The mad genius that is Tom Carpenter delivers the Maximus 4V for those of us with less spare space in our studios!
News breaking from Middle England tonight as the brilliant Tom Carpenter of Analogue Solutions has announced a cut-down Maximus, in the shape of the Maximus 4V. In a similar move to that which he made with Colossus, Tom has shaved four voices away from the brilliant Maximus and delivered a four-voice version.
The Analogue Solutions Maximus 4V
Much like the Oberheim which was clearly an inspiration for Tom, he has dropped 50% off the original Maximus and given us a four voice version that still sounds fantastically impressive but reduces the physical footprint or, to be more accurate, shaved half off the height!
If you can’t recall the original Maximus, it’s an eight-voice polyphonic synth in the mould of the mighty Oberheim 8VS. Like its inspiration, the Maximus had eight independent voice modules, each with their own pair of oscillators, three filters, EG’s, sequencers, VCA, sub-oscillator, noise generator and BBD-style echo.
A master unit housed multiple VCOs, an eight-channel stereo mixer, spring reverbs, MIDI and a MIDI to CV converter. All of this was housed in a wood and metal cabinet with plenty of patching options. An optional keyboard was available with 61 weighted keys with velocity and aftertouch and a 64-pad touch controller strip.
Maximus 4V – A Maximus For All Of Us
Tom has now taken four of the voices away to deliver the 4V variant of the Maximus and thereby enabling a more affordable point of entry into the world of Maximus. The synthesiser caused quite the stir when it debuted at SynthFest U.K. back in October of 2023. It instantly drew comparisons with the Oberheim 8VS, and with good reason, but it takes the concept somewhat further than that.
Yes, it is very similar to multiple SEMs in a box but each of the Analogue Solutions voices has much more going on, such as an independent sequencer per voice and a BBD style echo too. But just like the 8VS, each Maximus is hand-built to order and when played, sounds epic.
The Analogue Solutions Maximus 4V is available to order now directly from Analogue Solutions for £9,900. The optional AS400 keyboard can be ordered for £1,900. Of course, if eight voices are your thing, you can order the Maximus for £22,500. All prices exclude crate, shipping and sales tax where applicable.
