Befaco - Rampage

[@brmbkl]

just something about waking up on a saturday morning, fresh croissant, good coffee and a video about generators in a northern accent.

[@DivKid]

haha what's better ey?

[@JoshuaKennedy321]

The synthesists' consensus (say that five times fast!!) seems to be "you MUST have a Maths in your rack!" When so many people tell me what gear I should have, my impulse is to get something else instead ... out of sheer perversity I guess. There are other, more practical reasons too: Rampage is 2hp smaller than Maths (that's enough room for another module!) and the panel layout is a lot easier to understand. The waveshape diagram is way more intuitive than trying to remember what "LOG-LIN-EXP" means. I have a MakeNoise Function (1/2 Maths) and it's useful .. but I need more modulation! And after using Function I did not want to get a Maths! So I did some shopping .. Thanks for the vid. Your demos are very thorough and now I feel ready to dive into the Rampage (which I ordered last night) when it arrives.

[@DivKid]

Enjoy Rampage.

[@gelatinous6915]

Rampage + Blinds or ABC is like the better version of Maths

[@The_Peddler]

Great video. It answers a lot of questions I had about using all of the features... soooooo many features. When you buy the PCB/Panel combo, the bang for your buck is an outstanding value! I recently added the dirt cheap BEFACO Dual Atenuverter module (PCB/Panel is only $29 USD) which compliments the RAMPAGE quite well. So far, the RAMPAGE is one of my favorite DIY builds and BEFACO is a great group of people to work with. Great service + they're always available to answer questions. The easy to use Assembly Guides and quality double-sided PCB's are some of the best I've seen.

[@DivKid]

Befaco are doing some great things and a lovely bunch of people. Lot of time for them and their modules. Rampage is great! Got a bit of lust for a few other modules from them too.

[@The_Peddler]

Yes... it was just like dominos falling... after building the Rampage, I was keen on getting others to build. Now I'm working on Befaco build #9. I didn't even need the Sampling Modulator but it looked like a fun build and was going to sell it afterwards. After using it, it turns out it's a keeper after all. And... yes... a great group of folks. They sent me some free parts after I pointed out a correction to one of the BOM's.

[@Gulasch200]

Thanks for this!!! Just finished my Rampage DIY-Kit last weekend and I am a total beginner in Eurorack.

[@DivKid]

+El Zenser great stuff, glad I could help. As always let me know if you have any questions.

[@Gulasch200]

It took me about a weekend and I was totally out of soldering practice.

[@Gulasch200]

Everyday like normal working day, maybe a little bit more. It takes some concentration, because it is not good to make a mistake. Before you solder a part in always check it at least 2 times.

[@namelessnameless]

do you think someone with no experience soldering could build this? ive been reading how to and watching videos. I was thinking i would diy an attenuator or something of the sort first, then build one of these?

[@Gulasch200]

Hi, it is hard to tell, but if something goes wrong Befaco has something they call "Happy Ending Kit", which you can order and if something goes totaly wrong they help you finish it...as I understand (check their homepage). At least it made me think "if it goes wrong, there is someone to help me..."

[@MrGratefulheart]

I came here for further instruction (I'm using the VCV Rack). This really does offer all kinds of complex, and very interesting sound combinations. Thanks for your work here.

[@MrGratefulheart]

For those of you who are reticent to drop some bucks on the modual, try its virtual brother first with VCV Rack. Then come back and purchase the real deal. Thanks again!

[@DivKid]

VCV is great, definitely recommend that to everyone starting out. Learning about signal flows and patching. You'll be far more comfortable coming onto hardware having used that for a while.

[@StarmanDeluxe2001]

Forget Maths, could never get my hands on one. Now this, this is what I've been waiting for!

[@DivKid]

+StarmanDeluxe2001 Well the Rampage is killer!

[@Jaysusitsme]

I am continually impressed by this module, I'm trying to get a MI Stages, but they're as rare as hen's teeth at the moment - so Rampage will do for my Env. Gen. needs :)

[@mcshafty1]

I really enjoyed the "no scope"element of this vid. I'm listening harder!

[@cidst8]

Hard while listening!

