We say...

It's great to see another brand stepping up to tackle Karplus-Strong synthesis, and Strymon have gone in hard with this one! Like Rings on steroids, SuperKar+ is making a bid to be the ultimate module for physical modelling synthesis, with twin voices for solo lines and chords. It sounds bloody gorgeous.

Manufacturer's description

SuperKar+ is a Eurorack voice module that uses Karplus-Strong synthesis to create the sound of plucked or bowed strings, struck or blown pipes or tubes, or a suite of other sounds from percussive textures to legato melodies and chords with smart harmonies. This is Karplus-Strong synthesis at its most intuitive and captivating.

Karplus-Strong is a form of delay feedback synthesis, where every tone and texture is constantly in a state of varying tension. SuperKar+ is an engagingly responsive instrument, as tiny changes in attack/decay time and damping create an infinite variety of subtle or dramatic timbral shifts, and variable random per-note detuning can create lifelike realism.

With an interface that can be understood at a glance, the sheer amount of music you can create with a single SuperKar+ module borders on mind-blowing. It draws you in, allowing you to generate full-sounding arrangements with as much musical and timbral variation as you can imagine via CV connections. Powerful enough to be the center of endless sonic exploration, SuperKar+ delivers all of this in a compact 12HP form factor.

Features

• Karplus-Strong based voice module
• Two independent Voice channels – Solo Voice and Chord Voice
• Each Voice is polyphonic up to 16 notes
• Solo Voice plays single notes capable of sustaining simultaneously
• Chord Voice plays chord structures based on the root from the received V/Oct (Volt per Octave) CV
• Chord Voice includes fixed intervals with smart harmonies available
• Selectable Wide & Narrow Stereo, Split Voice, and Mono output options
• MIDI input controls the Solo Voice for a 16 part polyphonic experience with velocity sensitivity (when using MIDI, unplug the solo Voice TRIG and Solo Voice V/Oct CVs)
• Solo Voice is tuning stable to six octaves via CV and eight octaves via MIDI, and the Chord Voice is tuning stable to five octaves
• Stereo inputs and outputs
• Extensive CV control of parameters
• USB jack (located on the rear) for performing firmware updates
• 520MHz ARM Superscalar processor
• 32-bit floating point processing
• 108 dB signal to noise ratio from input to output (A-Weighted)
• 111 dB signal to noise ratio for DAC (A-Weighted)