For Emmy Award-Winning Composer and Arranger Dave Gale, the AJH Synth MiniMod Keyz is Like a 'Model D on Steroids'

"You can't help but be inspired when you are playing something that has this degree of quality", says Gale, who appreciates the AJH Synth sound and build quality

November 20, 2025

London, UK, 20 November 2025 — As an Emmy Award-winning media composer, arranger and producer with many feature television productions under his belt, Dave Gale routinely works within the analogue and digital worlds in his own hybrid studio environment. While his primary background is in media composition, he is also a lecturer at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. While he spends much of his time working on complex orchestrations or arranging on the computer, he has been enamoured with analogue synths since the 1980s. One of the stalwart pieces in his impressive collection is the recently launched AJH Synth MiniMod Keyz. 

"When the MiniMod Keyz came out, it was fantastic, like a Minimoog on steroids," says Gale. "One of the main reasons I love it is because there are no presets, so you are getting your hands dirty and creating sounds. It is within a small enough footprint that you can get good sounds out really quickly - even the most basic thing of reaching for the filter just somehow feels very different."

Focus on build quality and uncompromising sound
Gale recalls demoing his very first AJH Synth modules before acquiring his MiniMod Keyz system: "To be blunt, I was so blown away that I immediately bought them," he says. "The presentation when you open the box, the build quality, and of course the sound. It was all just stunning." He says this was a refreshing experience in an ever-expanding Eurorack market. "They are built like they are weapons-grade material and they are not going to break and fall apart. Then of course you plugged them in and heard this wonderful sound!" He also appreciates the stability of the tuning on the MiniMod Vintage Transistor Core VCO and the detailed envelope shapes on the MiniMod Contour Generators.

Gale says that he once had an enormous Eurorack system but it became unwieldy, so he whittled it down a couple of years ago to just a few modules. "Only a select number of modules remain, and all the AJH ones are there - so that should tell you a lot," he says. While he still maintains a small case with his AJH Synth modules - including the Next Phase and Gemini 2412 filter which are among his favorites - his MiniMod Keyz enjoys frequent use in spite of being surrounded by some stiff competition. "I’m very lucky, I’ve got a Roland Jupiter 8, a Schmidt polyphonic synth, an ARP 2600 and many other instruments. But more often than not, I’ll have a noodle on the MiniMod Keyz and an idea will come."

Inspiring sounds, voice-by-voice
"I am a keyboard player and like having one right in front of me," says Gale. "If I am in that zone and if I want to do some patterns or sequencing, it’s really nice to just turn on the MiniMod Keyz and have a play. I like working on a voice-by-voice level, and I do the same thing when I am working with strings or brass on a screen. I think of modular as an organic, breathing music instrument in its own right, and the MiniMod Keyz can be very inspiring on that level, even with just a single voice."

In his whittled-down two-row case, two other AJH Synth modules that see a lot of play time are the Gemini 2412 filter and the Next Phase. "One of the reasons I ended up getting a two-voice system was because I was so blown away by what you can do with that AJH Gemini filter. Its variable state notion allows you to get all these vowel, throaty effects, which are just fantastic," says Gale. Not surprisingly, what drew him to the AJH Next Phase was its sound: "The moment I heard the Next Phase, I just went straight back to 1976. For me, it always starts and ends with the sound and what you are getting at the output stage. The only problem with the Next Phase is that it leaves you wanting to have more than one!" he says.

About AJH Synth
AJH Synth is headed up by Allan J Hall, who has been involved with synths, electronics and music for several decades. He started by building a guitar fuzz box at the tender age of 12 and his interest in synthesisers and electronic music soon followed, fuelled by an unhealthy overexposure to early Tangerine Dream, Pink Floyd, Vangelis and Kitaro. For the last 15 years he has been building and modding synth systems both for himself and other electronic musicians, as well as spending some time as a semi-pro musician playing keyboards in several rock and tribute bands. Allan spent five years as a service technician repairing and modifying Moog, Arp, Korg, Roland and other analogue synthesisers along with some Pro Audio design work, previous to this he spent two years designing and building "boutique" valve (tube) guitar amplifiers. AJH Synth are based near Durham, in the northeast of England, where this small but enthusiastic bunch of synth heads now indulge their passion for all things modular.