[@fulhjort]

This video really sold me on the module. Can't wait to solder it.

[@DivKid]

+fulhjort great stuff, enjoy the module.

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

I have the half of a maths/befaco module in the doepfer a171-2 VCS module.

[@FMVideozify]

can't wait to get this kit.. it's my next build. Thanks Ben for the thorough review of functions.

[@DivKid]

Cheers! Appreciate the comment and glad to be of assistance!

[@LittleAmbientMachine]

Wauw i almost sold my Rampage but thanks to this video i will hold on to it ! great tutorial. Thanks alot!!!!

[@DivKid]

Nice one thanks!

[@i_never_asked_for_an_alias]

Absolutly sexy gear. So happy i got this DIY - Kit as one of my first modules. You guys should check the other stuff from BEFACO (fanboy detected). They look great and have that special "ghost in the machine" factor.

[@voodubz]

In min 19:25 whats patched with the right trigger?

[@precarious333]

Looks like a very useful module, and more intuitive than Maths.

[@DivKid]

+precarious333 great, thanks :)

[@jimmy_jamesjams_a_lot4171]

ITS NOT NOT NOT LIKE MATHS! I just got this in DIY kit form, and I'm curious though I already know that I'm wrong, but I feel like this module just cannot be the same one that I have, because it's too darn complicated, where the kit, well, it's a kit! The module in this video is quite complicated, capable, and versatile. Aside from two surface mount components, there's only five TL074 quad OpAmp chips, no more silicon than that with a couple transistors... Truly captivating all the sonic wizardry one can reap from a couple ICs. Divkid, when are your own signature modules gonna be available?! I know you're gonna give us something someday soon so get busy with your own experiments.

[@DivKid]

Hey Jimmy, this module is indeed awesome! Great work from Befaco. We've actually just interviewed them as Modular Podcast which will be online in a couple of weeks. Regarding modules ... funny you should say that! I have ideas, but no skills to implement them.

[@philtobin9510]

I think "YES IT'S LIKE MATHS!" is more directed towards, Maths and the Rampage are both based on the Serge/Buchla DSG, as the caption says, all Tony Rolando has done over the guys at Befaco is added a few attenuverters, behaviour wise your just looking at a revamped DSG, both companies have added a few more bells and maybe some whistles over the DSG. Love your videos Ben, after selling my last Rampage I bought another two. I may have bought the first to soon, now I have a better understanding of Synthesis I find it's my go to module, hence buying/building two....and I'm greedy.

[@MrFrancescoPiro]

Ehi guys great overview! Where's the "MAX" output is patched to at 15:46 ?

[@DivKid]

I think that's going to the timbre input of the mallet section of a Mutable Instruments Elements.

[@kingpishful]

Cheers, a lot of this works for Maths too.

[@DivKid]

+kingpishful yeah it does, so hopefully works as an educational thing for any function generators people have.

[@flood81]

This is great video Ben. Trying to figure out what I want from Befaco, this looks like a great addition to my first rack.

[@DivKid]

There's a lot of very good Befaco modules!

[@flood81]

DivKidVideo but there's very little money to buy them with :(

[@DivKid]

Maybe look at what your system really needs more than the "sexy / exciting" modules that stand out more. Sometimes the utilities are the things you need to ignite more patches/music from a system.

[@zwerty007]

at 19:00 you're talking about a square and octave up but it seems more like a semitone difference? or am I going crazy haha I love my rampage, one cool thing not shown here is that the balance knob can act like an attenuator for either channel with the max/min outs. And that the max out enables use as a very complex ADSR when a gat is plugged into one side's IN and the other sides TRIG, a feature not available on Maths. Actually I don't think you could cover all features of this module without making the video an hour long haha, you did pretty well

[@DivKid]

+Chartre Khan good tip with the balance control as an attenuator, well pointed out. "sounds like a semitone"? really? It's the sub octave on the birdkids VCO and then the normal square. Might be the general phenomenon of low pitched squares not sounding in tune. But it's definitely a measurable octave. Probably should have pitched it up a bit higher.

