PWM Mantis Synthesizer

PWM Mantis Synthesizer
Product no: 9000-0122-3946 Bax Music Warranty: This product comes with a 3-year warranty.

General

The PWM Mantis is Chris Huggett's latest and sadly last invention and, just like the Wasp, Gnat and OSCar, it's a Hugget-designed synth that fuses the past and present in its own unique way. Part of the first-generation synth builders, Chris passed away while the Mantis was still in development, leaving behind an impressive legacy.

The PWM Mantis Synthesizer

The Mantis has a duophonic design where both voices are backed up by two oscillators and a sub-oscillator, plus a set of filters including an LPD, BPF and HPF, each with a 12dB/24dB slope. On top of that, you're set up with two LFOs, two envelopes, reverb, chorus, and a mod-matrix to control things. The PWM Mantis is a relatively standard substractive synth that's not too hard to pull sounds out of if you know what you're doing. It's a properly modernised bit of kit too, featuring MIDI, USB and semi-weighted keys with aftertouch, which is exactly where the Mantis beats the fairly unreliable and now hard-to-find Wasp.

Tips or comments about this product

Please note: if you update the firmware to version 2, the Mantis will be transformed into a four-voice OSCar synthesizer! The company that once made the famous OSCar was acquired by PWM in 2025, which is why PWM now holds all the rights.

Specifications

Product features

Sustainable product	not specified
Synthesizer kind	experimental
Synthesizer options	standard
Difficulty level	intermediate
Vintage remake	inspired by
Sound source	virtual analogue
Number of keys	37
Arpeggiator/sequencer	arpeggiator
19-inch rack size	not applicable
Synthesizer type	keyboard
Type of keys	semi-weighted
Synthesizer inputs	none
Synthesizer outputs	line out jack
MIDI & other	MIDI in, MIDI out, MIDI thru, MIDI over USB
Audio via USB	no
Control	sustain (input), monophonic aftertouch
Polyphony	2