Hello,
Greetings from snowy Ann Arbor, home of pioneering electronic music. This the first update about Pluto, the little synth I’ve been designing.
You’re reading this because, somewhere on the internet, you saw a post or photo or video of Pluto and signed up. Or, maybe, in the before times you saw a prototype IRL and said something like “cool, keep me posted.” So here we are.
I’ve been working on Pluto for a couple years now and the project is at an exciting point where it’s finally about to make it into the wild. I started this project in NYC, where I lived for over 15 years before moving to Michigan last year. Part of the reason for moving was to find a place where I could explore weird ventures like this. Pluto is my first foray into hardware. My background is in digital product design, which requires a pretty different skillset, so I’m trying to be very deliberate with the development of Pluto. My goal is to make sure that Pluto is done right and people are happy with it, not to take a million pre-orders on day one.
BTW - You may have noticed this email is from Modern Sounds. That’s the company I’ve started. I’ll be releasing Pluto (and hopefully more things) under this brand. More on that soon.
Pluto is a mini-modular synthesizer for real-time composing, sound processing, and having fun. It plays great by itself or with all your other gear.
I put together a walkthrough video here:
A small “pre-production” run of Plutos will be available for sale within the next week. For this first release, there will not be enough Plutos for everyone who’s expressed interest, so when this batch is ready I’ll be working through the names on this sign-up list, emailing people until they are sold out.
The main goal with this limited run is to work out any issues with the manufacturing process before I commit to a larger production run. Pluto was beta-tested by a handful of users and I’m excited to get this run out to a larger group.
My expectation is that you early folks will dive in, share your feedback and be willing to test some experimental features in the firmware.
The price for Pluto will be $450. I want everyone with a Pluto to be happy. So, if you’re not feeling it, return Pluto within 30 days for a refund.
That’s it for now. Look for the next email very soon. In the meantime, follow along on my Instagram.
And feel free to reply with any questions.
Justin