[@zwerty007]

DivKidVideo I wasn't listening on very good speakers, perhaps that was it. Listening with proper headphones I can hear the octave. But it's really strange how it sounded unmistakably like a minor whole tone or semitone or something, and then when whistling along it would fit the octave perfectly. Don't worry, it's not a criticism of your video because I can still hear the effect you were going for.

[@sanderbaan730]

whats the sound source at 16:00 ?

[@DivKid]

Mutable Instruments - Elements :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/q6LJhHehbMijmMU

[@willdorak985]

Where is it triggering from? I did not hear what you said. I heard something about a channel but which channel are you talking about? I don't see any white cable coming from the VCF so it must be triggered by something else? it would be great if you could zoom out so we could see how you connected the cables.

[@DivKid]

Hi Will, if you can point me to specific timings in the video I'll my best to remember what the modules and patches were. I keep zoomed in keep the quality of the module on show at the forefront of demo. Anything outside it such as demoing a filter but not seeing the oscillator plugged into it's kind of irrelevant for the purpose of demonic the filter. However I appreciate people want to recreate patches and take in the bigger picture. It' impossible for move every module to be in shot for a video demo due to amount my system changes for video work. Sometimes modules are several rows or cases away. It's something I'm thinking about and I appreciate your feedback.

[@arturmpuga]

feel so dumb right now but cant understand the envelope follower patch. could you please explain it to me?

[@davidsimons1377]

I'd like one of these.They make some interesting stuff like also the chopping kinky & sampling modulator but I was wondering if you are going to review the patchblocks some time? I notice one in the rack. Possibly its not got as many programmes yet as the Snazzy fx Ardcore but its somewhat cheaper, especially by the time you've got the latter's xpander.

[@DivKid]

I don't have the Patchblocks modules anymore so I can't do that. Chopping Kinky looks great going back to Befaco though and the Sampling Modulator is very good. I was sad to give that one away for my Christmas giveaway. I'll have to get another.

[@geecen]

The extra logic functions seem more useful (as in not already in my inverting mixer) than the Maths. And DIY!

[@DivKid]

+geecen thank for the comment. It's certainly massively useful, as is the four channel attenuverter column in the middle.

[@robjenkins9839]

Excellent guide, showed me a lot of stuff i didnt know

[@usefulnoise8427]

Good times for the world of SDIY! The fact you can put something as complex as this for under $200 these is outstanding. Great job in the second half of the video of showing how essential a module like this is for complex sound design. Overall great video for another inspiring module!

[@DivKid]

+Useful Noise Soundware Thank you for the kind words, always appreciate it.

[@mosai6950]

patch blocks review?

[@DivKid]

possibly, nothing really set in stone at the minute though. They're great though if you're interesting in them.

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

I love it and using it in VCV Rack now. Easier to read than Maths.

[@churlishbeardo]

This is really nice; thank you for the in-depth review. Have you used it as a subharmonic generator, a la MATHS or the Serge VCS? This seems like it could replace my two VCS modules, and then some.

[@DivKid]

I haven't tried it as a sub as I tend to have oscillators around spare for sub octaves. Often using the Beast's Chalkboard from ALM for easy switching. I'll give it a go though.

[@churlishbeardo]

+DivKidVideo Thanks! It's a great effect, because it's not a simple -1 octave suboscillator. I have a video about patching up sunharmonics somewhere on my own YT page.

[@DivKid]

I'll have a look for it. I like things like the A-115 from Doepfer that tracks well with squares but send it moving wavetables etc and it goes BONKERS!

[@ben-rosfeld]

What S&H are you using in this?

[@DivKid]

HI Benjamin, can you point me to a specific time in the video and I'll watch it back and let you know. Off the top of my head I can't remember what modules were being used in the video. But I can tell you what was going on if I have specific part to listen to.

[@ben-rosfeld]

At around 5:30 you're using some sort of dual S&H I believe

[@DivKid]

As I go into the slew section on the video I'm using a S&H signal to the input and using the rise and fall times to create a glide/slew/lag affect over the stepped S&H signal. Is that what you meant? In terms of what S&H I was using it really doesn't matter (and I can't remember) and the S&H signal from anything should be a stepped random signal (presuming the S&H is sampling noise at it's input by default) and the Rampage would behave the same with anything creating those signals. I hope that helps, if not let me know and I'll try to answer any more questions.

