The personification of darkness in synth form, Dreadbox’s Erebus is a classically inspired paraphonic module which proves enticingly distinctive.
Over the last decade or so, Dreadbox has quietly grown into one of the most interesting hardware brands around. The Athenian company goes about things in a unique way, whether it’s the focus on bridging the gap between affordable synths and boutique production, or developing instruments inspired by “chthonic demi-goddesses who personify nature”. 2023 sees the reissue of two classics from the brand’s back catalogue, the Dreadbox Erebus analogue synth seen here and the Hades analogue bass synth (you can read our Hades review here).
The Erebus is a faithful reproduction of the original V1 model, with a couple of very small updates. The point with these Dreadbox reissues isn’t to reinvent the original synths like, say, a Korg MS20 Mini reissue with its added MIDI or even a full-on Roland Boutique reboot, reimagining something like the TR-808 analogue drum machine as a modern digital instrument. Instead, it’s just about bringing back those modern classics from the Dreadbox catalogue and making minor tweaks where necessary. As such, the Erebus benefits from changes around the envelope generators, increasing the snappiness (i.e. the minimum times) of the two envelope generators. Otherwise, it sticks to the same formula as the original.
What we have here is a paraphonic synth module, with two oscillators each offering two waveforms. These are mixed and fed into a single two-pole low-pass filter controlled by an ADSR envelope, then into the VCA controlled by a more simple AR envelope. Finally, there’s a lo-fi echo circuit before the sound hits the output. There’s no internal sequencer or built-in keyboard, but you can control over CV/gate or MIDI, meaning it’s compatible with almost any combination of MIDI controllers, software or hardware sequencers you choose. It’s also Eurorack-compatible, to the extent that you can remove the front panel from its case and rack it up alongside other Eurorack modules if you want (there’s even a ribbon cable supplied in the box to save you having to find a spare).
In Greek mythology, Ἔρεβος is the personification of darkness, or the gloomy area between earth and the underworld. How much that inspired the circuits of the Erebus is debatable, but the sound of the module feels rich and beautiful rather than necessarily dark. There’s a juicy warmth to the oscillators and filter which lends itself nicely to arpeggios and riffs as well as deeper basslines. At higher resonance settings that filter can get squelchy and acid-like too. The duophonic/paraphonic nature of the synth is also a key point in the Erebus’s favour. There are monophonic and polyphonic synths in the Dreadbox range, but the Erebus sits nicely in between. The option to play the two oscillators against each other opens up some interesting creative options, especially with the separate glide controls for each VCO, offering some beautifully atonal slew effects or longer drones which eventually lock into harmony with each other.
Don’t underestimate the importance of the Erebus’s simple but effective built-in echo effect. Based on a fully analogue signal path with CV control, the echo section offers just three controls for echo time, feedback and wet/dry mix, but it’s got bags of character and allows you to make the synth sound far more complex and nuanced than it would do without echo. The Erebus’s LFO isn’t patched anywhere by default, but can be patched in here to modulate the delay time for shimmering chorus effects or psychedelic old-school dubby delays. It’s a key part of the Erebus’s sound in much the same way as a spring reverb helps define the character of a Buchla Music Easel.
The Erebus comes in at just over £440, a very fair price for a boutique synth of this type. Much like the Hades, which has also been reissued, the Erebus reveals layers of complexity and depth as you dig into its patch points and explore the power of its deceptively simple feature set. The joy of a semi-modular synth is that you don’t need to reach for the patch cables to get out a good sound, but once you do start patching you unlock new options. That’s a big part of the appeal of the Erebus, which builds on a simple formula to create something enticingly distinctive. A modern classic.
Greg Scarth
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