Bastl Instruments Kastle ARP: Pocket sized modular mayhem

22 Sep 2023 by Robin Vincent |

4,1 / 5,0 | Approximate reading time: 2 Minutes

Bastl Instruments Kastle ARP · Source: Bastl Instruments

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Bastl has a new idea packed into it’s little box of glitches. Kastle ARP is an alarmingly fun modular melody generator that forces sine waves through a digital waveshaper for tonal delights.

Kastle ARP

There’s something very resilient about these glitchy little Kastle boxes. They are based on some kind of nonsense that’s then made difficult through the tiny interface and more engrossing through the modular patch wires. The output is always something special combined with a feeling that you’ve achieved something extraordinary. They shouldn’t be fun but, by golly, they are.

Kastle ARP is the first one in the series that actively searches for a melody. The Kastle DRUM is all about rhythms, whereas the Kastle-Kastle is a complex and weird glitch machine with multiple synth engines that like nothing better than to destroy each other. The Kastle ARP, on the other hand, starts with the beauty and simplicity of sine waves and makes them sing.

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The key is that the oscillator is quantized. And so whatever CV you throw at it will result in something resembling a tune. You can either send it CV to find notes or use the inbuilt set of three chords, which can be selected by CV or patched in. Define the root note and have that play as a drone to fatten out the sound. You can also choose notes by turning a knob on the front panel, so you don’t need to feed it anything other than your creativity.

Of course, this wouldn’t be a Kastle without a good dose of glitchiness. A Decay knob influences the envelope and also causes missed notes and rhythms by messing up its own retriggering. The Timbre knob trashes the sine waves through a digital waveshaper. The inbuilt LFO will keep everything moving.

Bastl Instruments Kastle ARP

The Kastle boxes are excellent battery-powered little modular synths of joyful intention, and the ARP is probably the one that has the broadest appeal. But really, you should have at least one of each.