[@texacomann]

Really not everybodys darling! But it is really cool!

[@LeonvanBokhorst]

Excellent work 😃

[@DivKid]

thank you

[@LeonvanBokhorst]

Bought it and soldered for a few days thanks to your video. As you said a very versatile tool. Lot of functionality though easy to use. I'm diving in to learn more about Befaco modules. Lovely company.

[@DivKid]

The Crush Delay sounding great at Superbooth earlier this year. Their utilities sounds good too.

[@davidsimons1377]

So would you say this is something like the Ken Stone VCS as made by Bananalogue, Elby and Doepfer, only more versatile? My initial reaction was its basically an envelope but its obviously a lot more. Just bought sampling modulator, but this & 3 other Befaco's are deffo on my shopping list. They're all gorgeous & powerful modules.

[@DivKid]

more like the Serge Dual Slope generators, can be a slew, oscillator, filter, LFO, envelope, clipping/square wave distortion. It's very versatile.

[@jeanfatale]

I'm also experiencing huge (1st worldly) difficulties choosing between Maths 2 and Rampage. I don't have any other offset generator in my rack, and Maths would add two of those, but if I could get a used Rampage I imagine I would go for it. (No chance I'm building one myself.) Maths doesn't have any rate-switches (where Rampage has three modes). Will that annoy me or is it just nice? The big question I guess is: Which one is the most flexible?

[@DivKid]

Maths I'd say is more flexible in a system. It's 4 channels of mixing, inversion, offsets etc when you need it. Which is a smaller system or when you're starting out is definitely much needed. Rampage has a couple of extra tricks up it's sleeves but I think if you know you need offset generators grab Maths. I like the sliders and range switches on this, makes playing the modulation by hand nice moving sliders around and having ranges to work within. That's a personal thing though. Rampage and a Manhattan Analog MVP is a force to be reckoned with as a nice pairing if that's an option.

[@jeanfatale]

Thanks for answering (and fast too)! Manhattan MVP is too wide for my 2x84 HP, I'm afraid (and I've promised myself that I'm not gonna get a bigger rack). The offset I might be able to work out otherwise though. Tough one, but I still feel I'm pulling towards the Rampage. Except for the two offset/mixer-channels, is there anything else that Rampage is missing that Math has?

[@DivKid]

it handles the end of cycle and end of rise outputs different. With more options on the Rampage. It has gates that are active through each stage. so a rise gate output and fall gate output. For offset and mixing how about the new Happy Nerding 3x MIA? That's killer.

[@jeanfatale]

yeah, that's a possibility. how about snappiness? is Rampage as good at making snappy bass envelopes as Maths?

[@DivKid]

Yeah. Nice tight fast and exponential envelopes can be had easily.

[@philgolden8619]

Amazing!

[@DivKid]

cheers Phil.

[@mcshafty1]

We can get close within an octave or so - sounds like a bass guitarist I knew 😁

[@sneakyfatcat]

It's been a year or two since I built this as my first module and I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface of what you can do with it. I can't think of a patch where I haven't used it in some form

[@Kid_Placo]

Merci beaucoup 🙂

[@danieljackson3868]

I'll take two.

[@DivKid]

+Daniel Jackson ;) ... with a Maths in-between?

[@danieljackson3868]

yeah...I'm not greedy.

[@Auxillier]

So if you hawe this, you dont nead the MATHS, because they are practicaly the same??? Thinking of bying this modul AND the Maths. Butt if its (same,same) then i will just gett this. Please help me. Im new to eurorack and dont know

[@DivKid]

Hey Stefan, they are both based on the Serge Dual Slope Generators. Maths has the attenuverters and a different set of outputs. This has different outputs in the middle too. They are very similar but not the same. If you can get both, you'll no doubt make use of them as your system grows.

[@Auxillier]

DivKidVideo Thank you👍

[@MrCMread]

Wicked fart sounds.

[@dejangaletic7884]

Lovely amount of commercials