Frap Tools - Magnolia

Here’s something unusual and extremely interesting: Frap Tools, one of Italy’s modular masters, have decided to step outside the Eurorack case and build a keyboard. And not just any keyboard — an eight-voice, through-zero analog FM powerhouse dressed in nice looking creamy white. Magnolia is their debut full-sized instrument, and it feels like what would happen if a Buchla and a Prophet decided to raise a child in Italy.

Magnolia’s voice architecture is like a transcontinental dialogue between synthesis philosophies. Each of its eight voices houses two oscillators — one “West Coast” and one “East Coast.” The first, borrowed from Frap Tools own celebrated Brenso, offers through-zero FM, wavefolding, and sync tricks that can turn sine waves into metallic choirs or alien speech. The second aims for something more grounded: a classic, stable oscillator with PWM and rich harmonic heft. The combination can glide from glassy FM pads to earthy analog brass, and then twist itself into something entirely unrecognizable, within the same chord if you so desire.

The filters are no afterthought either — they’re straight from their Cunsa lineage, which means sweet resonance, dual high/low-pass stages, and even linear FM on the filter itself. That’s right, the filters can sing. Add in three LFOs, loopable envelopes, analog distortion, and a digital effects section with tempo-synced delays and choruses, and you begin to understand how deep this beast of a keyboard goes. Yet it never feels menu-heavy or clinical — everything about Magnolia is tactile and deliberate. Assigning modulations is as easy as pressing a button and turning a knob = splendid modern modulation workflow, as it should be!

After some precious feedback from Superbooth 25', Frap Tools decided to introduce something called “Polymove” — a system where each note you play can slightly differ from the last, with random variations per destination and per voice. It’s like a built-in analog chaos engine that stirs additional life into your performances. Combine that with the Fatar keybed with polyphonic aftertouch, and you get a top-notch expressive synthesizer — undoubtedly one of the highlights of Superbooth 2025, WOW is the word!

Features:

• Eight-voice analog polysynth with bi-timbral operation
  • Dual oscillators per voice: West Coast (Based on Frap Tools’ own Brenso) and East Coast architectures
• Through-zero FM, wavefolding, and flip sync on oscillator one
• PWM and fine-tune controls on oscillator two
• Dual Cunsa-based filters: independent low-pass and high-pass with linear FM
• Loopable envelopes and three shapable LFOs
• Polyphonic aftertouch Fatar keybed
• Per-program analog distortion and digital stereo effects (delay, chorus, etc.)
• “Polymove” modulation for per-note random variation
• Macro knob for assignable global modulation
• Morphing between patches, split/layer keyboard modes, unison and chord functions
• Tempo-syncable arpeggiator and stereo pan spread
• Designed and built in Italy — Frap Tools’ first standalone synthesizer!