Design notes
We have wanted to make a multiband compressor forever, but never had the right
hardware / CPU / etc., to do it, so it was just another idea that languished on our very
long list of “someday” modules that were in some stage of development with notes and
paper designs and concepts but no real hardware for them.
Polydactyl is a tale of two modules.
We announced Virt Iter Legio (then called just Virt Iter) and Desmodus Versio in 2020.
We also announced that both products would be platforms, but we hadn’t yet fully
developed other items for either. Truth be told, we had many ideas for rmwares, but
zero idea how this platform concept would y. Would it be a op? Would people like it?
We were invested in the path, extremely hopeful, and kind of deer-in-the-headlights
about the whole thing.
When we nally released the Legio hardware platform in June 2022, it had been in
process for years prior to that, with a load of delays related to parts shortages and other
things. By then, the Versio platform had been out for almost two years (ack!) and we
knew that people were enjoying being able to change the module into dierent things,
so we knew we wanted to launch with at least two dierent rmwares so we got to work
on options.
It seemed like wrapping our heads around a compressor would be a great stepping
stone to a multiband compressor, thus our rst dynamics processor, Librae Legio, was
born. Okay, it wasn’t THAT simple—it turns out people here have opinions. There was a
lot of arguing. But it's always good natured!
With Librae Legio built, a need for the next Versio rmware, and some major time
constraints because of other things we have coming (!!), we decided to try our hand at
the multiband thing. We often prototype in software because this process allows a fast
revision time. We yanked the band-splitting code we wrote for Ruina and prototyped
Polydactyl as a 4-band dynamics processor. We often try to prototype with a platform-
agnostic approach so we don't shoehorn a concept into a platform when it really should
be a standalone product. This was the case here: One look at the knobs on Versio will
tell you this wasn't designed with the Versio in mind specically. We played around a fair
bit though, and realized that three bands on the Versio platform worked REALLY well.
This one, thankfully, came together based on the backs of a lot of our previous work, but
was so much fun to make and play with. And while we know we just released a simpler
6hp version, we wanted to release this 3-band 10hp version too for a few reasons: rst,
we wanted Versio owners to get to try it without having to buy into a new ecosystem
unless they wanted to, and second, because we use the two modules really dierently!
We love Librae Legio for end-of-chain processing. Polydactyl Versio also works for this,
but we tend to put it on single sounds (or smaller mixes) rather than at the end of the
chain. Most importantly, our main reason for launching Polydactyl is that it's just too
much fun to keep to ourselves.
Special thanks
starthief
6
