BOBA FAT dual analog drum generator for bad-ass kicks, bass and toms plus a Hi-Hat module
Bounty Hunting for the ideal kick has just got a lot easier with the beefy BOBA FAT dual analog drum generator from ST Modular and check out the companion HH noise generator for some high-frequency hats.
BOBA FAT
Great name for any module with a big sound and I can’t believe no one’s used it before. BOBA FAT mixes two analog voices together designed to produce the mallet sounds of kicks, bass drum and toms. The first voice they describe as a “soft mallet” and it generates smooth and warm sounding bass and sub-bass sounds. The second voice has a more robust “hard mallet” sound for generating solid kicks and toms.
The soft side benefits from 8 knobs starting with Pitch, Level and Boost which piles on the low frequencies. There’s an internal LFO that’s routed to the soft side and applied to the pitch. There’s an LFO sync input and a modulation attenuator. The LFO can be over-ridden with the Mod CV input. The Trig Slew control looks after the severity of the transients while Decay and Release do exactly what you’d expect to the internal VCA. Presence changes the prominence of the sound.
The second voice is a bit simpler with Pitch, Level and Boost controls.
Both sounds can be triggered via the first Gate input or you can address them individually if you also plug a CV into the Gate S input. BOBA FAT is designed to find its way to distortion and clipping as easily as possible and there are lots to explore between the Level and Boost controls.
A useful Vari input will slightly vary the volume and generate additional triggers for the hard mallet voice in response to some CV.
It sounds ace! It really pumps and I’m very much appreciating the beat-flashing squiggle in the middle of of the module. There’s also a surprising amount of melody that can be pulled from this thing. Check out the video below.
HH Hi-Hat
Meanwhile back at the higher frequencies ST Modular is also releasing a Hi-Hat module called HH.
It’s a simple affair being a noise generator with a built-in VCA and Decay envelope. The Decay knob opens and closes the hi-hat while the Color knob ranges through brown, pink and white noise. Nicely effective, loving the light-up squiggle and the perfect companion to the BOFA FAT.
Neither are available quite yet and the videos feature the latest prototype. They should be available soon as PCB and Front panel only DIY kits.
More information
- ST Modular website.
Video
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