Midweek Modular: Barcelona, Crazy Chickens, Quad LFOs and ASMR
3,9 / 5,0 | 
This week we DANCE like Crazy Chickens, meditate to Tassel and get deep with LFOs. Also, we preview this Saturday’s Modular Day Barcelona.
But first, the most interesting bit of modular to emerge this week was the LANIAKEA from Magerit. It has multiple sound engines that impose themselves on wavetable-based waveforms for superclusters and cosmic-sized oscillations. Read more about it here.
Modular Day Barcelona
Every year Befaco hosts a day of modular making, demonstrating and performing. It pulls together a surprising amount of Spain-based modular companies and many from all around Europe. This year that includes Endorphines, Eowave, Ginko Synthesis, Jolin Lab, Joranalogue, Making Sound machines, Nano, Tesseract, OXI Instruments and more.
There are over a dozen performances lined up with all sorts of modular and visual artists taking to the stage, including Ambar, Death Whistle, Me-Lenna, May Grace and Colloid. There are also a bunch of workshops where a whole range of DIY modules are available to build under the guiding hand of the makers.
Befaco always put on a fabulous show and stuff the day with demonstrations and fascinating performances. Hopefully, much of it will be live streamed if you can’t get to Hanger, Barcelona in person. It’s this Saturday 24th of September from 10am.
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- ModularDayBarcelona website.
Midweek Modular
Otherwise, read on for other bits of modular that are worth your time this week.
Five12 QV-L
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Five12 has only ever had the one product that seems to have been in development for a decade. The Vector Sequencer is certainly a cool, complex and comprehensive Eurorack module. But at Knobcon Five12 was showing a new product called the QV-L, which is very exciting.
QV-L is a Quad Variable LFO module with four very customisable waveshapes. The split screen display shows you the action of LFOs 1 and 2 on the left, and 3 and 4 on the right, which also defines the split nature of the module. So the encoders on the left handle the first two LFOs, and the encoders on the right are directed to the second two. The internal engine wants to make things are versatile as possible so you can map knobs and incoming CV to destinations of your choosing.
You’ll also find some internal envelopes for modulating the LFO parameters giving it a fabulous mix of shifting waveforms. All the most common functions are kept to the top level of things, whereas some of the deeper parameters are accessible through some menu gymnastics. You have an output processor, which means you can control the levels of the LFOs without having to involve another module. And you can save your tweaking in one of 64 presets.
QV-L looks like a very comprehensive and feature-rich modulator and will be available in the next month or two for $379.
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Crazy Chicken DANCE
If you find the Five12 QV-L a bit too deep and mind-boggling, then Crazy Chicken could well have the LFO for you. It’s called DANCE, and it’s all about movement and instant functionality. Choose from 8 waveforms at the top, including ramps, sine waves and random styles; set the tempo, and you’re off! You can dial in the rate with the knob or use the handy tap tempo to get it flowing with your groove. You can also plumb in an external clock.
As with the QV-L it has an output processor in the shape of an attenuator. So you can set the level of your LFO without the need of an additional module – that’s very neat. There are two outputs, bipolar and unipolar, that go up and down around 5v.
DANCE is simple, groovy, it has LEDs showing the movement, and you can CV control the waveform selection, tempo and attenuator. All of that in 6HP with a chicken on the front for €145. Love it!
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- Crazy Chicken Linktree page.
Tassel Precision ASMR Tuner
Another nightmarish module from Error Instruments that aims to tap into our Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. Tassel can deliver the slow noise of vinyl crackle, textures and micro sounds that connect to your brain and disconnect you from the humdrum of life.
It has different sounds that you can explore with the precision potential meter that tunes up and down whatever it is in the middle. There are frequency and tuning controls and a light-dependent sensor for driving an Open Vactrol. It’s all about finding precise spots of happiness.
All of this is difficult to imagine when you experience the demo video. But then happiness comes in lots of different forms.
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The precision meter is a rare component from 1956, and there will only be 50 Tassels made. It will be available in October for €299.
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