Thump: Smashing vactrol LPG and VCA with distortion from Cereal Instruments
Cereal Instruments’ second module is a natty vactrol LPG and VCA with two crossfadable inputs, distortion and lots of makeup gain. And 10% of all sales go to charity.
Thump
Following on from the fascinating Mesh module from last year we now have the equally creatively designed Thump. I built a Mesh a few months ago and it was a fun build and for what seemed like a simple attenuator module was actually cleverly designed to be far more helpful than you thought. Thump seems to follow the same idea of packing in some interesting and well-thought-out functionality into what is otherwise a simple VCA.
So it’s a VCA and LPG with vactrol controlled circuitry that gives it that sense of natural and organic release. But then he’s built in a drive circuit onto two crossfadable inputs and added plenty of gain. You can select between regular VCA mode or 3 LPG modes of increasingly steep filtering. At the lower Amp levels the vactrol simply opens and gives us that basic functionality but as you push the Amp which also controls the cutoff of the LPG then the peaks start getting interesting.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBLON9mB2cB/
The result is a gritty and fat sounding module that gives you plenty to play with in crafting nicely distorted tones. You can use it just as a plain old distortion or bring in CV control to shape the vactrol and then blend in a second input like some noise for even more interest.
Thump is a fun module which offers more options and directions that you’d normally find on a VCA, LPG or distortion – nice.
Thump is available as PCB and front panel for £30, full DIY kit for £75 and as an assembled module for £105. It’s released on the 15th June, preorders open now.
More information
- Cereal Instruments reverb store.
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