PWM Malevolent

The easy and speedy delivery process to the UK was surprising, as I ordered it in the middle of the holiday season. Thanks, Thomman! There is a reason why they call it the Malevolent. The filter is something rather refreshing and different. The resonance behaves like any other. Right up to the 3rd notch. But after that, oh my...:D Naughty in the nicest way! Combine that with the lovely onboard Drive, and you can get some grittiness for sure! Hainbach would love some of the drones it can do. You can get some bread and butter tones out of it if you don't push it, but where is the fun in that? You should have other synths for doing the vanilla stuff! The patch points are spaced and pre-wired rather logically, easy to navigate and work with. The joystick is interesting, but I don't play live. It is a great 1st synth option for people who want to get into modular too. Works from USB, has a keyboard, MIDI to CV, eurorack compatible. Nice!

This synth is a monster. It starts to overdrive after about 12 o clock on the oscillator levels, the filter will self oscillate even before 12 o clock (you can beat this down some with more overdrive) and the FM on it gets wild. The synth is plasticky but felt sturdy. Keys were a little flimsy and I did have an issue with one of the keys at the end being able to be pushed up and down (if you pressed beneath the key and pushed upward, it would come up, but it still played fine) so a midi keyboard is a good idea with it. Otherwise, lots of fun to be had. As the name suggests, this thing is angry...dont go to this synth looking for your more traditional mono sounds, there are other synths priced similarly or better for that kind of thing. If you need absolutely over the top chaotic wildness, the Malevolent is for you. Thomann, as always, was quick and efficient with my order. Ordered from the US and got within a week!

I bought the PWM Malevolent for my sludge/industrial project, where I play drums but also need a keyboard to support the music with melodies and, especially, basslines.
I already have a SOMA Lyra-8, which is an amazing synth and absolutely capable of producing some horrific sounds. However, it's considerably harder to control and, since I'm not really a synth head and don't have much experience with synthesizers- especially semi-modular instruments with all the patch points - the Lyra can sometimes be difficult for me to get exactly where I want.

The Malevolent, on the other hand, immediately clicked with me.

First of all, this thing is aggressive. Extremely aggressive. With other synths I've used, I often had to run the signal through a distortion pedal to get the kind of brutal sound I was looking for. With the Malevolent, I simply don't feel the same need. It already has that raw, nasty character straight out of the box.

At the same time, it's surprisingly tweakable. There are tons of features and plenty of room to experiment, particularly with the patch bay. I'm still learning what all those inputs and outputs actually do, but even with my limited experience, I can get useful results without feeling completely lost.

The build quality also feels quite decent. It doesn't feel like a fragile little experimental gadget; it feels like a proper instrument that I can actually use in my setup.

There isn't a built-in sequencer, which isn't really an issue for me. I mainly use the Malevolent as a hands-on sound source for basslines, synth lines and melodies. I'll play the parts, record them into my DAW, and then use the recordings as part of the music and live setup from the computer.

That's probably what I like most about it: it's experimental enough to encourage you to mess around, but it's also capable of producing solid, usable musical results.

I'm not an experienced synthesizer player, so I can't give a highly technical assessment of the Malevolent. But from the perspective of someone who wanted a physical, aggressive synth for industrial/drone music, I'm very happy with it.