Erica Synths Pico Quant: CV quantizer with web-based scale editor
Erica Synths prolific run of releases continues in the new year with a new module in their 3HP Pico range. The Pico Quant is a surprisingly advanced CV quantizer with a web-based interface for creating your own scales.
Pico Quant
At a basic level you have 8 preset scales. As with the Pico DSP you select with the little button and the colour of the LED tells you what you’ve selected. Choose between Diatonic, Arabian, Harmonic Minor, Blues, Diminish, Pentatonic, Whole-Tone and Chromatic. That functionality alone would make it a useful quantizer module, the 2HP Tune. However, Erica Synths have opened up the Quant to some user modification via a web-based app. Simply browse to the web address – www.EricaSynths.lv/Quant – and design your scale on the graphical keyboard. Connect your computer/laptop/smartphone’s audio output to the CLK In on the Pico Quant and it will fire it across. That’s very cool indeed.
The Pico Quant supports semitone and quarter-tone scales so you can setup some microtonal possibilities.
The Tolerance knob at the top is quite interesting. It adjusts a CV range around the given note in which the module advances to the next CV stage. It can be set from 10% which advances when the incoming CV is almost the same as the given note, to 50% where it moves on at the mid-way point between notes. The Glide knob can add portamento up to 1 second in length. This can achieve a movement of pitch where the quantized steps completely vanish.
The CLK Out can be used to sync other modules to the quantized steps of the Pico. Combined with the CLK In you could link up a bunch of similar modules and keep everything in time.
Erica Synths always manage to pack a lot of functionality into their Pico modules. If you can cope with the fiddly knobs then they offer a useful way to maximise features in the smallest space possible. The Pico Quant is €120 ex VAT.
More information
- Erica Synths Pico Quant webpage.
Video
You are currently viewing a placeholder content from Youtube. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
This might also interest you
