Befaco Kickall - a monsterous kick drum, drone machine, Eurorack synth voice and more!

TIMING INDEX / SECTIONS BELOW I've had the pleasure of testing the Kickall module from Befaco for a little while now ( you may remember the prototype video I made - • Befaco Kickall (protot... ) and as usual with Befaco it's been a total pleasure to test and try out. Above anything Kickall (as intended) is a mega kick drum with a wide range, more unique sound than a drum machine clone and a good range of CV controlled parameters. It's also a great synth voice and with some modulation tricks as I show in the video a wider range of more harsh digital tones, claps, snares and FM voices.
www.befaco.org
TIMING INDEX / SECTIONS BELOW
00:00 Hello and patch previews
01:03 Feature run down
02:00 Kick sounds
03:27 Techno! Deep pounding kicks
04:22 Kickall as a full and dynamic synth voice
05:22 Velocity/level input demo
06:48 Plump rump, big booty kick drum / bassline hybrid
07:51 Noise modulation to make snares and other new sounds
10:07 Turning Kickall into a full drum kit
11:33 FM, AM and audio rate modulation
14:17 Random modulation and random groove
15:34 FM melodies - kickall as a synth voice with FM other tune
16:30 Turning drums to drones! Adding Crush Delay and modulation to try and immitate a Lyra-8 style drone sound.
17:20 A quick drum beat jam
18:05 How to turn Kickall into a standard droning VCO
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[@christophremmery4520]

The DivKidVideo "5 step process to becoming an Anonymous Modular Addict" Step 1 : watching DivKidVideo review of a module I don't really need or want Step 2 : DivKid playing the sh*t out of the module Step 3 : I become aware that I need this module Step 4 : pull out the VISA and order the module Step 5 : Go back to Step1

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

12 step program- stop watching divkid and mylar videos

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

Love your videos on Eurorack modules! I learn a ton of what I like and don't like without the ability to see and try them in person.

[@nandoblondemobydick5438]

top one, just awesome, the demo is spot on! it seems you have no forget nothing about it

[@maxgindt]

Hey Div, thanks for this User Manual Extravaganza for the Kickall. I knew there was much more to be discovered in this compact module. I have a repeating pattern happening with modules which is why I love synth gear and Eurorack especially. I don't read manuals in the beginning, then play, and then discover through research and these videos how many square kilometers there are yet to discover with even the tiniest modules. Love Euro. Love your work, keep on!

[@TheDjsequeira]

I just got one of these recently only because I liked the sound of the kick. Didn't realise it was this good though!! Nice vid!!

[@alanc6752]

Great demo. Befaco make so many cool modules.

[@DivKid]

Absolutely, cheers Alan.

[@LaboratoryGrey]

Three of those would certainly make a beast of percussion section for a rack. Excellent overview as always!

[@DivKid]

Thanks Clayton.

[@killahkay2112]

Oh MY Word !!!! that low-end DRRRROOOOONNNE :o :o I already knew I wanted this module . But man this is thing can make a hell of other sounds . Befaco really delivered on this one .

[@DivKid]

Yeah they really delivered. Very nice.

[@27arches]

I was kidding myself thinking I should swap out my KA for another bassline focused/osc module then came to Ben's video and of course it just reinforced my decision to keep it. Thanks again for your perfect format in showing how to get more out of modules! Just as a side note, the low volume output of the Kick All has never been a problem foe me but I do use the WMD mixer with channel gains.

[@AndyVonal]

Thanks, Ben! another great video. Techno-Lust...

[@DivKid]

Technolust. Great name.

[@mooseinbeesocks2700]

Plump rump :) I love that all their modules are DIY truly excellent

[@DivKid]

haha was hoping someone would bring that up.

[@pulp61]

This is basically what I had hoped the BD9 would be - I love that the tune tracks v/oct

[@DivKid]

Different thing trying to model a 909 but glad you've found something that works for you.

[@Dogboy73]

Wow! Love this. Didn't think I'd be interested in something like this with my very modest, minimal odular set-up. Definitely am though.

