instead of pots. Anyways, the “animated” performance that is played back sounds a little bit different than your input.

ARGON VS HYDRA

Hydra is a much deeper synth, so let me just share a couple of subjective observations about the timbre. In Hydra it’s thinner but more versatile. It’s more laid back, less “obvious” (not so easy to guess with your eyes closed). In Argon it’s a deeper tone, more warm & rich, more “in your face” (intense), but harder to bend & control. The synth is not as big a chameleon as the Hydra. It has too few filters and not enough mod matrix slots, EQing, etc (Argon has 8 mod matrix slots, alas, count it as 6, since 2 of the slots will be taken up if you decide yo use the Y+/Y- joystick). But believe me, it’s still enough to make this synth impress you with its wide palette of patches, whose nature & quality make it more of a soundtrack / background textures machine than a traditional bass / lead synth.

ARGON VS BLOFELD

This comparison may strike you as a little odd, but I’m making it because Waldorf Blofeld is still in production and Argon8 sounds really similar. If you need a better interface and a more hi-fi, refined sound – go with the Argon. If you need a deeper engine for more fun and more vintage sound – take Blofeld. Had the price of Argon been 200 Euro more, I would say the decision is a no-brainer in the favor of the Blofeld. But the Argon costs about 550 Euro when I’m writing this.

And for this price I think it’s a good deal and a nice addition for the shelves of today’s synth shops and music studios. There are not many full-sized knobby synths out there for that price, and the range and quality of the sounds you can get out of it make it worthwhile. One of the Modal synths is called “skulpt“. That would be a good moniker, because if you hang around with Modals, you become a sculptor. You start with a chunk of stone and use your tools to carve an angel out of it. It takes a little bit more time, but eventually bears very sweet & exotic fruit.

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