Greetings from Signal Sounds HQ

It’s a common problem: you buy a load of music gear and it gets WAY less use than you had hoped for when you first saw it winking at your from the homepage of the Signal Sounds website.  With that in mind, we have Exciting News - we’re taking over Glasgow electronic night Noise Box next month and the entire Signal Sounds team will be playing live! It’s been years since some of us last plugged in our gear in public so we’re looking forward to blowing the cobwebs off our machines at Bloc on Thursday 18th July and hopefully blowing a few minds in the process.

As if the prospect of several ageing techno producers trying to figure out ‘where that noise is coming from’ in real time wasn’t mouthwatering enough for you, we’ll also be giving away a £200 store gift card to one lucky punter on the night. And in all seriousness, some of us are actually no’ bad, even if we say so ourselves! We’ve certainly been living and breathing gear for long enough, so expect everything from ambient soundscapes to deep dub techno to distorted drum machine workouts.

Talking of gear, there’s lots of new stuff to tell you about as usual, so read on for news of the latest arrivals, some very tasty pre-orders and the latest videos and blogs from the team.

Until next time,

Jason, Aleks, Kyle, Luke, Molly, Rob & Tom

New arrivals and pre-orders

Make Noise surprised us all with their new module announcement on Monday. Bruxa is a Eurorack adaptation of the grimy analogue delay that made its way into the cult classic Strega desktop synth, built in collaboration with the mighty Alessandro Cortini. They’re up for pre-order now.

Please note that there’s a bit of a delay (no pun intended!) before these will ship - it’s expected to be October. However, once this batch is done they’re unlikely to appear again, so if you want one you know what to do!

This week’s two new arrivals from the Czech wizards at Bastl Instruments continue their culinary theme. Built on the Pizza platform, Crust is a killer digital drum voice for all your aggressive percussion needs, while Thyme+ is a new and improved version of their desktop delay unit - it’s a sound designer’s dream. Tuck in!

Arturia have given the MiniFreak a makeover - the new Stellar edition has the same dual digital sound engines, gnarly analogue filters, advanced modulation, sequencing and stereo effects as the original, but with super-cool all-black keys and a sleek dark colour scheme.  Available for pre-order now; due here next week.

Polyend’s Tracker+ is now shipping - more tracks, more engines, more memory, stereo sampling - it’s a souped-up desktop powerhouse and no mistake. The new release also means there are great deals to be had on the still very capable OG Tracker - still a few left at less than half the price of the Plus; and the Tracker Mini is also heavily reduced if you’re looking for a more portable option.

If you’ve been lusting after the best-sounding but hardest-to-find LPG in Eurorack, we have some good news for you - a load of Rabid Elephant’s Natural Gates are due to arrive in store before the end of the month, along with plenty more Portal Drums. Both up for pre-order now - first come first served!

Restocks & B-stocks

Omri Cohen’s Modular Cookbook has been flying off the shelves since its launch, and we’ve just bagged another big batch of this handy ring-bound guide packed full of tasty recipes for your rig! We’ve also had a big delivery from Konstant Lab and now have high-end Eurorack power supplies in stock for just about every size of case. We can’t recommend these enough.

And a heads-up: our first batch of Cizzles sold out in a matter of days when ALM Busy Circuits launched it earlier this year, but we’ve had a fresh delivery - so if you want some Casio-style PD synthesis in your Eurorack (and trust us, you do!) then we can hook you up. 

Finally, we’re steadily adding some B-stock bargains to the site so keep an eye out over the coming weeks for some absolute steals on Moog, ASM, Waldorf, Rode and many more.

New on our YouTube channel

We have not one but two new videos for you since our last newsletter: composer Michael Manning explores the subtle side of the Arturia PolyBrute and our neighbourhood YouTube sensation The Unperson picks his top five Disting mk4 algorithms. These two know their onions so you’ll find lots of musical ideas and examples for two incredible (and very different!) machines.

New on our blog

Ever wondered what exactly a matrix mixer is and what you might use it for? Wonder no more! We’ve done a deep dive into the topic via interviews with Future Sound Systems, Herbs & Stones and Manifold Research Centre, who are collectively responsible for some of the best designs around. Enter the matrix…

And finally…

Our office soundtrack for the last week has come courtesy of The Deep Ark, an epic eight-hour mix of the finest deep 90s ambient techno - it’s wall-to-wall Aphex, Autechre, u-ziq, Warp, Skam, Rephlex and co. The accompanying website is a real labour of love too, with detailed notes on all 167(!) tracks, sleeve art, an interview with The Arkitekt, a book and more. Check it out!