Midweek Modular: Gnat filters, Tube Distortion and posh Patch cables
3,0 / 5,0 | 
This week on Midweek Modular we saw a massive Gnat-based filter from Frequency Central, a Vacuum Tube Distortion from Stoel and Joranalogue do patch cables properly.
Doepfer released a new take on its basic eurorack all-in-one system and imaginatively called it the A-100 Basic System 3. It’s full of all the foundations of what makes a great modular system. You can read more about it here.
Midweek Modular
In the accessory drawer of modular, here are a few perfect devices that you wish you’d found earlier.
Frequency Central Gnatophilidae Oxfordii
This is an insectoid filter with added bastard. It’s the filter taken from the EDP Gnat synth, stuck in a bottle and shaken until it’s completely furious. It has all the responses; lowpass, bandpass, highpass and notch all piling into a single output. The buzzy Gnat LFO is also present but bent into a bunch more waveforms with shaping. Finishing it off is a massive amount of Drive and a button labelled Clip.
Frequency Central Gnatophilidae Oxfordii · Source: Frequency Central
It’s all spread out in a luxuriously wide 20HP, with golden knobs and a white front panel. It is very distinctively different compared to the rest of Frequency Central’s range. Obviously, there’s something very special and personal going on here. A grimy British filter with two inputs, three modulation inputs, and built-in LFO, drive and clipping – sounds like it could be amazing!
Stoel Vacuum Tube Distortion
Stoel Music Systems had a number of new modules out this week, but the one that caught my eye is the Vacuum Tube Distortion. You just can’t beat a whacking great big tube sticking out of a module.
The Vacuum Tube Distortion offers two stages of distortion and waveshaping in series. The first stage is always active, but then you can switch in the second stage. The first stage is controlled by a knob that adds even or odd harmonics. This is combined with the saturation knob that pushes the waveshaping. You have an attenuated bit of CV control over that.
Stoel says that you can swap the tube out for some other ones in order to search for different timbres if you are feeling a bit experimental.
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Joranalogue Patch
Now I know patch cables are not that exciting unless they light up, and then you’re always worried about losing volts in the glow. However, Joranalogue has come up with its own brand of cables. Joranalogue likes to do things properly so these aren’t any old strips of copper.
Joranalogue Patch · Source: Joranalogue
These premium “Patch” cables are made from a custom coaxial base cable and over-moulded mini-jack plugs protected by laser-cut aluminium shells. The inner and outer conductors are 100& ultra-pure oxygen-free copper. They are available in 15, 30, 60 and 90 cm lengths in packs of 8 and 150 cm in packs of 4. You can get them in black or white, and are designed to last a lifetime.
Motley Modular Towel and Skipper
A cool pair of modules from Motley Modular that provide useful routing utilities for effects.
Skipper is a passive bypass module. You use it like an insert or effects send and route your audio through it to an effects module. Then, with a switch, Skipper gives bypasses it. Bypass buttons are extremely uncommon in Eurorack and so this could be very useful indeed.
Next up, we have the brilliantly named Towel. It’s similar to Skipper but this time, instead of a switch, you’ve got a slider control over the amount of audio going to the effect – a wet/dry control. It can also act as a mixer of two signals or an attenuator.
Motley Modular Tower and Skipper · Source: Motley Modular
- Motley Modular website.
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One response to “Midweek Modular: Gnat filters, Tube Distortion and posh Patch cables”
Massive shame you can only get those Motley Modular utilities in the USA. Customs may make them unworthy of getting to the UK.