It's basically an 8-bit digital synth with a pletora of different synthesis possibilities not found in any other hardware synth. It can do FM, Wavetable, Subtractive, Formant and more... but the nice thing is, that the digital synthesis is run through an analog filter and VCA.
I've had my eyes on this machine for a long time, and now that I have it and listen to it, I don't know why I did not get this earlier... holy crap, it's got a sound of it's own... it can sound like a Waldorf Microwave on steroids or warm and analog like a Roland... really really impressed with this little fella... and for about 160 EURO it's a bargain.
Took me about a day to build... worked on it's first run.
Anyone with skills to build such a thing and interrest in hardware synths should look here for info on it:
http://mutable-instruments.net/
They've got other interresting DIY products as well... It's just the basic version I bought, but you can buy other filter boards that emulate many other filter types, even digital ones with Lo-Fi FX.
Check it out
... you can even make your own user wavetables.
... I usualy make editors in the old program "SoundDiver" for my synths, but it does not support the checksum format of the Shruthi-1's sysex dumps...
... Kraftwerk go home! 