Ahead of the NAMM 2019 convention that begins in full tomorrow, Make Noise has announced the release of a brand-new Eurorack synth module: the Quad Peak Animation System, or QPAS.
QPAS is a quad core, stereo, analog multi-mode filter. It contains "four identical state variable filter cores with a control system powerful enough to guide them in stereo multi-peak operation, but simple enough to encourage system integration rather than domination," Make Noise says.
Writing about the module on the Make Noise website, the one-time Moog employee and Make Noise founder Tony Rolando said it was inspired by his time working on Voyager synths, when he would listen through headphones to their stereo output, treated by two resonant low-pass filters.
A later revelation came when he was building Make Noise's Quad Multi-Mode Gate (QMMG).
"When the multiple peaks are offset from each other and modulated, the effect can be dizzying, as the sound appears to be dancing with itself, moving in many directions and yet it is still a mono sound. It is an auditory illusion," Rolando writes.
QPAS combines what he loved about the Voyager's stereo filter possibilities with that dizzying effect of multi-peak filtering, "the binaural enveloping of the stereo spaced peaks AND the animation of two or more peaks in a single channel dancing around each other."
As you can hear (preferably through headphones) in the demo above, QPAS is a versatile multi-mode filter that could can help create plenty of strange, exciting sounds.
According to Make Noise, the key features are:
- Quad Core Stereo Analog
- Multi-Peak with clean resonance
- Fast response encourages deep FM
- Radiate spaces stereo image and animates associated channel
- High Q settings are under damped, excitable, and ring by gate or trigger
- 2 modulation inputs aid patch exploration
- Stereo VCA, pre-filter with gain
- Mono to Stereo, Stereo to Mono, Mono to Mono and Stereo to Stereo operations
- Smile Pass filter response unique to QPAS
- Low Pass, Band Pass, High Pass and Smile Pass outputs simultaneously available
QPAS is available for pre-order on Reverb now. For all the latest news and product releases from the NAMM 2019 convention, check out our ongoing coverage.