While to most synth enthusiasts “vintage” means a return to the warmth and relative unpredictability of solid state technology, Eric Barbour of Metasonix feels quite strongly that transistor components are the johnny-come-latelies of the electronic music world. To get true power, warmth, and craziness, you have to start with tubes. And we’re not talking Fender Tweed re-issue here, we’re talking about mad-scientist sound-mangling devices made with tubes that were never intended to be used as audio components.

Witness the TM-1 Waveshaper/Ringmod, descendant of the near-legendary Hellfire Modulator, waveshaper, quasi-stable pitch follower, ring modulator, and all around sound angrifier, unruly sibling in a family of new vacuum tube modular synthesis components. Check out Shame On You for a taste of the ugliness, and then go get yourself one.