Joranalogue Audio Design at Roma Modulare 2022

Still fetching from Roma Modulare 2022, this time is the turn of Joranalogue Audio Design to be covered in the Milk Audio Store’s blog.

The team is driven by an unrelenting passion for analogue circuits. Due to this, they offer a novel series of high-quality Eurorack music synthesizer modules.

Special attention is dedicated by the designers to depth, versatility and precision of their devices.

They are continually introducing new approaches and techniques to the Eurorack platform, making waves in the waters of analogue synthesis.

All products are designed and made in Belgium, guided by experiences in both modern hardware engineering and vintage synthesizer servicing.

Joranalogue Filter 8

The stand at the event was simple yet effective. A skiff filled with almost all available modules by the company was on the table for tests and comparisons.

Two devices caught our attention. The first one was Filter 8.

This is a 12hp wide Filter and 8 phases Multimode Oscillator.

It has a classic OTA-style 4-pole cascaded lowpass (LP) topology. Features separate LP outputs, each with their own character.

Additional filter responses are achieved by pole mixing: 1-pole highpass, a special band boost and notch response, phase shifter and 4-pole bandpass.

All outputs are available simultaneously.

Key to Filter 8's performance is the innovative resonant feedback circuit.

By increasing the resonance, all outputs will resonate at the filter frequency, without any low frequency response loss.

At higher resonance levels, self-oscillation is achieved,

turning the module into an excellent 8-phase sine wave voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) with temperature and switchable gain compensation, low distortion, constant amplitude and accurate frequency tracking over at least 5 octaves.

At sub-audio frequencies, Filter 8 can function as an 8-output voltage controlled slew modifier or 8-phase low frequency oscillator (LFO).

Simultaneous exponential and linear frequency modulation is possible, for classic FM tones or chaotic modulation.

A hold feature is also provided, 'freezing' the output voltages manually or under gate control.

This is useful for halting modulations, or as a sync-like effect at audio frequencies.

The dedicated ‘ping’ input allows you to easily create crisp percussive sounds with different timbres.

While rooted in the legacy of classic synthesizers, Filter 8 provides a new approach to musical signal generators and modifiers.

Instead of simply a VCF, VCO, slew modifier or VCLFO, a single analogue module can now be any of those, and anything in between.

Check the Filter behavior in the following video:

Joranalogue Step 8

The second module we wanted to know more is Step 8. This is a 16hp wide Sequential tracking / Sampling register.

Modular synthesizers provide a wealth of creative sequential functions for controlling and processing signals. Choosing which of these to include in a system can be a difficult task given the huge amount of choices.

Step 8 represents a new type of modular building block: a sequential tracking/sampling register which can be configured to provide several functions.

At its heart lies an analogue 1-to-8 signal switch feeding an octet of high-stability track/sample-and-hold stages.

Each of these has its own analogue output with an attenuation slider, in addition to a gate output.

LEDs visualize the status of each stage in real time. The switch can be controlled sequentially using the built-in 8-step counter, or addressed directly by an analogue control voltage (CV).

Add to this the ability to ‘mute’ the inactive stages, pause the counter, reset it, change its direction or even shift the stages on each step, and the possibilities quickly become near-endless.

A scanning output takes things even further, particularly making sequencer or addressed voltage source use easy and intuitive.

The possible configurations are several. The Step 8 can be a configurable voltage mapper, a hocketing controller, a clock divider, a graphic waveshaper, a multi-output analogue downsampler and so on.

Check the following video to start exploring all the possibilities offered by Step 8:

Other modules

The Company’s catalog includes, as of today, 19 modules. Beside the already described Filter 8 and the Step 8 one can find:

• Add 2 - precision summer
• Compare 2 - dual window comparator
• Contour 1 - slew limiter and function generator
• Delay 1 - split phase bucket brigade delay line
• Enhance 2 - stereo enhancer
• Fold 6 - multi topology wave folder
• Generate 3 - multi phonic signal generator
• Link 2 - buffered multiples
• Mix 3 - voltage controlled audio mixer
• Morph 4 - dimensional modulation array
• Orbit 3 - chaos oscillator
• Pivot 2 - voltage controlled router
• Receive 2 - dual balanced line input
• Select 2 - dual control voltage processor
• Switch 4 - switcher router
• Test 3 - DIY Voltage and Current meter
• Transmit 2 - dual balanced line output

It is easy to understand that, combining several modules by Joranalogue Audio Devices, there is the possibility to obtain a very complete and complex modular synthesizer.

Conclusion

We spent some time by ourselves putting hands on the Joranalogue rack at the show. The possibilities were endless and the sounds we got were really interesting.

We could achieve powerful bass and effective leads plus an enormous amount of time varying sequences capable of covering many genres and needs.

Very interesting!