REQ: Cherry Audio Atomika

Atomika is Cherry Audio's painstakingly crafted emulation of the Polivoks synthesizer manufactured at the Formanta Radio Factory between 1982 and 1990. Featuring the circuit-modeled DSP designs of award-winning developer Mark Barton, Atomika goes far beyond duplicating the notorious Soviet synth. Atomika expands it with extended filter options, full polyphony, an arpeggiator, integrated studio-quality effects, and more.



The Polivoks synthesizer was developed by sound engineer Vladimir Kuzmin and his designer wife, Olympiada. At first glance, Polivoks appears to be a typical compact analog synthesizer, but several of its unique features have made it highly desirable among synthesizer enthusiasts.

The Polivoks is best known for its iconic filter. Instead of using the transconductance amplifiers found in typical state-variable filters, Kuzmin developed a way to use programmable op-amps not initially intended for audio filter circuits, resulting in a distinctive and gritty filter sound. Other notable features include two loopable envelopes, a duophonic mode, and an industrial design aesthetic evocative of the Soviet era.

In a new collaboration with renowned DSP engineer Mark Barton (GX-80, Miniverse, Pro Soloist), Cherry Audio has revived its distinctive sound with Atomika. The original filter circuit has been enhanced with new controls like Starve, Filter Drive, and Amp Drive, as well as new highpass, notch, and peak response filter modes. Together, these radically extend Atomika’s already twisted sonic palette.

Atomika also boasts a powerful upgrade from duophonic to 16-voice polyphony. We’ve added unison oscillator stacking, expanded the LFO with more waveforms and incorporated velocity, tracking, aftertouch, pitch and mod wheel response, and glide options missing from the original hardware for enhanced performance possibilities.

The new second panel features a flexible arpeggiator and four studio-quality effects: a new Phasor effect, Flange/Chorus, Echo, and Reverb with a unique dedicated effects LFO for expanded parameter modulation. The panel labels of the immersive UI can be optionally set to Cyrillic text. A “hide keyboard” option also allows users to maximize on-screen real estate.

With over 350 professionally crafted presets and extensive MIDI mapping capabilities, Atomika offers a perfect blend of singular classic character and modern innovation, appealing to both rare synth enthusiasts and today’s professional producers.

Cherry Audio and Tim Shoebridge have again teamed up to create an extensive and illuminating introductory video introducing users to Atomika and the synthesizer it was based on.

I know, only r2r can crack this Cherry Audio stuff so far. But maybe r2r will pass on his knowledge to his colleagues one day