Superbooth 2024 roundup part 2: the best new Eurorack modules
The second part of our Superbooth roundup focuses on the beating heart of the show: modular synths. It’s become traditional for brands to save up their big releases for the May event, and this year was no different.
Following our look at new synths and standalone hardware in part one, we’re turning our eye to Eurorack. We won’t attempt to cover everything (this blog would be about eight times as long if we did) but we’ll try and give you a flavour of some of the standout modules…
Sound sources
The brilliant Barcelona-based boffins at Befaco unveiled the Oneiroi, a monster drone machine that’s landing at Signal Sounds very soon. It combines a sine oscillator, a wavetable/supersaw oscillator and a looper with a multimode filter, resonator, delay and reverb, plus a randomiser to create instant patches at the touch of a button.
Talking of boffins, Xaoc Devices added a new module to their 8-bit Leibniz Binary Subsystem in the form of Berlin, a (very) wide-ranging VCO that’s a perfect front end to the system. Using the Leibniz connectors on the back can turn Jena into a vintage-style wavetable oscillator, to name just one application. In stock now - check out Tom’s in-depth video to hear it in action.
Joranalogue’s Cycle 5 is a feature-packed, compact analogue oscillator with a ‘vari-wave’ output that morphs from sine to triangle, saw, square and pulse under CV control. Add some clever octave and fifth transposition switches and you have another winner from Belgium’s finest.
The Tiptop Audio Buchla reissue series continued with an in-the-flesh Superbooth sighting of the mighty 259t - the design that inspired a generation of complex oscillators. The 285t frequency shifter was also in the case, and these will round off an all-Buchla system nicely. Expect them to ship a little later in the year, along with some new polyphonic modules in the ART series.
Over in the leafy surroundings of the Bungalowdorf, Black Corporation showed the Ise-Nin Voice, a single-voice Eurorack module based on their mighty Jupiter 8-inspired poly; Verbos presented their Sawtooth Stack, a new oscillator which includes MIDI and can work as a standalone voice; and Vermona unveiled the Bass-Drum module - a standalone Euro version of the kick from their modern classic DRM1.
Elsewhere in drums and percussion, we saw the Crust from Bastl Instruments, which comes hot on the heels of Pizza and Basil (we see what they’re doing there!) - a hard-hitting two-layer drum voice. Larix Elektro’s 4TOMS quad percussion voice also looked intriguing.
But the underground hit of the show was Ectocore from Toadstool Tech, aka local wunderkind/Instruo affiliate Izaak Hollander, as spotted on a few influential Instagram feeds. We could tell you what it is, but then we’d have to kill you…
Sound processing
Our pals Apollo View and DivKid have teamed up to produce Manic, a stereo VCA and wavefolder with a host of smart tricks up its sleeve. Check out Div’s launch video if you haven’t already. Also shipping already are two new modules from Olivella Modular in Argentina: Duplex is a twin vactrol-free LPG that sounds incredible, while Foldist is a Serge-style wavefolder with built-in envelope.
Weston Precision Audio’s range is growing with the smart new SV1 dual VCA offering clean and vintage flavours; and then there’s Sidecar, a high-quality mixing VCA from Worng Electronics. Morgan’s designs are always top-notch and this one is no exception.
It was a strong year for effects, and among the standouts were Knobula’s Echo Cinematic and LA Circuits’ Odysseus; two very different delays in terms of design and aesthetics but both absolutely stunning.
Modbap Modular showed off CLRS, a stereo end-of-chain effect with a DJ-style filter, drive, magnetic tape and lo-fi effects, plus a compressor. Cosmotronic’s new Aphelion module is in the same kind of ballpark. If you’re interested in extreme sonic destruction then Ohm Force are bringing their legendary Ohmicide plug-in and its library of 111 (!) distortion types to the Eurorack format.
And Erica Synths dropped the Graphic Resonant Equalizer - a serious bit of kit that marries an all-analogue signal path to digital control of 10 EQ bands for a smart and modern take on Serge’s classic Resonant EQ.
Patching Panda have an intriguing new filter, Etna - a triple multimode analogue design with parameter morphing - and it was great to see WMD back in full flow with the Performance Mixer MkII, a full redesign of their legendary battleship mixer.
Sequencing & utilities
The most eye-catching sequencer arguably came from Dannysound (who’s in the process of rebranding as Tobinski). His unique four-channel design looked absolutely stunning as part of a big West Coast-style system that includes five other new modules.
Another prototype that caught our eye was the new sequencer from Rabid Elephant, called Nexus Seq. You can get the full lowdown on the design over on Modwiggler, but if it’s half as well executed as the Natural Gate and Portal Drum, it promises to be exceptional.
Elswewhere, Tubbutec’s Brainstep - a “sequencing brain”, modulation generator and sample player, looked seriously powerful, and 4ms were getting a lot of attention for their MetaModule - a way to bring over 160 software modules from VCV Rack into the hardware environment. They should be here in August.
We’re running out of space to cover the cool new stuff from Frap Tools, Schlappi, Doepfer, Shakmat and many others, but just a quick shout out for our fellow Glaswegians Instruo, who were showing off the Dail - a new high-resolution quantiser, precision adder, MIDI-to-CV interface, and USB MIDI host all in a handy 4HP.
Full systems
Finally, there were a couple of complete systems of note. Pittsburgh Modular’s Voltage Lab 2 is the follow-up to their original Lifeforms Voltage Research Laboratory - powerful oscillators and touch controllers working together in perfect harmony.
And AJH Synth had their Radiophonic system on show - commissioned by soundtrack legend Hans Zimmer for his New Radiophonic Workshop at Maida Vale Studios. An uncompromising vision of analogue loveliness!
Instruo Dail Eurorack Quantiser & MIDI Interface Module
£289.00
The Instruō dàil is a high resolution quantiser, precision adder, MIDI-to-CV interface, and USB MIDI Host with a very small form factor suitable for any...… read more
Worng Electronics Sidecar Eurorack Mixing VCA Module
£329.00
SideCar from WORNG Electronics is a six-channel mixing VCA (4x mono, 2x stereo) with 45mm faders and proprietary CV shaping circuitry to deliver high resolution...… read more
Olivella Modular Duplex Eurorack Dual Low Pass Gate Module
£335.00
DÚPLEX is a dual solid-state low pass gate, featuring no vactrols but sounding exactly like the real thing. Each channel has: voltage control over decay,...… read more
XAOC Devices Berlin Eurorack Leibniz Oscillator Module
£198.00
On the surface, Xaoc Devices Berlin is a simple compact VCO offering square and saw waves with hard sync, FM input and octave switching.The most...… read more
Apollo View & DivKid Manic Stereo Wavefolder/VCA Eurorack Module
£332.00
In collaboration with DivKid, Manic introduces an exploration of dual channel mono, mono to stereo or true stereo modulation and sound shaping within a sleek...… read more
Befaco Oneiroi Eurorack Synth Voice Module
£419.00
Oneiroi is a live performance-oriented, multi-functional self-contained experimental digital synth focused on ambient pads and drone-like soundscapes. It features a full stereo signal path: Stereo...… read more
