Strymon has announced that it is killing the Generalissimo, which was to be their first Eurorack module.

We filmed a hands-on demo with the Strymon Generalissimo – a voltage-controller Eurorack Four Head dTape Echo machine – at the 2016 NAMM Show. While it looked and sounded impressive, Strymon has announced that it’s cancelling development on the Generalissimo and is, instead, working on an even more powerful module.

Here’s what Strymon’s Ethan Tufts has to say about the decision:

At the NAMM trade show earlier this year, we gave a sneak preview of our first Eurorack prototype, the Generalissimo Four Head dTape Echo.

Our experience at NAMM was overwhelmingly positive, with an enthusiastic response to the sounds and real-time playability of Generalissimo. In fact, our typical experience hanging out with modular enthusiasts as they played Generalissimo was that they got really into playing it, said they really wanted it, and then started asking us if there was a way we could make it also do this or that!

That wish list of feature suggestions, based on what modular synth artists told us about how they wanted to use Generalissimo in their modular setups, led us to the decision to take the time to rethink the feature set and to rework the user interface, including additional sound sculpting options, a whole lot more CV control, and assignable CV inputs for more flexible control.

We’re a very small team, and our development cycle includes a lot of research, discussion, deliberation, and testing. This means that our entry into the modular world will be delayed until 2017.

We also came to realize that the name Generalissimo has very negative connotations in Italy. We want to be inclusive to all of our customers, so in addition to changing the scope of features, we will also change the name.

We have never before announced a product that hasn’t eventually shipped to customers. For those that were anticipating a summer 2016 release of Generalissimo, we are sorry that it won’t happen. But we are hard at work on a platform that will greatly improve on the Generalissimo prototype that we showed earlier this year. Thanks for your patience and support.