Poly Effects starts shipping Hector: The modular synth for your modular synth

Back in January Poly Effects unveiled Hector: a virtual modular synth designed to live inside your physical modular synth. Now the Eurorack sibling of the Beebo is finally shipping to customers eager to start building the synth modules of their dreams on an easy to use touchscreen.

Inside Hector is a collection of over 100 different modules that you can combine and connect to create your own synth voices, modulation sources or effects and then use them with your existing Eurorack setup. The beauty here is that the Hector can be whatever you want it to be: a boring utility module like a mixer or an attenuator, an emulation of a Mutable Instruments oscillator or a crazy convolution reverb built around the sound of a bong rip.

The Hector itself is a 30 HP unit with six ins and eight outs, all of which can be used either for audio or control voltage (CV). There's also MIDI in and out via 3.5mm TRS jacks and USB.

The Hector runs basically the same firmware as the Beebo, so everything I said was great about that pedal when I reviewed it still stands. Plus, Poly Effects has made some big improvements in the months since. For one, there are a few new modules, including a proper looper which is something I had dinged it for lacking. Additionally responsiveness has been improved and there a bunch of tiny bug fixes as well. And, since they run the same software you can use existing Beebo presets on the Hector.

There are some differences worth noting though: While the Beebo had two encoders and a trio of footswitches the only controls for the Hector are on the touchscreen. If you want to take more control you'll need to hook up an external controller.

If you didn't preorder a Hector you'll be in for a bit of a wait, though. Batches one and two are sold out and the third one isn't expected to ship for about three weeks. But you can still secure yourself a future Hector for $599 over at the Poly Effects site.