Analogue Solutions Filtopia: 5 Filters in One Synth

TL;DR: Analogue Solutions, the mad scientists behind the Colossus and TC-5000, have unleashed Filtopia — a tabletop monophonic synth with five resonant analog filters wired in parallel. Only 200 units are being made, and at £1799, this is for the filter fetishist who believes you can never have enough sweeps.

• Five filters in parallel: one multimode (lowpass/highpass), three bandpass, one bandpass/lowpass — all resonant, all with individual envelope and LFO controls.
• Three VCOs, two sub-oscillators, audio-rate noise, true ring modulation, and two stereo VCAs with high headroom.
• Onboard solid-state delay, three ADSR envelopes, two LFOs, and an 8-step CV sequencer (no MIDI out, sadly).
• External audio input lets you pipe any signal through the filter bank for formant-style vocal effects.
• Limited to 200 units, priced at £1799 — fewer than 5 remained at the time of the announcement.

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What Is Filtopia?

We at Noxal have a soft spot for companies that don’t play it safe. Analogue Solutions has never been one to shrink from the audacious — just look at the Colossus, a synth that could probably double as a coffee table in a Brutalist apartment. Their latest, Filtopia, is a tabletop monophonic synthesizer that asks a simple question: how many filters is too many? Their answer, apparently, is six, because they stopped at five.

This is not your average subtractive synth. Most of us get by with one or two lowpass filters, maybe a multimode if we’re feeling fancy. Filtopia scoffs at that. It’s a dedicated filter playground — a “utopia of analog filters,” as the company puts it. And for those of us who’ve spent hours tweaking a single resonant sweep, the prospect of five parallel filters is enough to make us reach for a second espresso.

The Filter Bank Utopia

The heart of Filtopia is its filter bank: one multimode filter (lowpass/highpass), three bandpass filters, and one filter that can switch between bandpass and lowpass. They’re all resonant, and each has its own set of controls for envelope and LFO amounts. There’s even a knob to send each filter to the sequencer. This is not a fixed filter bank like Behringer’s 914; it’s a dynamic, tweakable array designed for formant sweeps and vowel-like sounds that mimic the human voice.

Here’s where it gets interesting: you can pipe external audio through the filter bank via the audio in jack. That means your drum machine, your bass, your field recordings of a rainy London morning — all of it can be reshaped by five resonant filters. The possibilities for sound design are genuinely bonkers. I’ve already started planning a patch that turns a single sine wave into a choir of angry bees.

Beyond the Filters: A Capable Synth

Don’t let the filter-centric name fool you — Filtopia is a proper synthesizer in its own right. It packs three VCOs, two sub-oscillators, audio-rate noise sources, and true ring modulation. The oscillators can be routed to “some or many” of the filters, giving you a level of routing flexibility that’s rare outside of modular systems. There are also two stereo VCAs with high headroom and spatial separation, one of which feeds into an onboard solid-state delay block for retro space echoes and feedback loops.

Modulation comes from three ADSR envelopes and two LFOs, plus an 8-step CV sequencer with per-step pitch customization and performance controls. The sequencer lacks MIDI out, which is a bit of a letdown for those of us who like to sync everything to a DAW, but there are plenty of CV patch points and a sync input. MIDI in/thru is handled via five-pin DIN on the rear. It’s a hybrid approach that will please the modular crowd while frustrating the MIDI purists — and honestly, that feels very Analogue Solutions.

Market Context and Who Should Care

At £1799 and limited to 200 units, Filtopia is not for the faint of wallet or the casual enthusiast. This is a boutique instrument for the dedicated sound designer, the filter fetishist, the person who has watched every video on formant synthesis and still wants more. It competes with the likes of the Make Noise Strega or the Pittsburgh Modular Lifeforms, but with a far more focused filter-centric architecture.

Who is this for? It’s for the synth nerd who already has a monosynth and a modular setup but still feels something missing. It’s for the producer who wants to process external gear through a bank of resonant filters. It’s for the collector who knows that only 200 exist and that FOMO is a powerful motivator. And if you’re reading this and only four remain, well — you’ve been warned.

I’m off to brew another pour-over and contemplate whether five filters is enough, or if I should just build a wall of them in Eurorack. Either way, my coffee’s getting cold.