Get twice the Sub on your VCO with the Erica Synths Black Double Bass

22 Apr 2019 by Robin Vincent | Approximate reading time: 1 Minute

Erica Synths Black Double Bass · Source: Erica Synths

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The Black Double Bass from Erica Synths pulls together two transistor sub-oscillators and a lowpass filter for fattening up any weedy sounding VCO into a sonic monster.

Black Double Bass

This is a great concept. It’s not an audio oscillator by itself, it’s more like an effects module. It needs an audio input from an existing oscillator and then it comes alive rather magically following the pitch of the input. The two transistor based sub-oscillators sit at -1 and -2 octaves and you can mix and crossfade between them using the Submix knob either manually for via CV. The “Colour” knob is a low pass filter to vary the sound from dull to bright.

Both subs have their own output and you have a “Thru” output for your original signal. Although the Dry/Wet knob mixes everything to the main output.

Erica Synths Black Double Bass

The Black Double Bass can also provide some aggressive distortion, particularly when used with percussive sound sources. It has a limiter on the output to prevent clipping. Lastly, alongside the CV inputs for sub mix and filter, there’s a sync input for resetting the sub-oscillators waveform.

What a useful thing to have in your rack. It could add beef to absolutely anything – VCOs, desktop synths, percussion modules, drum machines, just keep plugging stuff in and see how the module reacts.

The Black Double Bass is available now for €125.