December 2024 Eurorack round-up
This month’s best new releases include an experimental filter/delay from Make Noise, dual filters from After Later and another bargain Buchla reissue from Tiptop Audio.
Make Noise releases always draw our attention, and the new Bruxa is no exception. This limited edition module is related to the excellent Strega standalone synth, released in 2021. Developed in conjunction with Nine Inch Nails member Alessandro Cortini, the Strega is a wonderfully experimental drone machine, based around a unique ‘time/filter experiment’ consisting of multi-tapped delay lines and a series of feedback loops and filters.
Make Noise are being slightly cagey about the exact circuit design of the Bruxa, but are keen to point out that it’s a separate ‘evolution’ of the original prototypes for the Strega, rather than a direct Eurorack version of the Strega circuits. Nonetheless, the concept is broadly similar, feeding sounds into the delay circuits and manipulating them into new textures. There’s no internal oscillator like you’d find on the Strega, just an audio input, which can be blended with the wet signal from the time/filter experiment. The Strega also generates its own CV outputs from the time/filter circuit, which can in turn be used to modulate key parameters like Time, Filter and Absorb. The results range from subtle, granular textures all the way through to infinitely evolving drones and soundscapes.
The first of two stereo filter modules this month arrives courtesy of After Later Audio. The Stairs is a multi-mode ladder filter with individual outputs for low-pass (2-pole and 4-pole), high-pass and band-pass outputs on both channels. Cutoff, resonance and bias can all be controlled via CV, with After Later describing the high-pass and band-pass response as ‘temperamental’, especially when starving the transistors of current using the bias control.
It’s hard to think of many filters which come in at under £60, so £118.75 for a matched stereo pair in a single module feels like great value. You’ve got to embrace the wonkiness a little bit here, but it’s a lot of fun to have so many options to play with.
Cosmotronic’s Aphelion is a very different take on the idea of dual/stereo filtering, leaning more heavily into distortion, combined with a DJ mixer-style low-/high-pass filter. The character knob allows you to crossfade between overdrive, wavefolding and ProCo Rat-style distortion, which plays really nicely against the filtering options. A toggle switch allows you to drive the circuits harder with +12 dB of gain or to engage a low-cut filter to preserve the low end while driving higher frequencies.
The real fun here lies in the ability to control key parameters via CV, including the character and drive of the distortion, but also the high and low filter cutoff frequencies independently of each other for band-pass effects. It’s one of those modules with sweet spots to be found in all sorts of places, from subtle filtering through to some really quite gnarly distortion.
Buchla & Tiptop Audio 285t Frequency Shifter
The latest in Tiptop’s wildly successful line of Eurorack Buchla reboots is the 285t frequency shifter, another versatile module, this time all about generating new tones from existing signals. Audio is fed into the signal input and then shifted in frequency (not pitch) by the internal oscillator or an external input. Frequency modulation can also be applied to the internal oscillator, with difference and sum signals generated and the modulated versions of the input signal both available simultaneously. The bottom ‘balanced modulator’ section allows for sweepable amplitude and ring modulation.
Tiptop suggest combining the 285t with their other Buchla reissues, and there’s a definite logic to that approach. Process a mic through the 207t mixer/preamplifier module, send the signal to the input of the 285t, then route the sum and difference signals left and right via a 299t low-pass gate and you’ve got a serious stereo vocal processor.
Finally this month, Tesseract’s Vinia packs eight channels of audio processing into a versatile format. Audio processing is a broad term, but the reason for hedging our bets quickly becomes apparent when you discover what the Vinia can do. Each channel can be a sample player, a digital oscillator (including drum synths and chord generators) or an effects chain, with LFOs, envelopes, envelope followers and sequencers per channel. Each channel has its own dedicated trigger, CV input, audio input and output for exceptional versatility (the one exception being the audio inputs, where channels 1 and 2 share inputs with 7 and 8, freeing up front panel space for MIDI control and the SD card slot).
It’s an undeniably techy experience, heavy on menus and screens rather than dedicated controls, but the end result is a lot of power for the money. Complex effects chains can sit alongside a range of different sound sources, macro modulation sources and monitoring tools like oscilloscopes. There might be a fair amount of setup involved to get the Vinia to do exactly what you want, but it’s so versatile that you can see it as a kind of Eurorack take on all-round sampling and synthesis workstations. Great bang for the buck.
Greg Scarth