[@DivKid]

ah cool, enjoy it if you get one.

[@slipknotboy555]

That part about putting noise into the trig in was cool, and a nice tip. I liked the industrialesque sounds, too; industrial genres are what got me into electronic music (and synths) in the first place, so I always appreciate that, heh Like when you sent hats through the modulated Crush delay to complement the kick - good shit

[@DivKid]

Yeah noise into anything is a general practice I absorbed to see what happens.

[@Metahedron]

As if I needed any more encouragement! This video is such an incredible work of propaganda I love the noise FM patches, it sounds a bit like the lovely Synare 3 to me.

[@DivKid]

Yeah there's some Synare vibes to it definitely.

[@MisterNiles]

I'm going to need a couple of these. I haven't purchased a drum module yet. I was ready to buy a BIA when the QPAS was released. I've shied away from drum modules because I prefer building sounds. This looks irresistible to me though. Thanks for the video.

[@radpix]

Hey, in the intro you are really creative to post the talked about module next to other desirable modules (shows the business aspect to make people buy gear never sleeps) ... thanks anyway for your professional reviews

[@DivKid]

That wasn't anything I planned. I needed space the Kickall and DATA modules and they went next to the Hexmix and then the other DATA and part of my system had some modules I could pull out too. But glad you liked it and it worked out nicely.

[@bjondersson]

I think you should have mentioned the relatively low volume output of this module, which is it’s biggest flaw. This is demonstrated in a drum module comparison video on KZbin, and is a general complaint on discussion forums. I have this module and confirm the issue. Befaco should make a v2 where this is fixed. Apart from this, it’s a nice module. If anything, I wish you could tune it even lower than it goes now.

[@monkeyplusplus]

Oh neat, a kickdrum moduloooooooomg whoa it does so much more! With some utility modules you could get a whole song out of a few of these things!

[@DivKid]

yeah it makes for a great voice module.

[@johnny6540]

watched for the kickall, need a crush delay now too, thanks 🤪

[@MartinDoudoroffLLC]

Sounds great. Some esoteric modulation required! Hopefully your demo will save some folks from missing out on the full potential of the module.

[@DivKid]

Yeah as I said it's first and foremost a solid kick, but there's lots in there beyond that so I hope people think "beyond the kick" and get patching.

[@sneakyfatcat]

befaco knocks it out of the park once again

[@DivKid]

Yeah solid modules.

[@NICUofficial]

for almost a year I was NOT jelling with this module at all until last night (haven't given up on myself yet) finally got something killer had some random stepped, attenuated modulation on the pitch input Sent some gritty noise into the shape CV A huge amount of audio-rate AM on the Veils channel I ran Kickall through Super long Decay setting took my time programming an interesting beat in Steppy used an envelope follower to for sidechain to duck this massive kick/bass hybrid so you could hear the snare cutting through finally wanted to keep the module :)

[@andrewnancarrow]

i agree. Cant seem to get tone out of this thing out of the box. requires a ton of cv help

[@resonantnoise6656]

Sounds great, but that crush delay hats and snare was amazing.

[@DivKid]

Yeah Crush Delay is excellent, the hats and snare with PICO Drums.

[@NineHellHeaven]

I came here thinking this would be simple compact kick replacement for my Noise Eng. BIA (which is much too versatile to be just a kick drum). This seems more versatile than I expected so I would probably feel bad just using it as a kick drum which is what I'm looking for right now. Since I don't want sampled drums, not sure where to look next. This is still top of the list. PS. Great video.

[@hightec1988]

Hey man, I got into modular last year and I must say I absolutely love your videos. Quick question: Where did you get the panel for your Safety Valve? Thanks!

[@okeribok]

Kickall is the module I see most on sale second hand. Crazy! People don't understand, I guess. Better for me. Curious to try modulating one kickall with another.

