Midweek Modular: Harmonic Looping, Warp Core and Voice Recording
4,1 / 5,0 | 
This week, we discovered four channels of overdubbing in Torus, CZ-flavoured synthesis in Warp Core and the simplest of samplers in Voice-rec-3.
We also saw that Gamechanger Audio had opened preorders on the Plasma Voice. It’s a reworking of a concept we saw at Superbooth that uses the distinctive plasma tube to generate usable oscillator sounds. But what is actually making the sound? Read more about it here.
Noise Engineering has brought the Basimilus and Manis Iteritas back to life in the updated Alia DSP platform. Read more about that here.
Midweek Modular
Of all the autumnal leaves of modular splendour that fell past my window this week, these were the most beautiful.
Raw Yaw Media Torus
We first saw the Torus back at Superbooth, where it was a prototype running a beta version of the firmware. Raw Yaw Media has announced that it’s about ready to go, and pre-orders for €449 have opened.
Torus is a harmonic looper. It has four channels into which you can sample any incoming audio and overdub if you wish. The channels are split up into 16 steps to give you sequencing and resequencing ability. The harmonic element is a pitch-shifting function to play it at different speeds. All the speed shifts are tied to the clock, and Torus also outputs a clock based on what it’s shifting to.
Raw Yaw Media Torus
The channels can be chained or sequenced in different ways. There’s a nice big Reverse button to flip the playback and a Mix knob to include the incoming signal with the samples. There are lots of CV inputs for function manipulation.
It’s an interesting module that suffers from a lack of video. SonicState shot one at Superbooth (below), but it sounds a bit ropey to me, but that might be the source material.
- Raw Yaw Media website.
Infrasonic Audio Warp Core
From the depths of space comes a module of endlessly complex tones. Warp Core gets all up in Phase Distortion synthesis which, yes indeed, means that it’s a Casio CZ-style oscillator. It comes distortion and modulation of waveform phase to generate a wide range of rich tones and timbres.
Infrasonic Warp Core
Warp Core has eight different algorithms assignable to two slots, giving it a total of 64 possible combinations. The algorithms break into each other to form new tones, and if you add a bit of phase modulation, you enter into the cosmos of unlimited possibility. You can inject a sawtooth or triangle waveform if you want it to conform to something more familiar. And there are two outputs for stereo or blended unison. Apparently, it tunes in a very innovative way.
The sounds from the little demo video (below) are pretty fun and interesting. They have a digital edge but with an uncommon thickness and lots of variation.
It’s available but in short supply for $375.
- Infrasonic Audio website.
Voice-rec-3
If you’d rather have something a bit more immediate, then check out the Voice-rec-3 voice recorder module from Gieskes. He talks about difficulties associated with the ISD1820PY recorder chip, but who cares about that? What we do care about is that it records and then loops.
Gieskes Voice-rec-3
You record via the built-in microphone after hitting the red record button, and it will automatically play back. The black button stops the playback, the black knob alters the speed, and the red knob controls the volume. A gate input can be used to trigger playback or toggle it on and off. There is at least CV input, but I’m not sure what it does.
Ultimately, you have to go with it. The video gives you a good idea of what’s possible (below).
- Gieskes website.
Videos
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- Raw Yaw Media Torus: Raw Yaw Media
- Infrasonic Warp Core: Infrasonic
- Gieskes Voice-rec-3: Gieskes
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