Midweek Modular Source: Gearnews

This week Skald Modular looked hot at Synthfest, Arbhar gets an upgrade, Sovage has new modules and Error instruments pull us fighting and screaming into The Singularity.

It was SynthFest at the weekend, which was a thoroughly good time. Check out Georges impressions of what was his first synth show. In terms of modular, I ran into most of the new stuff at Bristronica the week before. SynthFest is definitely more synth-focused in a traditional sense, and there was plenty to enjoy. However, check out Skald Modular below.

There have been a couple of interesting releases this week that we have already covered. First of all, Erica Synths has released two effects modules based on a new DSP platform. We originally saw these at Superbooth, and now the Stereo Reverb and Delay modules are available for sale at 280.

Qu-Bit has released the Mojave granular processor. It inhabits everything sandy, dusty, grainy and deserty and generates extraordinarily interesting and rhythmic explorations of micro-samples.

And, in software news, Cherry Audio has released the epic PS-33o0 based on a Korg modular synthesizer. Its worth checking out, I think.

What other peaches could we pluck from the fruit tree of modular this week?

Hiding in plain sight in a booth was Skald Modular and a simple, solid, modular synth voice. SkaldOne is a 16HP all-through-hole analogue monophonic synthesizer voice. It features a single VCO, a 24 dB lowpass OTA filter, a transistor-based VCA and a four-stage envelope with decay and release on the same knob as they do at Moog. The envelope is also wired to the pulse width modulation.

It all sounds very nice, but theres more going on here. SkaldOne is designed to hook up with a bunch of friends to become a polyphonic system. Skald Modular are building a MIDI interface which will support velocity, pitch bend and aftertouch, as well as an LFO that can be bussed to multiple SkaldOne voices, presumably via a rear connection. Its a bit like the Dreadbox Telepathy system but with much more space and simplicity.

The first batch of modules is being made now, and Skald hopes the polyphonic system will be ready by Christmas. Each voice will cost around 500. Its a nice idea. The website is currently under construction, so this video from Sonic State is all we have to go on.

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The extraordinary Arbhor granular processor from Instruo has had a major overhaul with a brand-new firmware update. Its been rewritten from the ground up and includes so much detail that Instruo has produced an overview video thats over 3 hours long. The biggest key improvements are that the number of simultaneous polyphonic grains has doubled to 88 between the two engines and that now the output can be in stereo.

Its a beautiful and intoxicating module that looks like nothing else in your rack. To summarise the features, I can tell you that it has two granular engines and a total of six 10-second audio buffers. It has pitch randomisation and grain detection probability. It can scan, it can follow, or it can become a wavetable oscillator. There is a built-in condenser microphone, a preamp and a limiter for instant and automatic audio capturing, or you can dump library onto the 4GB USB flash drive. You can save, load and clone between layers and save entire configurations with up to 42 scenes. This is an epic machine.

Arbhar V2.0 is available as a free upgrade to existing owners and is already shipping with all new modules.

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This time last year, Sovage launched its first range of modules. This week, we have another four to add to the collection. Three of them make some kind of sense, and one is a bit nuts.

Le Brasier is a resonant multimode filter based on germanium and OTA circuits. Theres an awful lot of fuzz going on in there. Bagarre is a stereo mix bus distortion with skills as a VCA, mixer, limiter and soft distortion. And Boucan is an analogue noise generator with waveshaping, distortion and filtering.

Sovage modules

The crazy one is Le Binome. Its labelled as a Spacial Creative Percussive Machine, and space is the one thing that it doesnt really project. In here somewhere is an entire synth voice of unintentional territory. It can use the internal oscillator or external sources to generate percussion through filter and envelope manipulation. Its then pushed into two channels that interact dynamically through Choke and Fade parameters. The stereo field can rotate and modulate in all sorts of ways. There are some interesting knobs on the front panel, like Bass and Air, Sabotage and Decay Shape.

Potentially fascinating, I think, but we could do with some video evidence. A video has just appeared on the Brasier, so hopefully, more will be along.

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This is something a bit strange, and thats saying something when it comes to Error Instruments. It has a sub-title of Tropical Noise; it has LPGs, clock dividers and mixing. You can plug in different capacitors or LEDs, and you can run it with or without power for slightly different outcomes. What is it all about?

Its somehow related to the Landscape Noon, which is a delightfully weird passive drum machine. This, perhaps, tells us that we are in the territory of percussive computations. If you turn the power down via a knob on the front, it will behave very much like Noon. Behind the panel is a bunch of oscillators that do weird things as you roll off the power. All you need is a clock and a bit of abuse, and it will start generating pulses of noise, glitches and nonsense.

The Singularity is one crazy mess of noises, patch cables and excessive intentions. Bonkers.

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An oldy but a goody, Stepper Acid is available again after a long time falling under the shadow of the chip shortages. I spoke to Transistor Sound Labs at Synthfest 2022 about the problems they were having, and now, a year later, there is finally some stock.

Stepper Acid is a remarkable 16-step sequencer with all sorts of performance controls, slide, accents, patterns, song modes, and lots of fun to be had. TSL also said the long-awaited Stepper Drum, which had to be completely redesigned, is also not too far away now.

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Midweek Modular: SkaldOne, Arbhar 2, Sovage and The Singularity - gearnews.com