Meet the Maker - Modular Synths panel with 6 Eurorack Manufacturers

At this year's Winter NAMM show, Vintage King Audio presented the TEC Tracks panel: "Meet the Maker -- Modular Synths".
This short (35 minutes) panel discussion, distributed by Sound On Sound, brought together 5 well-known modular synth makers to talk about the booming Eurorack format.

Panelists included: Dieter Doepfer (Doepfer), Dan Green (4MS), William Matthewson (WMD), Ryan McGuire (Vintage King moderator), Tony Rolando (Make Noise), Brandon Ryan (Roland) and Gene Stopp (Moog Music)

They talked a bit about the history of the Eurorack standard (with it's US-based Inch-metrics... lol), and the influence of live-Eurorack performers on new modules.
William Matthewson from WMD offered an interesting insight of what to expect in the future with new controls, like tactile things, body movement, gloves, the integration of virtual reality and other new futuristic techniques that can convert all kinds of signals into control voltages.

Interesting to hear was also the process behind the whole module-design and where Dieter shared his point of view about the pros and cons of the community-input, mentioning the importance of the Yahoo A-100 Usergroup (and his annoyance about it sometimes) and the creative input from live musicians like the icelandic band GusGus when it comes to developing new modules.
It reminded me of his work with the guys from Kraftwerk in the past, with the development of the Schaltwerk, the vocoder and other projects...

Intellijel Atlantis Dual Oscillator Subtractive Synth Voice Announced

Intellijel just keeps on surprising with cool new Eurorack modules
Today they announced the Atlantis, a Dual Oscillator Subtractive Synth Voice

" The Atlantis is heavily inspired by the architecture and sound of the classic Roland SH-101.

It has always been one of our favorite synths and we really liked how the seemingly limited architecture allowed for all sorts of creative and musically useful sounds to be easily generated.

Just like the 101 it is quick to dial in beautifully rich bass and lead sounds. 

However this module uses triangle core VCOs (based on the Dixie core) instead of Saw core which respond much more musically to FM. 

The modulation oscillator can be used as an LFO or VCO (audio rate) and both track very precisely over 8 or more octaves.

Intellijel Atlantis 

In the mixer section you can adjust the balance of the primary oscillators waveforms including a sinewave which is normalled to the EXT IN jack. 

You could also patch in one of the modulation oscillators waveforms into this channel and be able to operate the Atlantis as a proper two oscillator synth. 

There is a switch labelled “LINK” which enables the modulation vco pitch to be based as an offset of the primary VCO. 

This is useful when using it as a stacked dual vco or when you have the mod VCO acting as the linear FM source for the primary vco and wish to maintain the ratio.

The filter section is a Roland style cascaded 4 pole multimode filter with LP, BP and HP modes. 

The LP Boost switch engages a special mode useful for the LP that produces a much fatter and prominent sound that is not drowned out by resonance (unlike the original SH-101). 

The filter self-oscillates to produce a very clean sine wave which also tracks 1V/Oct. Between the Mod VCO, Primary VCO, Sub Oscillator and resonating filter it is possible to layer up to four different pitches at one time.

The envelope section is an ADSR with a dual range switch. 

It also can be set to a looping mode which can be gated on/off externally.
The output VCA feeds into a two level output clipping circuit that you can use to get a much ballsier/dirtier sound.

Main features:
Modulation VCO: triangle core with Hard Sync and Link switch to connect pitch to primary
Primary VCO: triangle core with Hard Sync, Octave switches, Linear/Exp FM and PWM
Global modulation bus with four VCO waveforms, noise and S&H options
Cascaded 4-Pole multimode filter
Looping ADSR with range switch, manual gate, and external level (velocity) control.
Three position output clipping circuit
27 jacks for creative and complex patching options
Header on back of pcb that allows it to be linked (normalled) to the Intellijel Metropolis sequencer
Skiff Friendly

Summary of enhancements over the SH-101 core:
Triangle core vcos (with far better tracking and Hard sync) instead of saw core
Primary vco has linear FM (not just exp)
MOD Vco can be linked to the primary VCO pitch CV.
Modulation oscillator switchable from LFO to VCO
Filter is multimode, 2/4pole switchable and has a special LP boost mode
Filter allows for selection of inverted ADSR mod source
Filter tracks 1V/oct
Mixer section includes and external source which is normalled to a sinewave
Filter has built in soft clipping
Envelope has looping option, re-trigger and selectable time range
Output VCA has two stage clipping circuit
External clock input for the S&H
Patch points for every synthesis section"

Video: Intellijel Atlantis


More info at http://www.intellijel.com/eurorack-modules/atlantis/
Available to purchase on January 1st 2014

Intellijel Metropolis Preliminary Info

One of the most interesting modules i have seen in a while has been sent out to various testers in the last few weeks.

The original:
RYK M-185 Sequencer

The Intellijel Metropolis is a 'complex multi stage pitch and gate Eurorack sequencer', based on the RYK M-185 sequencer from the early Roland M-100 series.
This RYK module has always intrigued me, and i was always hoping someone would bring this style of sequencing/programming to the Eurorack.
(Watch some of the original RYK M-185 demos HERE and HERE)

Intellijel worked out an agreement with RYK earlier this year to create this only official Eurorack adaptation of his brilliant sequencer design.

