Black Corporation Xerxes

With Xerxes , the Black Corporation helps the polyphonic eight-voice analog synthesizer Elka Synthex, built in Italy from 1981-1985, to rebirth. Thanks to modern technology, the massive, polyphonic keyboard synthesizer of that time is now housed in a compact 19" case with 4 U of space.

The two oscillators of the Black Corporation Xerxes analog synthesizer are very homogeneous and powerful sounding DCOs. They each have the waveforms triangle, sawtooth, rectangle and pulse, are capable of PWM and can be switched individually into the ring modulator. The third sound source in the Xerxes Synth is the noise generator, which produces white or pink noise. The good basic sound gets the fine tuning by the multimode filter. It can handle lowpass, double bandpass, highpass and is resonant. The last link in the signal path is the switchable chorus effect, which gives the sound more width and vividness.

Two ADSR envelopes are permanently assigned to filters and VCA, but can be fine-tuned via velocity and aftertouch. Glissando and glide can be adjusted separately for the oscillators. The two LFOs can be synchronized to MIDI clock if required and can be used on a maximum of 10 targets. Thanks to six waveforms and its own settling delay, no wishes remain unfulfilled.

Today, the Elka Synthex is a sought-after classic and is certainly more likely to be found at the price level of a Jupiter-8. In this respect, the Black Corporation has done good by transferring this brilliant and assertive sound, which outsiders would consistently attest to be "beautiful", into a very compact housing and adding modern details such as an OLED display and many memory locations. The case of the Black Corporation Xerxes is designed to be placed on a table with the chic wooden side panels or to be mounted in a 19" rack with the metal brackets. Practically speaking, the connectors have been recessed a bit in the case, so the cables in the rack don't take up any additional height units.

• Fully analog signal path
• Eight-voice polyphonic
• Exact clone of the Elka Synthex (1981-1985)
• Two oscillators (DCOs) with PWM
• Ring modulator
• Noise generator
• Multimode filter
• Two ADSR envelopes
• Two LFOs with sync and fade-in
• Polyphonic Aftertouch
• Chorus effect
• Clearly arranged layout
• Parameters correspond to the original
• 19" housing / 4HE