[@dondonaudio8191]

Maybe that is because people want a versatile good kick sound. That’s what the Kickall doesn’t shine in my opinion. It can do a lot of sounds, but not a single proper Kick sound as far as I could test. Sorry, my opinion. Great demo though.

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

If you had to pick 1-2 drum modules for modular, what would they be and why? Limited space requires hard choices.

[@apparently_sonam]

Dat Fuuullsssome sheeeet!

[@DivKid]

haha

[@mrcwalker33]

Hope they release this as a kit soon! Wow!

[@Befacosynth]

Today at finest DIY retailers :)

[@mrcwalker33]

Befacosynth already sold out in Leipzig, holy cow! Next batch then! ;)

[@Befacosynth]

@@mrcwalker33 There must be some units left in other shops like thonk, modular addict or lorem ipsynth. Next batch will be ready in around a month

[@DivKid]

Wow quick sell out. Hopefully you can grab one Christian.

[@mrcwalker33]

DivKidVideo your fault! :P

[@13FML12]

so does it retrigger the osc with the kick trigger?, as in.. is it phase accurate? the scope is very zoomed most of the video

[@WillisZzz]

Big whack of variety from one little module. Prob my favourite DivKid vid so far.

[@DivKid]

oh nice, thanks Will.

[@MattPriceGuitar]

I don't have any eurorack gear but this looks like it would be the perfect match for my circuit mono station. Plus you can get a kit and I love soldering. Very cool sounding module.

[@DivKid]

Would be cool with the Circuit Mono Station similar raw kind of vibe to the analogue sound actually. I have a CMS here which I've been enjoying.

[@MaikeruSumisu]

Great Demo - but the dead pixel on your mordax was killing me xD

[@DivKid]

haha

[@DivKid]

do you mean the dot in the top left corner? That's to indicate the top left button is what you press to get back out of the minimal control. It's not a dead pixel.

[@MaikeruSumisu]

@@DivKid no i mean the white dot slightly off center -> imgur.com/Rnyv8mf

[@pulp61]

@@MaikeruSumisu Now he won't be able to unsee it haha

[@NineHellHeaven]

Ha I thought it was my TV and got up to wipe it.

[@atkmodular904]

Great Stuff Ben! I've been waiting on this rundown ever since your "First Patch" Video of it. Sounds Fantastic! Fullsome! You're listening to too much Nick Batt, Next you'll be talking about those Sing Song Harmonics too. :/

[@DivKid]

haha everytime I say fulsome I think of Nick and wait for the comments :)

[@slipknotboy555]

Why the slant face? The sing song harmonics (and Nick mentioning them) are nice. Heh, Ben, I guess you need to get a new 2 pole filter capable of those kinds of sweeps to review so you have an excuse to say sing song harmonics.

[@atkmodular904]

idk.. Does the slant face mean something offensive that i wasn't aware of? Probably should have gone with a good oul, tried and true :P I'm a big fan of all things Nick Batt! He can talk about sing song Harmonics til the cows come home and i'll be a happy guy. Long live SonicState!

[@atkmodular904]

Haha, Yea well it's a nice word, a Fullsome Descriptor you might say. :P

[@slipknotboy555]

@@atkmodular904 Oh, no, it's not offensive or anything; it just tends to be used to express dismay or unhappiness, heh. That's cool - I just took it a different way with the slant face, haha. And agreed, long live Sonic State - they're great

[@Alphastare23]

Nice range of sounds. What were those sleeved cables you were using about midway through?

[@DivKid]

Poetic Visions cables.

[@MatheusLeston]

man, I was ready to order the boom tschak, but this seems like a very good contender as well. are those two comparable? I still feel like the boom tschak has a rounder yet punchier tone, or am I crazy?

[@DivKid]

Boomtshack goes way further (and is a lot bigger and more money of course). You get a couple of kicks with the Boomt. as you can make the filter oscillator and then fade between filtered and oscillator tones. Tonally they are different, but until I can put them right next to each other it's hard to say.

