StarLab: Strymon takes us on a reverberation time-warp
In the mould of Magneto comes the intriguing StarLab Modular Transformation Machine which explodes into Galatic reverbs, modulated delays and Karplus-Strong synthesis.
StarLab
Strymon says that the idea was to come up with the highest possible quality reverb for Eurorack. Perfect for those yearningly deep adventures of ambient wonderment and packed full of control and sound design goodness. So, just as deep and baffling as Magneto but rooted in reverb rather than tape delay.
While at its core it’s a reverb module, all sorts of other functions seemed to appear during development. Allowing the pre-delay to be fed directly to the output enabled the arrival of delay, chorus and flanging effects. Using short delays, feedback and filtering Strymon captured the expressive possibilities of Karplus-Strong string synthesis giving it a whole new role as an instrument.
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The front panel is split into sections with the main reverb controls at the top. In the middle are the Shimmer and Glimmer controls and the time/pitch and feedback for the delay and Karplus-Strong instrument. At the bottom, there’s a low and high pass filter and a multi-shape LFO for internal modulation. Everything has an in or out patch point going around the edge of the module. The form and layout match the Magento Tape Delay and it definitely throws out that same vibe of confident complexity and control.
Reverb Textures
There are three reverb types starting with Sparse which sort of gives you individual reflections that you can hear bounce around or on slow attack sounds generates a wash of gorgeous fidelity. The next texture is called Dense which is something like a plate reverb that gives you a sense of a small room to something approaching a heavenly cavern. And finally, there’s the Diffuse texture which generates a slowly building sound of distant stars and is where ambient musicians will find their nirvana.
We all love reverb in modular and while the Magento was an awesome adventure we all really wanted Strymon to turn the Big Sky pedal into a Eurorack module, and that’s what they’ve done. But it’s more than Big Sky, capable of many more things in far more controllable ways. The Big Sky pedal costs $479 and plenty of modular musicians use it as their reverb. StarLab costs $649 which considering the additional functionality and convenience of it being in the rack at modular levels is probably about right. It’s pricey, but you know you’re getting the real deal in a module that you’ll use in every patch.
More information from Strymon
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