Hampshire Electronics Janus and Apollo: polyphony for Eurorack
Hampshire Electronics launches Janus (10 HP, £219) and Apollo (19 HP, £329), two digital polyphonic Eurorack synth voices with two engines and twelve synthesis types.
Small UK maker Hampshire Electronics, already known for the Vulcan, an eight-voice analog polysynth in Eurorack format, adds two digital modules to its range: Janus, a compact 10 HP synth voice, and Apollo, its 19 HP big brother with MIDI. Both share the same core idea: two independent eight-voice engines, twelve synthesis types, a chord engine, an arpeggiator and a stereo effects chain, detailed on the product pages for Janus and Apollo.
Who they are for
A modular system is monophonic by default: each oscillator plays one note. Getting chords means stacking complete voices, which costs rack space and money (our article on polyphony and voice count explains what “eight voices” really means). The two modules therefore target:
- Modular players who want pads and chords without adding a polysynth next to the rack: Janus fits chords and arpeggios into 10 HP, driven by a single 1V/oct and gate pair.
- Players working from a keyboard or a DAW: Apollo takes MIDI, handles eight multitimbral layers, meaning eight different sounds at once split by MIDI channel, CV input or key range, and sends chord and arpeggiator notes back out over MIDI.
- Eurorack newcomers looking for an all-in-one module to make a first case sing; our guide to the Eurorack format and choosing a first case helps check space and power.
What they cost
| Module | Width | Launch price | Price afterwards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Janus | 10 HP | £219 (first 25 units) | £239 |
| Apollo | 19 HP | £329 (first 25 units) | £349 |
UK prices including tax, as listed by Hampshire Electronics; outside the UK, import duties and local VAT are paid by the buyer. Both modules are hand-built in small batches and currently show as sold out on the maker’s store, with no date given for the next batch.
What Janus and Apollo do
Twelve synthesis engines
Each engine can take one of twelve types: virtual analog, six-operator FM, modal synthesis, string, drums (nine tuned voices), tonewheel organ (nine drawbars), wavetable, phase distortion, additive, formant, basic waveforms and noise. Both engines run side by side, so you can for instance layer a wavetable pad with an FM attack.
Chords, arpeggios and modulation
- Chord engine with sequencing, just-intonation and harmonic chord types.
- Polyphonic arpeggiator with harmony, strum (notes rolled like a guitar strum), pedal point and generative variation.
- Modulation: four sources, two modulation envelopes and a sixteen-slot matrix.
- Stereo effects: age, bitcrusher, filter and drive, phaser, granular, delay, reverb, chorus and glitch.
Specifications side by side
| Feature | Janus | Apollo |
|---|---|---|
| Width | 10 HP | 19 HP |
| Current draw | +12 V: 120 mA / −12 V: 30 mA | +12 V: 150 mA / −12 V: 40 mA |
| Engines | 2 engines of 8 voices, 12 synthesis types, 44.1 kHz | |
| Inputs | 1V/oct, gate, 2 assignable CV | MIDI IN, 4 × 1V/oct, 4 gates, 4 assignable CV |
| Outputs | stereo | main out, MIDI OUT, 2 modulation outs |
| Multitimbral | no | 8 layers (MIDI channel, CV or key range) |
| Controls | 2 knobs, tune, encoder, OLED screen | 4 knobs, tune, encoder, OLED screen |
CV (control voltage) is the voltage that carries pitch or modulation from one module to another; the gate tells the module when a note is held. Before buying, check your power supply’s headroom: Apollo draws 150 mA on the +12 V rail.
What they compete with
- Mutable Instruments Plaits (12 HP) is still the reference multi-engine digital voice, with 24 synthesis models since its last update. But it is monophonic and has been out of production since the brand closed in 2022; clones fill the gap. Janus offers eight voices, chords and effects in a narrower module.
- Expert Sleepers disting NT (22 HP) is an algorithm platform that includes polyphonic synths among many other functions. More versatile, but wider and slower to learn than Apollo, which is dedicated entirely to polyphonic playing.
- The same maker’s Vulcan remains the option with a 100% analog signal path, at a much higher price (from £549 for the Mk 2).
Hampshire Electronics’ case is density: many voices and engines per HP, at the price of a typical synth voice module. The trade-off is a fully digital engine, and a two- or four-knob interface that pushes most editing onto the screen and encoder.
Sources: Janus and Apollo product pages at Hampshire Electronics. More new modular gear is collected in our Eurorack Modules section.