Midweek Modular: Octave Fuzz and a handsome bunch of solid modules
4,0 / 5,0 | 
This week Expert Sleepers wakes us up with the Cicely fuzz box while we discover a lot of awesome new modules that could underpin any solid modular system.
Bastl Instruments released the mini modular Kastle ARP this week. It brings some badly needed melody to the glitch and grit-driven Kastle range of palm-sized groove boxes. Read more about it here. We also saw the official release of the slightly mad FX Boy from Befaco. It pulls different effects from a range of cartridges authored by a bunch of modular makers and artists. Read more about that here.
Midweek Modular
In the second-hand vinyl record shop of modular, these are the limited edition picture discs and 12″ white label remixes that we uncovered this week.
Expert Sleepers Cicely
Sticking to the same 8HP format and styling of the previous analogue modules, Expert Sleepers has another tone-shaping machine up its sleeve. Cicely (pronounced like the island of Sicily) is an Octave Fuzz effect inspired by the Octavia guitar pedal made by Roger Mayer and famously favoured by Jimi Hendrix. “Cicely” seems like a rather understated name for something that’s a Hendrix Fuzz box for Eurorack.
The basic idea is that it adds an octave tone on top of the input note. It requires very pure tones to achieve a nice octave sound, and so if you hit it with anything else, the result is far more complex and interesting. When we get to the overdrive and asymmetrical clipping then things really start to fall apart. Cicely features a Centre control that pushes a DC offset into the octaving circuit. We then have an envelope follower that tracks the input signal. And finally, a Mix control balances the two audio inputs with the effected signal.
Everything is CV controllable, and there’s a huge amount of tone on offer here, from distortion, to clipping, to harmonics to wavefolded vibes, to some nicely usable crunch. Check out the video for a really deep dive into the possibilities.
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Nekyia Circuits debuts four new modules
Nekyia is a new brand of Eurorack from Greece. It’s launched with four modules to give us a flavour of what it’s about.
Root Locus is a good-looking multimode filter with an interesting layout. There are two inputs with crossfade mixing and CV control. There are individual outputs for low, high, bandpass and notch modes, but there’s also a single output that lets you sweep between the modes. The frequency and resonance controls at the top are well placed, and both have CV control. There’s also a v/oct input and a ping to rattle the circuit. Root Locus looks excellent.
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Opal is a three-channel switched attenuverter and summing mixer. I think what that means is that you have three inputs, level control and a switch to determine which of the two outputs it goes to. The centre position on the switch will mute the channel. Sounds like this would be very useful in performance. Channel 3 also has a voltage doubler switch, and they will all generate +-10v if unpatched.
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Obsidian is a dual complex LFO with triangle and square outputs plus a bunch of logic derived variations. There’s cross modulation, symmetry shaping, sync and waveform swapping. More fun than your average oscillator.
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And finally, Sosumi is a dual low pass gate based on the Buchla 292 and built with handmade vactrols.
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These are very competent modules and a great start for a new modular company. I’m looking forward to what comes next.
- Nekyia Circuits website.
Feedback Modules SUB, ENVF and VCF2600
Three new modules from Feedback this week that add some decent utility and a fabulously wobbly filter.
SUB is a complex sub-octave generator that takes a square wave input and comes up with -1 and -2 octave versions. The subs have independent outputs, but there’s also a Mix output, so you can set the level of each sub-tone with the original signal. It’s a good-looking module that’s going to introduce some serious low-end to your squares.
ENVF is an envelope follower based on a vintage design. It will follow your input and has three possible response times to tweak the output to your liking. You have a knob to control the gate threshold and another to control the level of the emerging envelope. You also get a through output, so you can use your original signal elsewhere. Feedback has a number of these useful 4HP modules now that all look rather splendid together in a rack.
Feedback Modules
The VCF2600 is a break from the 4HP format into the luxury of 8HP. It’s based on the classic ARP 2600 filter and uses the LM3900 Norton opamp chip. You have attenuation on the input and on two CV inputs to the frequency cutoff. You’ve then got Resonance and an output. What more could you possibly need?
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Infinite Machinery 2131 VCO and EG-2
Here are a pair of solid modules from Infinitely Machinery. The 2131 VCO is based on the SSI2131 chip, which is the latest in the family of VCO integrated circuits. It’s supposed to have super high performance and stability and is easy to work with. It’s a fabulously simple module with coarse and fine-tuning, up to 10 octaves of play and the standard three waveforms. The pulse wave also benefits from pulse width modulation. We get FM, two 1v/Oct inputs and Sync to keep things interesting.
Infinite Machinery also has a new envelope generator. It’s a brilliantly straightforward ADSR with CV control over each stage. As a bonus, you get a manual trigger button and a gate output that holds during the Attack stage.
Both these modules are the sort of stuff that underpins a solid modular system.
Infinite Machinery modules
- Infinite Machinery website.
- Feedback Modules: Feedback Modules
- Infinite Machinery modules: Infinite Machinery
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