About Us

Inspired by the ARP Avatar® in 1977, Peter Knoot started a long journey developing innovative guitar-oriented electronics under the SynQuaNon name.  It is a combination of synth and sine qua non, a Latin expression meaning "without which there is nothing".

 

The first design in 1978 was a monophonic guitar synth much like the ARP Avatar®. Fast forward to the 21st century with modular Eurorack synthesizers becoming increasingly popular, the opportunity presented itself for innovative guitar processing modules in Eurorack format.

 

The current focus of SynQuaNon products is on guitar (or bass) single-string processing.  While not excluding guitar synth (pitch detection) techniques, the emphasis is on using the guitar string as the oscillator and applying subtractive or additive synthesis.  Coupled with vector-based amplitude panning across quad or hex outputs for psycho-acoustic effects, this new approach offers a whole new world for guitarists/bassists to explore.

 

The vision for SynQuaNon is to harness total freedom of tones, frequencies and all manners of combinations to create never before heard, played and subsequently unique melodies of sound.  With infinite sounds to play with, users can truly explore the depths of their creativity with our products.