MELBOURNE INSTRUMENTS NINA

Musical instrument manufacturing in Australia has been a rather interesting landscape. What can’t be disputed is some of the true innovation, style and unique character many instrument companies on this continent have had to offer through the decades; being thrown in and out of tour buses, aeroplane cargo holds flown round the world, or simply nestled in a studio somewhere.

A few big names within the realms of guitars, amps, pedals and drums have been plugging away reasonably comfortably for decades, but as for synthesizers, Australia hasn’t seen a commercially available designed and assembled synth since (drum roll please…) the CMI Fairlight –released in 1979.

Now in 2023, some 40+ years on, there’s a new kid’s on the block, and I for one, was pretty bloody excited to see a company be gutsy enough to not only design from the ground up, but assemble a new synth here in Australia. This is a big a deal this is! So, I was naturally excited to take the new NINA, by Melbourne Instruments, through it’s paces.

Hailing believe it or not, in Melbourne, Australia, the Nina is the impressive debut product from the brand. A 12 voice analogue poly synth and packed to the brim with features-it’s a remarkable introduction into the space.

NINA has a total of 3 oscillators per voice, with two analogue VCO’s which are fully discrete and have been designed in-house from the ground up. No generic off the shelf chips here. Morphable from triangle to sawtooth and PWM square wave there’s a wide palette to choose from, with sub octave mode for VCO 1 square wave as well as a hard sync for VCO 2 from VCO 1. The fine and coarse tune control has a wide range of 8 octaves and with it, refined tactile control. There’s also a digital wavetable oscillator on board, which is capable of users loading their own wavetables and has a resolution of 96kHz/24bit. Selectable fuzz and noise generators ranging from white, pink Oscillator 1 or 2 XOR (fuzz) are also available and the LFO boasts selectable shape through zero modulatable rate and level control.

The VCF is a 4 pole transistor ladder low pass filter, with a nice, round Moog like vibe, with a modulatable resonance available as a matrix destination and full envelope, with a completely separate envelope for the output. The circuit can be overdriven nicely; the drive is just awesome, harmonically rich yet smooth..

The VCA is rather unique in that there are two VCA’s per voice (ala stereo) and has the ability to infinitely pan via some clever stereo anti-phase wizardry, taking this outside the stereo field via the spin knob.

As for the on-board digital effects, Melbourne Instruments haven’t gone crazy with stuffing things to be brim, but rather have stuck with the classics of reverb, delay and chorus - but boy, do these effects stack up! They’re absolutely lush sounding, and personally, I wouldn’t want or need more than what’s here. The quality is just superb.

Before I get to the most revered feature of this gorgeous synth, there’s a couple of really unique things I’d like to touch on. Firstly, the morph knob, which allows seamless morphing between layers A and B of a chosen patch. This makes for some really interesting sounds to be discovered, finding potential sweet spots between layers, or just getting downright weird and wonderful, at the twist of a knob! The other particularly noteworthy feature is the modulation matrix. This is pretty much endless in its ability to map anything anywhere, just being a button press away and intuitive as it gets to navigate. Now, what’s got most people really talking about this synth are the motorised encoders. Taken from drone tech, these moving knobs are absolutely no gimmick, so let's just nip that in the bud. Rather, these encoders are built like tanks and are brushless, so they feel incredibly smooth but, you’re able to change the feel of them entirely if desired. For example, when changing the tuning of the oscillators from fine to coarse, the knobs go from smooth to stepped respectively.

Every part of this synth oozes character and vibe, whether it be the depth of the analogue guts which is phat, warm; wide and characterful, or the tactile convenience and darned right ease and simplicity of it’s layout, navigation through patches/ storing new sounds, and the overall visual feedback of parameters on screen. NINA is an absolute dream to play and guarantees endless tinkering and sonic exploration.

The unison mode is absolutely gargantuan; I don’t think I’ve heard a synth like it, just so incredibly massive! There’s so much grunt under the hood, but as I kept pushing this synth further into bedlam I got the distinct impression I was going to be the loser in this battle. NINA just doesn’t let up. As for the multi timbrel side of things, NINA is a sound designers and composers dream. Endless sonic possibilities, and will pair seamlessly with other gear via its array of I/O.

Every part of this synth, from the chassis, to the encoders, buttons (and I had a feeling I was going to like the iconic red 80’s/90’s like keyboard buttons, very nostalgic both in look and feel) and connectors, feels as they should - absolutely rock solid and build to last even the most demanding of performance environments, both live and studio alike. I was hard pressed to find anything I didn’t like about NINA, an absolute testament to the team at Melbourne Instruments and what they’ve achieved here. A synth to get your hands on and a company to watch closely.

BY ANDY LLOYD-RUSSELL