[@MatheusLeston]

@@DivKid I think the Boomtschak is the way to go, then. The kick is so fundamental in my production that it is good to have such a wide range of possibilities. It is expensive, sure, but it sounds so so good (it seems)! Thanks for the opinion!

[@john9291]

Great review. Wow this thing is solid. How do rate compared with BoomTschak

[@DivKid]

Tonally different, both good. Very different size and feature set of course.

[@NedBouhalassaVideos]

Pretty amazing module! Ben, how does this compare with BIA in your opinion?

[@DivKid]

BIA been digital and bigger with more control / CV etc has a wave wider range. It doesn't do that analogue boom or the soft clipping vibe to sine/square wave shaper but of course this doesn't do all the folder harsher metallic tones that the BIA is great at. With external modules you can take this beyond a kick and with the BIA you can make a nice kick. They'd make for a nice pairing.

[@NedBouhalassaVideos]

DivKidVideo Ha! Typical Gearslutz reply! Thanks, buddy for the thoughts.

[@Symphoneers]

Your percussion module demos are some of my favourite. Getting a "full kit" out of a single module always impresses me & inspires me to do some more creative patching. By the way, any word from Befaco on when this'll be available for purchase? I'd love to build one.

[@Befacosynth]

Today :)

[@DivKid]

out today as Befaco said :)

[@TheVinn1982]

Could you please make bad reviews for modules, so i dont have to spend my money to buy it 🤦🤦🤦

[@DivKid]

haha

[@TheVinn1982]

@@DivKid just ordered from thonk 😋

[@DivKid]

:)

[@TheBruteOne]

yeah, you're so right, got empty pockets due to the vids of DivKid and Loopop, ooops :-)

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

he just has to demo WMD drum modules- I have not been inspired by fracture or chimera. VPME drum module looks ace however.

[@geraldgoodiii6993]

Christ on a bike this thing slams. Kinda fucked up getting the Erica bass drum it seems.

[@DivKid]

Not tried the Erica drum but I imagine that's great too.

[@corradomorgana]

8th...slipping.

[@DivKid]

haha

[@bitegoatie]

“Fulsome” does not mean “full” - we here to have a fad for misusing this word in the synthesizer community. Nick Batt also likes this word a lot. Not to blame you guys. A bunch of journalists have jumped on this word of late, each hearing another with the same dumb misusage and figuring it sounds clever. These people write and speak for a living. You would think someone would look up the word. Once they start misusing a word, it goes straight to Hades. No, no - that would involve research. One hopes this does not stick with us, like George Bush’s “bad actors” for people who do bad things. People who carry out actions have a fancy word already: agents. Actors are the people who serve your food at restaurants. Alas, now we have “actors” in place of the waning Bushism “evildoers” and cops, politicians, and journalists will alternatively refer to these people as “individuals” - to avoid calling them people. English is a gutter language. We are, however, spreading the sewage. Soon, everything will be called a “unit” and specified with a grunt and one or more emoji, regardless of your place of birth. Yay, internet. Seems good enough, by the way, that Kickall.

[@thomaspatteson]

I was wondering about this too. But see definition 1 here: www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fulsome

[@thomaspatteson]

The word has two distinct and somewhat contradictory meanings. The article addresses this and the history of the word.

[@Braunld]

Well, that's quite an enervating, pedantic post. As if you can't get an idea of what he means by what he's talking about, and the way he's talking about it. Heaven forbid he "misused" a word! That definitely warrants a ~150 word response - it's an unseemly blight for any self-respecting English speaker watching a video about a synthesizer module on KZbin. It's shameful, really.

[@bitegoatie]

Braunld - Sorry, snowflake. Ben knows well I luvs ‘im. Your views, eh - maybe you’re takin’ it a bit too ‘ard.

[@Braunld]

bitegoatie - snowflake! great buzzword.. I see that used (lately) almost as much as "cuck" and "hipster" in the YT comments section. Snowflake, though. Quite novel and effective. Your original comment reeks of condescension and self-satisfaction. I admit, I fell for it.