March Eurorack round-up
This month’s best new modules include a clever chord generator from Knobula, versatile stereo mixing from Cosmotronic and polyphonic envelopes from Noise Engineering.
Still a relatively young brand compared to many of their Eurorack peers, London-based Knobula’s track record to date has been exceptional. Their debut Poly Cinematic 8-voice polyphonic synth module and follow-up Kickain kick drum/sidechain compression module both showed impressive originality. Their latest release is the Chord Pilot, a chord explorer and arpeggiator which is notable as far as Eurorack modules go for eschewing 1V/oct altogether, focusing on MIDI over 3.5mm TRS-A connection (i.e. a stereo patch cable).
There are a few good polyphonic modules available in Eurorack now, including the RYK Vector Wave, but the obvious approach here is to pair the Chord Pilot up with the Poly Cinematic to create an all-Knobula chord machine. There are a variety of different ways to use the Chord Pilot, from a simple arpeggiator through to a more complex chord transposer or as an accompaniment to an incoming MIDI signal. It’s a hard module to boil down into a simple explanation, but that’s a positive result of its versatility and the way it encourages you to think in new creative ways. The Chord Pilot can be considered a way of generating new chord progressions, articulating them in new ways, or a way of twisting and turning existing ideas into new directions. It’s a slightly less immediate module than Knobula’s previous offerings but arguably the deepest yet. It’s also worth noting that you can easily convert the TRS output to DIN if you want to control older synths with regular 5-pin MIDI connections.
Cosmotronic’s Cosmix Pro is a replacement for the original Cosmix, losing the distortion circuit (Cosmotronic explain that the necessary components are no longer available) but adding a stereo aux bus. Overall, it’s a very classy offering, with four mono and two stereo channels, low-cut filters, channel and master level meters, mute buttons and tons of headroom.
The post-fader stereo aux bus is a particularly interesting feature here, allowing you to send certain channels or a separate sub-mix out to other modules for processing. There are separate mono and stereo returns for aux 1 and aux 2, meaning you’ve got loads of versatility in terms of adding effects. The stereo channels also feature +18dB gain switches to bring line level signals up to Eurorack levels, which is a nice touch. Connectors on the back allow you to daisy-chain multiple modules to create a 16-channel mixer or even more if you require. Not the cheapest Eurorack mixer at just under £350, but it feels like you get what you pay for here. Quality stuff.
Noise Engineering Quantus Trajecta and Jam Jam
The regularity with which Noise Engineering churn out new modules is almost as impressive as their consistent high quality. The Quantus Trajecta is the latest offering, and it’s a really simple but effectively realised concept: a four-channel envelope generator with shared controls for parameters. There are three modes, each of which allows you to trigger four envelopes separately but with universal controls for the four, meaning they all respond similarly whenever they’re triggered. ADSR mode give you control over a conventional four-stage envelope with exponential curves. AD mode gives you a more simple envelope but allows you to adjust the shape of the curve on both stages, from exponential to logarithmic. Trem mode is the more unusual of the three, effectively an LFO-modulated AR envelope, where the LFO speed increases and modulates the output level over the attack phase, then slows over the decay phase. Controls for Trem mode allow you to adjust the maximum LFO rate and modulation depth, which proves just as much fun for filter modulation as for woozy tremolo effects. You don’t just have to use it for polyphonic synth patches, of course, and the Quantus Trajecta proves a lot of fun as a modulation source, especially when you start modulating the modulation via the CV inputs.
The Jam Jam, meanwhile, is a four-channel trigger/gate/clock processor which feels like a natural partner for the Quantus Trajecta as well as a versatile little module in its own right. It’s a simple enough design, with three modes: Random (skipping gates based on probability), Clock Phase (adjusting the phase of an incoming clock) and Gate Delay (a simple delay with the time set by rotary encoder or incoming CV signal for each channel). The possibilities are endless here, from modulated clocks for interesting timing through to decaying, crumbling sequences using Random mode. The only slight disappointment is that all four channels can only operate in the same mode, rather than mixing and matching. A limitation of the hardware rather than an oversight on Noise Engineering’s part, no doubt; you’ll need three of them for maximum versatility, but what a set up that would be.
Blood Cells Audio explain that auscultation is “the act of listening to the internal sounds of the body during a medical examination, typically with a stethoscope”. The Auscult module might not go quite that far, but it’s a smart little output module with a twist. The real USP here is the inclusion of a DJ mixer-style cueing circuit, allowing you to audition a secondary signal in your headphones without routing it through to the main outputs. The potential for live performance here is obvious, blending between signals in your headphones to audition sounds before introducing them to the mix (via a separate mixer module; you can’t mix the cue signal into the main output using the Auscult itself). Additional pairs of main and cue inputs on the back panel can be accessed via three-pin connectors, with selector switches on the front panel giving you the option to hook up mixers and other modules in whichever way suits your workflow.
Greg Scarth