Erica Synths Fusion Modulator: complex, analogue and Synthi inspired
The Fusion Modulator is a complex collection of modulation blocks including Synthi inspired looping unipolar and bipolar envelopes, VCA, Noise generation and Sample&Hold.
Fusion Modulator
Erica Synths suggest that it’s a versatile modulation source for advanced modular setups – which makes it sound a bit intimidating. They say it’s particularly awesome for drone orientated music and evolving sonic textures – cool!
Envelope Generation
The two looping envelopes can work just as regular AD envelopes. But they have two additional controls called ON and OFF which simulate a Gate. The ON is like a Hold control that holds the envelope open from the Attack stage and then Decay happens when it’s released. The OFF control dictates the space before the next envelope begins. By manipulating these 4 controls you can formulate very specific looping pulses, envelopes and LFOs. Decay is the only parameter with CV control other than the Gate input and there’s also a Manual trigger button that turns the ON state high and triggers the looping unless OFF is set to fully clockwise which turns the loop function off. Finally, there’s an EOC End Of Cycle output which sends out +5v when the loop is in the OFF state.
Oh and we’re not done with the envelope side yet. Along with the regular unipolar (0 to +10v) envelope output there’s a BP bipolar one (-5v to +5v) so you can use it more effectively as an LFO.
VCA
Modulator has a built-in VCA for either CV or audio. The EG LVL / VCA OFFSET is essentially the VCA output level. The VCA In is normalled to the bipolar output of the left envelope generator. If nothing is patched to the input then the output is the LFO signal.
S&H
There are two knobs to control the Sample&Hold circuit, one covers Rate and the other one CV input Level. By default this is normalled to the internal Noise generator but you can patch something else into the S&H using the CV Input socket. There’s also a Clock input to control the S&H rate. The white Noise and the S&H have their own outputs. And to top it all off there’s a “S&H+BP” output which combines the S&H with the output of the envelope generator.
Get modulating
There’s a lot of functionality packed into this module and it could find itself exploring all sorts of avenues in your rack. And modulation is in the eye of the beholder and you’ll see from my video below that it doesn’t have to have anything to do with drones or long-form music – you just start patching and it takes you to unexpected places.
The Fusion Modulator is available now for €310.
More information
Video
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