Cre8audio introduces Capt’n Big-O and Mr. Phil Ter analog Eurorack modules
The makers of the NiftyCase team up with Pittsburgh Modular to bring us a seriously fun analog VCO with waveshaping and a fruity filter with VCA and envelope generator.
Cre8audio
It’s been a little while since Cre8audio exploded onto the Eurorack scene with the ridiculously good value NiftyCase and NiftyBundle which added the Cells and Chipz lo-fi modules. It’s a great Eurorack starter pack although the modules were a little on the cheap and fruity side for some people. Well, Cre8audio are back with a pair of new modules that hope to bring a higher level of quality to the affordable price point.
The remarkably named Capt’n Big-O and Mr. Phil Ter are still a bit fruity but these have been designed with top modular company Pittsburgh Modular who bring an air of competence that perhaps Cre8audio can’t pull off on their own.
Capt’n Big-O
Ignoring the name and the big-hearted front panel artwork for a moment this is a seriously good analog VCO. It has sine, square, saw and triangle waveforms, hard sync, pulse width modulation and both linear and exponential FM inputs with individual inputs and attenuators. But the snazzy thing is that it also has a Wave Folder and a Drive circuit built-in which massively increases the tonal possibilities.
Pittsburgh Modular say that the oscillator in this thing is not based on the chips usually found in Eurorack VCOs but has a unique design giving them a fat fundamental and interesting harmonics which is especially nice when running through the Wave Folder. The sine wave is normalled to the input of the Wave Folder circuit but you can patch in any of the others or a signal from another oscillator. The Drive circuit isn’t normalled to anything and so you patch in either a waveform or the output of the Fold and you have a nice bit of added saturation that can also operate as a VCA if you want.
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Capt’n Big-O is nicely thought out chunk of an oscillator that can act as a whole voice. They’re suggesting will sell for around $149. Check out my full review at the bottom of this article.
Mr Phil Ter
Hilarious though the name may be it’s actually far more than a filter. Mr. Phil Ter incorporates a VCA, envelope generator and filter into one neat package. The styling, in this case, matches that of the Chipz and follows a similar route into multifunctionality.
This time you have a classic low-pass ladder filter, a VCA and a dual envelope generator with a fast and slow output. The filter can be easily pushed into self-oscillation resulting in a rather nice sine wave. They talk about a hidden 7bit steppy sample & hold mode on the envelope but it was far too hidden for me to ever find.
None of the circuits in Mr. Phil Ter are normalled and so you have to patch the filter into the VCA and the envelopes to control the filter and level. This can make things a little bit crowded in that top patch bay area but I found the layout of the knobs magically got around the business and made it easy to use.
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Mr. Phil Ter is a useful bunch of things in a single module that they hope to sell for around $99. Check out my review below.
Bonus
Cre8audio are not quite done yet. They’re also introducing BigEARS for the NiftyCASE which are wood ends that’ll clamp two NiftyCases together into a rather fetching console style. These will be $39.
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I really enjoy Cre8audio. For me, they somehow manage to surf just the right side of naff, and sometimes make me laugh out loud. The NiftyCase is excellent and while their first two modules were fun but a bit of an acquired taste these two new ones are top-notch and I’m glad I don’t have to hide them anymore.
More information from Cre8audio
Video
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