Audio Gear Obsession at Roma Modulare 2022

Another Italian Company at Roma Modulare 2022.

Audio Gear Obsession (or AGO for short) is not really focused on synthesizers and related tools (at least for now).

They are mainly concerned with the rendering of the whole performance with the last two steps in the processing flow: mixing and dynamic processing.

Often musicians and producers pay the majority of their attention to the synthesis and sequencing tasks generating several sounds, melodies, harmonies and rhythms.

The whole performance comes from the combination of those elements. The appropriate processing to combine them is key to provide a solid sound and the appropriate dynamic and loudness.

AGO tools are specifically designed with the idea to provide state of the art tools to combine and render at its best the producer’s performances.

The engineering team has worked hard to provide the best possible quality via a specific and original design and the selection of the best components available on the market.

The results are useful tools with clean and articulate sound and top notch specifications.

Let’s give a closer look to the modules available for hands on and tests at the event.

SummingFacility

SummingFacility is an Eurorack high quality 6 channels 2 buses stereo mixer.

The module makes summing and routing of modular and non-modular equipment easy and reliable.

The 22 Vpp of headroom provides plenty of dynamic range to accommodate busy mixes with a transparent, punchy and 3D analogue sum.

The design mantra has been the lowest noise and distortion with the ultimate goal of delivering the best performances. The analog vu-meters are the icing on the cake.

SummingFacility helps to combine the performance parts with studio quality sound every time you need it.

Some information about the tool’s features follow.

SummingFacility includes:

• 6 balanced input channels with gain up to 12 dB
• Adjustable volume and pan
• 2 aux send per channel
• 2 balanced aux return with gain up to 12 dB
• Independent mute for master and aux buses
• Outputs with ground-canceling circuitry

The unit is realized with:

• 22 Vpp of headroom technique
• Modern audio grade op amps
• Thin-film resistors
• Wima & Panasonic caps
• 4 layer PCB (designed for best EMI/EMC)
• Reverse powering protection

SummingFacility is a Eurorack unit 38 HP wide, skiff friendly (32 mm behind the panel)

The unit has been tested by Divkid in the following video. We can confirm, from our audition, that the unit sounds clean and deep with all the sound components summed with no hesitation.

DynamicEngine

DynamicEngine is the second item presented at the event. It is a Eurorack high quality dual mono compressor-limiter with stereo link.

The unit has been designed to range from a delicate compression to a brick-wall limiting, always delivering an airy and punchy analogue compression.

Parallel compression can easily be applied within the module.

The unit has been engineered to deliver the lowest noise thanks to a proprietary compression technique based on a triple VCA setup that delivers no compromise performances.

DynamicEngine candidates itself to be the ultimate stereo compressor for Eurorack based setups.

Some information about the tool’s features follow.

DynamicEngine includes:

• 2 mono compressors
• Balanced inputs with gain up to 12 dB
• Threshold with 36 dB range
• Variable attack/release
• Ratio from 1:1 to limit
• hard and soft knee
• Make up gain up to 20 dB
• parallel compression
• Side-chain hi-pass filter from 20 Hz to 235 Hz
• stereo link
• independent bypass
• External side-chain inputs with gain up to 12 dB
• Outputs with ground-canceling circuitry

The unit is realized with:

• Triple VCA compression technique
• Top quality VCA (THAT Corps.)
• Modern audio grade op amps
• Thin-film resistors
• Wima & Panasonic caps
• 4 layer PCB (designed for best EMI/EMC)
• Reverse powering protection

As SummingFacility does, also DynamicEngine is a Eurorack unit 28 HP wide, skiff friendly (32 mm behind the panel).

The unit has been tested by Divkid in the following video. Also in this case our audition at the show made us happy to see how easy it was to achieve a solid, strong and powerful sound.

Close up

Very often what separates a good performance from an exceptional one is the final stage of the processing chain.

The power of mixing and dynamic processing is well known among the sound engineering community.

The same awareness is what made the guys at Audio Gear Obsession think to provide quality tools for the live performers.

You may obviously use their modules for studio work too!