Erica Synths + Hexinverter have introduced the Mutant Rimshot, an analog rimshot and clave percussion module that’s inspired by the classic Roland TR-909 drum machine.
Like other modules in the Mutant Drums line, though, the Rimshot is capable of going above and beyond vanilla sounds. Expressive CV options, an external input and a multi-mode analog filter let you create unique percussion sounds in your modular synthesizer.
Features:
Three oscillator modes
Rimshot HI mode brings classic rimshot sounds
Rimshot LO gives a lower pitch range; try playing with the filter on this setting to get low tom and kickdrum sounds.
CLV (Clave) mode uses just one of the oscillators to give you a brighter, higher percussive sound.
A switch on the back lets you select between original and extended pitch modes. Original mode can give you rimshots exactly modelling that of classic machines (in Hi mode), whereas extended mode gives a wider range of pitch, at the expense of classic accuracy.
Three filter modes
Use the lowpass or highpass filter modes for classic sounding rimshots
Highpass and bandpass can give a wider range of clave and rimshot sounds, as well as completely different percussive elements (especially when turning the resonance up!)
VCF IN lets you blend the clave or rimshot with other sounds. Try adding some filtered noise for a more acoustic sounding rimshot, or for pseudo-snare type sounds.
Novel decay and filter mod controls
The MOD DECAY envelope controls the decay of the VCA envelope
The VCF MOD attenuverter allows you to modulate the filter cutoff with the MOD DECAY envelope
Alternatively, a switch on the back lets you modulate the filter cutoff with the pitch-controlled internal VCO, for filter FM style percussive hits.
Redesigned by Erica Synths in close collaboration with Hexinverter.
Waldorf has introduced Microwave plugin, a virtual instrument based on the original hardware Microwave from 1989.
The original is a classic hybrid design, combining wavetable oscillators and analog filters. It’s a rackmount module that built on the company’s PPG legacy.
Now Waldorf has brought the instrument back as a virtual instrument, and they say it has been “painstakingly recreated from the original hardware with all its idiosyncrasies and wonderful singularities”. But it also goes beyond the original, and features a user interface that’s much easier to program.
What they have to say about it:
“A multi-year effort and a labor of love which analyzed and modeled the original instruments down to the finest sonic details of every aspect of the hardware. Only the first generation of the Microwave and also the Waldorf Wave were based on a custom developed integrated circuit called the Waldorf ASIC. In combination with the legendary Curtis filter chips and a very unique 68k CPU based controller software the ASIC defined a very special flavor of wavetable sound unparalleled to none. No one else than the inventor of Wavetable Synthesis of the eighties, Wolfgang Palm, helped to design this unique chip.
Waldorf took a huge effort to analyze and recreate this integrated circuit within the plug-in. As the original, the plug-in runs the internal synthesis with the ultra high sampling rate of 250 kHz regardless of the DAW sampling rate. The recreated digital waveforms have been bit-by-bit compared with the original to be 100% identical.
Even the old-school digital-to-analogue converters of the original hardware were modeled with their non-linearities and tone shaping color which were leading into the two Curtis filter chips variants used for the revisions A and B of the original hardware. The plug-in allows further for artificially detuning and recalibrating of the analogue components. Brutal attacks, snappy decays and a plethora of wonderful transients define the sound of the first generation Microwave.
But the Microwave 1 Plug-In goes one step further: Its modern and inviting graphical user-interface reveals many aspects of the synthesis engine which were hidden before in the original hardware by its sparse hard to use interface.”
New features include:
A fully scalable modern interface with readable high-contrast fonts
Users can now easily edit existing wavetables and create new ones
Additional randomization modes make wavetable editing fun and “sonically surprising”
The plug-in UI allows now for quickly layering of single sounds to create the most complex and exciting sonic structures.
Even the more exotic feature like tuning and velocity tables have been implemented and can be edited in the UI.
Original MIDI and Sys-Ex dump files can be imported
Moreover, the plug-in can be used to control the original hardware are a graphical editor.
The Microwave 1 plug-in comes as VST, VST3, AU and AAX for macOS and Windows supporting the major digital audio workstations.
Microwave 1 plug-in is available now with an intro price of €119,00 (normally €149,00).
DivKid and Vostok Instruments have introduced Trace, an interpolating scanner designed for multi-channel series crossfading between audio and/or CV sources.
Introduced by Jurgen Haible in 1994 and later improved by Donald Tillman in 1999, the Interpolating Scanning circuit is a hybrid between a signal selector and a crossfader.
The circuit morphs between the inputs, fading from one to the next as the voltage control rises. The Trace version of this classic circuit comes with a custom, fine-tuned slope response that prioritizes a smooth transition between the inputs, providing interesting middle points between the channels and improving its behavior when controlled by external CV signals.
Features:
Four channels
DC-Coupled inputs for use with both audio and CV signals
Custom fading slope designed to improve the response on middle positions
CV-controlled scanning with onboard attenuation and inversion of the modulation signal
Low noise analog VCA circuits.
Trace is available now for £130 inc. VAT in the UK, €120 ex VAT in the EU and $130 pre-sales tax in the USA.