Frap Tools basically sold out their entire first synth run practically overnight, and now round two just landed alongside a chunky firmware update that fanboys are gonna eat up. The Magnolia, their debut polysynth that got hyped hard at Superbooth 2025, is back in stock, and the 1.10 update stacks on a pile of new tricks.
Memory just doubled, jumping from 200 slots to 400, so patch hoarders finally get some breathing room. MIDI CC now touches literally every parameter on the thing, and you can run MIDI through USB-C now instead of being stuck with DIN cables only. Velocity and aftertouch curves are fully customizable too, plus you can mess with LED brightness on the top panel, picking factory presets or building your own custom look.
Bug-wise, they squashed an issue where the keyboard lost parameter values after using the Static Value display, and fixed a glitch that was misfiring incoming MIDI notes.
A proper librarian app is still cooking, but current owners from batch one can flash the update right now using an executable that runs on either Mac or PC, with full instructions sitting on the product page.
Founder Simone Fabbri got pretty hyped talking specs, going on about the analog triangle-core oscillators, through-zero FM, wavefolders, and a nasty resonant filter packed inside, plus a modulation matrix linking sixteen sources to thirty-two destinations with just a button push and a knob twist. He mentioned everything's built from scratch, no off-the-shelf chips, basically treating the Magnolia like a shrunk-down version of their Eurorack gear, and admitted the whole team's buzzing, nerves and all, over getting it out the door.
Grab the firmware free right now off their site, and the synth itself runs €4199.
Memory just doubled, jumping from 200 slots to 400, so patch hoarders finally get some breathing room. MIDI CC now touches literally every parameter on the thing, and you can run MIDI through USB-C now instead of being stuck with DIN cables only. Velocity and aftertouch curves are fully customizable too, plus you can mess with LED brightness on the top panel, picking factory presets or building your own custom look.
Bug-wise, they squashed an issue where the keyboard lost parameter values after using the Static Value display, and fixed a glitch that was misfiring incoming MIDI notes.
A proper librarian app is still cooking, but current owners from batch one can flash the update right now using an executable that runs on either Mac or PC, with full instructions sitting on the product page.
Founder Simone Fabbri got pretty hyped talking specs, going on about the analog triangle-core oscillators, through-zero FM, wavefolders, and a nasty resonant filter packed inside, plus a modulation matrix linking sixteen sources to thirty-two destinations with just a button push and a knob twist. He mentioned everything's built from scratch, no off-the-shelf chips, basically treating the Magnolia like a shrunk-down version of their Eurorack gear, and admitted the whole team's buzzing, nerves and all, over getting it out the door.
Grab the firmware free right now off their site, and the synth itself runs €4199.
