2hp – Thin modules, fat sound
These very small Eurorack synth modules might find a bigger audience
2hp is the smallest width a module can be to fit in a Eurorack. It’s also the name of a new company who have just released a range of – you guessed it – 2hp-wide modules. They are thin and beautiful but 2hp are very minimalist in their marketing approach and so there’s very little I can tell you about them.
2hp is really not very wide
2hp is about 10 mm in width and just wide enough to house a 3.5mm mini-jack socket with a face-plate nut holding it in place. If you take a look at the video you can see just how cute and fiddly they are. (I can only find a Facebook video version). It raises a question of at what point the economy of space compromises usability. Having them spread out like in the video makes it look sensible but if you had then wired side by side how fiddly would those knobs become?
The modules
There are 6 modules with abbreviated names because there’s no room to write the whole thing:
Env – Envelope generator with linear and exponential shapes.
Filt – Multimode analog filter with simultaneous outputs for low pass, high pass, band pass and notch filter.
LFO – Low frequency oscillator with smooth morphing between sine, triangle, sawtooth and square waveforms.
Nse – Noise generator with downsample control and VCA mode.
Osc – Analog oscialltor with FM, Sync, and V/Oct inputs. Simultaneous output of sine, triangle, sawtooth and square waveforms.
Rnd – Random voltage generator with attenuation and random gates.
They all consume the same amount of power – 60 mA +12V, 10mA -12V. They have a depth of 34 mm making them very friendly for desktop based (also known as “Skiff”) Euroracks.
The cost
The modules cost $150 each, you can preorder now and they will ship internationally once released. They’ve currently managed two tweets, four Facebook posts and two images on Instagram so their social marketing team must be working overtime.
I’m usually the first to complain about over-hyped marketing but I do like to find a bit of enthusiasm in a company. The modules sound brilliant in the video, let’s hope they can get a bit more excited about themselves.
More information on the 2hp website.
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