There are lots of criteria for what makes a synth good. Sound quality, features, stylish GUI; all of these things, and more, matter. But, what it ultimately boils down to is this… do I enjoy making patches with it?

TAL-Pha is one of those softsynths for which the answer to that question is assuredly “yes”.

It does sound great. It’s a pretty flawless emulation of the classic but, slightly niche, Roland Alpha Juno II. Alongside a visual ease of us, which allows for speed when dialling in parameters, it also delivers some extra features that are extremely helpful for quick and professional sound design. It’s a winner.

Which is probably why, in the process of producing factory patches back at the beginning of last year, I was also able to release a soundset for it at the same time as its launch. And the intervening months have been no different. I’ll often settle down in the studio looking for a synth to tinker with and TAL-Pha‘s been one of those I most often settle on. I’ve been racking up patches for it speedily and steadily over the last year.

Enough to be starting 2025 with a double “cybertronica” release: Koda & Fenix.

I find myself watching a lot crime drama and documentaries on TV, as well as a variety of factual programming about food, technology, travel and culture. And I’ve found myself noticing that alongside some of the more traditional and modern soundtracking methods, a great deal more electronic music and scoring being used. This has felt particularly the case with techno and synthwave sounds.

Electronic music is decades old now, from its formation in the era of Kraftwerk and Vangelis, through the clubbing and DJing years, to a time now where we see the atmospherics and cinematics of modern scoring bleeding over into electronic genres and vice versa.

Inspired by this I set out to capture some of that modern electronic scoring spirit.

I found the sounds I was making (and indeed the shows and films that motivated them) funnelled themselves in two distinct but complimentary directions. Firstly, there was this club-oriented, atmospheric techno vibe. The insistant and ecstatic pulses and rhythms of the dancefloor, written on a wider scale to accommodate the emotional experience of storytelling. Secondly, a retrofuturistic sound that simultaneously yearned for a wistful world of evocative memories and gazed forwards in wonder at the many possibilities of a technologically advanced tomorrow; both lit in a grubby neon colour palette.

And what better synth to undertake this task than TAL-Pha? You’ve got the analogue-modelled oscillators and filters, the detailed envelope, the brand new effects… perfect. What at first appears to be a fairly straightforward subtractive synth has just enough tricks under its hood to produce something a little more sophisticated.

That’s what can be heard in Koda and Fenix. There’s a cool, brooding chic to the techno sounds and a warm, vibrant disarray to the synthwave noises. All of it baked in an atmospheric, contemporary sheen.

This dual “cybertronica” release has got all the modern, analogue, electronic sounds you need, within a CPU-friendly synth and designed to fit rqaully neatly in a sparse or busy mix. Enjoy!