It has taken many months to procure all the special parts and the design has already gone through several hardware revisions. 

Looking at the prototype picture that i see floating all over the internet, i see it has a quite lot of extra features.
It's a big, space-consuming module (34HP wide) and it looks very impressive with its rows of sliders for pitch and pulse count, the switches for different gate modes, and buttons for slide on/off and skip step.
All the core original M-185 functions seem to be there...(Read more here)
On the left side of the module is a 5 digit LED screen, buttons for complex programming/editing and a few knobs for AUX-levels, Gate- and Slide-time plus one for data input.

Intellijel Metropolis Sequencer

Some of the features :
-Sequencer modes:
Forward, Forward-fixed, Reverse, Reverse-fixed, PingPong, PingPong-Fixed, Random, Random-fixed, Brownian, Brownian-fixed
-TB-303 style slide (constant time portamento) with adjustable time
-Stage skipping (double click slide buttons)
- Internal quantizing with selectable scales and keys
-Can act as a master clk with BPM control or slave to an external (using clk src function)
-Save/load panel settings
-shuffle
-Internal clock divider
-Sync output (sets output pulse on last clock step of a sequence, used to slave other sequencers via reset)
-Two assignable AUX inputs which can control: gate length, transpose, key shift, root shift, sequence length, and step divisor.
-config menu to set slider pitch range, clock div type, clock offset
-tap tempo when in internal clock mode and tempo lock with bpm detect in external mode.

-All menu actions are one level deep. i.e. press the menu button and spin the encoder.
There are no hidden levels or sub menus.

Info via MuffWiggler

Video: Metropolis Scrutineering by Dudadius
Metropolis Scrutineering from dudadius on Vimeo.
" First go around with the Intelljel Metropolis. This is a pretty basic setup; I didn't get into using the aux inputs to modulate things within the Metropolis. I'll try that next! As you can see though, the Metropolis really lends itself to performing and improvising. Very hands-on and easy to go all sorts of crazy ways, melodically. Similar to the Rene, in that regard, but from a totally different point-of-view.Patch notes. Pamela is sending clock to Metropolis, Trigger Riot, Modcan Dual Delay, and Sound of Shadows.
Metropolis is sending the same note info to three different oscillators. The third one going through a uScale first to create intervals. All going into the Dubmix. The Trigger Riot is controlling Tiptop drums, mixed through a VCA Matrix then an M277 for a little grit. That's into channel 2 on the Dubmix, where I add a little Spring Reverb at one point.
The kick and snare are ultimately doubled with the Cwejman BLD and DPO. Lastly, I dialed into some sustained notes on the Pressure Points and a Modcan Triple OSC. The uStep is advancing the Pressure Points.
I had some troubles with the Trigger Riot losing sync when I would change presets.
I'll have to delve into that some more."

Video by Dudadius / On Twitter: https://twitter.com/dudadius

Watch an early Metropolis prototype testing video (september 2012) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zkgb9aZocg

Update November 11:
Now available for USD 580 - more info at http://www.intellijel.com/eurorack-modules/metropolis/
Manual as PDF available at http://www.intellijel.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Metropolis-Manual-v1.0.pdf

Filters IV : A-103 18 dB Low Pass TB-303 Filter VCF6

The A-103 18 dB Low Pass filter (VCF6) is Doepfer's own 'TB-303 filter clone' ;
It uses a so-called transistor ladder with a slope of 18 dB/Octave as frequency controlling element.

It is very similar to the transistor ladder of the A-120 24dB Moog type Low Pass filter, but the ladder of the A-103 is a modification of the original Moog ladder and identical to the ladder used in the Roland TB-303.

The in -and outputs are very basic; Three CV inputs are available, and the sum of the voltages from these affects the filter cut-off.
And an audio in- and output are also available, with one level knob.

That is the same layout as the A-102 and the A120 so sadly there is no CV control over the resonance. 

Luckily the resonance cán be adjusted with a knob, all the way up to self-oscillation.

And how does it sound?

I've always loved the sound of a real Roland TB-303 and the sound of it's filter.

This one sounds very nice too, it has that nice warmth in the lows, and the typical sharp edge when resonating, but don't expect that you can re-create a whole TB-303 with just this single module.

Some of the TB-303's other features, like the glide, accent and envelope modulation are missing here, and they (partly) give the legendary acid machine it's very original character.With some creative patching you should get very close to re-creating that original Acid sound...

I got pretty close by using my MAQ 16/3 for the sequence, and the A-160/A-161 Clock Divider/Sequencer combo for additional 'accents'. (You can add an LFO, or Noise for more random accents to experiment with / ,an  A-142 VC Decay/Gate envelope is also a useful addition with CV modulation to CV2 of the A-103 to create basslines like that* )
Overall this filter module can be a nice addition to your Eurorack. (7/10)

Video: Doepfer A-100 does TB303


* thanks to Jakob Paulussen  (@Jakobsweb) for that last tip and the kind permission to embed his video here. More info on the video after the break: