Following a lengthy development and production process, the ambitious new synth that Frap Tools were showing at Superbooth 2025 has now officially launched. The Magnolia draws on the company’s experience with Eurorack modules, and aims to bring a modular-like experience to the world of polysynths.
Frap Tools say that their goal when designing the new instrument was to offer their signature sound in a more straightforward instrument. The Magnolia brings together their most prized circuit designs and delivers much of what users have come to love about their modular gear, but with the advantages of polyphony and the convenience of a built-in keybed. Playability was an important consideration, and so the Magnolia has been kitted out with a premium Fatar keybed that boasts velocity sensitivity and polyphonic aftertouch.
At its core, the new instrument is an eight-voice bi-timbral synth equipped with a pair of distinct oscillators. The first adopts an ‘East Coast’ style and offers PWM, while the second ‘West Coast’ design features a wavefolder, flip sync and through-zero FM. Frap Tools say that they’ve taken a simple approach to FM, with its behaviour governed by a single top-panel knob. The approach promises to offer a “more raw and in-your-face way of doing FM, without precise ratios and indices”, and is said to be incredibly fun!
The instrument also benefits from a comprehensive modulation system that includes three LFOs and three envelopes, and has a total of 16 sources and 38 destinations available. There’s also an innovative Polymove feature that creates a random control signal for every voice, and every destination within that voice, providing a quick and easy way to dial in everything from subtle variations to “complete chaos”. Onboard effects are present, too, including an analogue distortion processor and some digital stereo chorus and delays.
Key Features
- Eight-voice polyphony.
- All-analogue signal path.
- Analogue through-zero frequency modulation.
- Five-octave, velocity-sensitive keyboard with polyphonic aftertouch and adjustable curves.
- Bi-timbral programs with Morph, Dual and Split modes.
- Two oscillators per voice: an ‘East Coast’ one with PWM and a ‘West Coast’ one with linear TZFM, wavefolder and flip sync.
- Continuously variable waveform selector.
- 18 dB/octave high-pass and 24 dB/octave low-pass resonant filters with linear FM.
- Analogue pre-filter saturation.
- Three loopable DAHDSR digital envelopes.
- Three digital LFOs with continuously variable waveforms.
- Per-part arpeggiator.
- Per-part 16-step sequencer.
- 200 memory slots for presets.
- Analogue global distortion.
- Two global digital effect slots with choruses and delays.
- Hands-on modulation matrix with explicit visual cue.
- Velocity-off modulation source.
- Polymove: an expanded polyphonic randomisation source.
- A Macro knob assignable to every parameter.
- 16 modulation sources.
- 38 modulation destinations.
- 64 modulation slots per part.
- Independent MIDI channels.
“We made the Magnolia because we wanted to offer our iconic modular analogue sound in a more straightforward instrument that could play chords and other 12-note music right away. Inside, we put all our signature sound tools — analogue triangle-core oscillators, through-zero FM, wavefolders, analogue distortion and a wild resonant filter. It’s a powerful instrument, capable of a wide gamut of sounds that range from soft, glass-like pads to earth-shattering distorted leads. And a hands-on modulation matrix allows you to connect 16 modulation sources to 32 destinations by just pushing a button and twisting a knob. Needless to say, we always design every single circuit from scratch, and Magnolia is no exception to this as an actual shrunken version of our popular Eurorack modules — without any stock ICs whatsoever! We at Frap Tools are all thrilled — and even a bit jittery — by Magnolia's release. It’s been a long journey, and we faced many challenges, but it’s rewarding to finally see it in stores. We would like to thank all our supporters for sticking with us, and we hope that it will be loved by many musicians!” - Simone Fabbri, Product Designer & Founder, Frap Tools
Pricing & Availability
The Magnolia is available now, priced at €4199.
