Midweek Modular: What to see at Superbooth 23
4,3 / 5,0 | 
Superbooth 23 kicks off tomorrow, and the place is teeming with modular makers setting up for the show. Here’s what I’m looking forward to seeing the most.
Midweek Modular – Superbooth preview
It’s been an unbelievable week of announcements so far. Superbooth tell us there are over 250 synthesizer and modular manufacturers booked in to exhibit. This is now a huge event and probably raises the nerd level of Berlin by several points. I’m going along just on Saturday, and so I have to make some decisions on what to prioritise as there’s no way I’ll be able to see it all.
The FEZ-Berlin venue used to house the whole thing over a couple of floors and the numerous rooms and corridors of the main building. More recently, it’s spilt out into the surrounding outside areas, filling tents and marques stretching right out to a group of bungalow cabins on the other side of the lake. You’re going to need a good pair of shoes.
Beach Tent #4
The best festival vibe is to be found around the tents in the Beach area. One particular tent houses a bunch of modular makers that I want to see. In tent number 4, we have This Is Not Rocket Science whose Wobbler 2 Drum/LFO I recently reviewed. But TiNRS also has a couple of prototypes to share and those will undoubtedly be exciting. Making Sound Machines will be showing the Farp Filter series of colourful and gloriously simple modules. Knobula is also in the tent with the fascinating Pianophonic wavetable polysynth module. Somewhere rocking gently in a corner will be Error Instruments with the Error System 0.3 and Punk Resonator.
Also in the tent are Apollo View, makers of the Rabbit Hole and Allscillator have some prototypes and are staging a bit of a giveaway. Newcomers SwampFlux and Vaski are bringing some new flavours. SwampFlux has an interestingly portable battery-powered case called NOMAD that uses the battery end of a power drill jammed in the side. Vaski has a triggered switch that essentially stores voltage under a number of knobs that can be used as a pair of presets for other modules.
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There’s a lot going on in all the tents around the Beach but #4 is where you get the party started.
Kaona Skippy (Booth W472)
The very eye-catching Skippy will be in booth W472 in the big hall across from the pool. It’s a four-channel trigger sequencer with a stunning display and numerous pattern-generating algorithms and interesting effects. I love the look of the interface and the apparent simplicity and I’m wondering how well the joystick-fronted interface is going to work. Read more about it here.
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Digital Polyphonic Oscillators
It seems to be the show of massive digital synthesizer voices. I’ve already mentioned the Pianophonic from Knobula, but we also have the Antigone from Nanopolis (Booth O435) and the Warp from Neuzeit (Booth W477) bringing polyphonic waveforms to the show.
Antigone is a multi-engined and multi-timbral four-voice polyphonic Eurorack synthesizer. It has virtual analogue, FM, wavetable, plucked instruments and sample playback amongst the options. What’s particularly interesting is that Antigone runs all four voices on individual CV/Gate inputs whereas most polyphonic digital modules have opted for MIDI control plus a single CV/Gate input. Read more about it here.
Nanopolis Antigone · Source: Nanopolis
Warp is a hybrid of wavetables and additive sine waves. In fact, there’s something about wavetables being generated by the additive synthesis in ways I don’t quite understand as yet. It has four voices, but you can only play polyphonically via an optional expander. So in many ways, the focus is on massively monophonic sounds within a Eurorack context. Again there’s no MIDI on this one either, so maybe the encroachment of MIDI into Eurorack is not as fast-moving as I thought. Read more about it here.
Neuzeit Warp · Source: Neuzeit
Sequencers
I’ve seen a number of very interesting sequencers cropping up in the lead-up to Superbooth. I always seem to be looking for the perfect Eurorack sequencer, so I will be seeking these out.
Sebsongs POLYSEQ (Booth Z161) is a very intriguing sequencer that offers three channels of sequencing, making it potentially polyphonic or at the very least super versatile in a small space. You can save up to 8 sequences in the module and then direct them to any or all of the three outputs. I love the simplicity and power of that. Read more about it here.
Sebsongs POLYSEQ · Source: Sebsongs
Nono Modular (Booth B032) is bringing its first module to Superbooth. All we know is that it’s a Bowie-influenced polyrhythmic performance sequencer, and it’s called Major Tom. I am very much enjoying the style of the Instagram post, but I have no further information on it.
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OK200 Instruments (Booth Z396) has a huge four-channel analogue-style Polyrhythmic Step Sequencer that’s looking pretty spectacular. Four lanes, eight knobs, some performance controls and looks completely intuitive. I hope to have more on it once the show begins.
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Elta Music Solar 42 (Booth W205)
We’ve got a single image of the Solar 42 on Instagram with no explanation other than to come and see it. It’s called a Microtonal Polyphonic Ambient Machine and is presumably a similar machine to the Solar 50. The “42” would suggest it has 42 oscillators, but there appear to be 6 banks of 5 oscillators set in similar groups to the Solar 50, which gives us a total of 30. The central mixer says there are 8 voices which would give us 40 oscillators. However, if we look a little closer, I can see voices 7 and 8 are different. They are not drone groups like the other 5-oscillator voices. Maybe they contain 6 oscillators, each as melodic synth voices? Or perhaps “42” is a distraction.
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Anyway, other differences include a joystick, some additional patch points on the touch plate keyboard, a 5-step sequencer, a stereo filter and separate drone voice control. The cartridge slot is still there for effects.
The Solar 42 is looking great. I noticed that the Solar 50 has been discontinued on the Elta website. Also, in 2021 we saw renders of two Eurorack modules. First, a Solar 5 bank of five oscillators, one voice from the Solar 50, and then a joystick module which looks like it might have been integrated into the Solar 42. I wonder if they’ll crop up again this year.
I’ll post an article as soon as I get more information.
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Befaco (Booth Z190)
Befaco can usually be found in one of the large marques near the circus tent, together with a bunch of Spanish manufacturers such as Patching Panda and Tesseract Modular. I built the kit of the Particles from Patching Panda recently, and I’m still struggling to work out exactly what it does, so I’m keen to get a personal demo.
From Befaco, we have the hilarious FX Boy module that runs effects from Nintendo GameBoy cartridges. I’ve definitely got to check that one out. Read more about it here.
Befaco FX Boy · Source: Befaco
There’s also Befaco’s new case to check out and particularly how well it integrates with the new version of the MIDI Thing module. The case has internal connections for both MIDI and audio signals as well as a 1U row for utilities. Talking of which, it will also be great to see the production version of the Molten Motion Meter 1U, which offers 4 channels of signal visualisation, mixing and voltage management.
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Others
There are loads more companies bringing new releases and prototypes to Superbooth for us to GAS over. Make Noise has teased a new module, PWM might have a new synth, Noise Engineering has a new platform to share, WMD/AMMT will be there with new modules. Will Cre8audio or Pittsburgh Modular have another new synth? Could Moog have something new for us? Dreadbox has been known to prepare new things for Superbooth, as does Endorphin.es. There is absolutely no end to the possibilities of modular releases.
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