Hello Spice: Unboxing Plankton Electronic's semi-modular saturation unit

So, about 2 years ago, I received this email from Alex at Plankton Electronics:
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yes.
We’re designing a new machine. Actually it is almost designed already.
The machine will be a distorting unit. Standalone but eurorack suitable, semimodular, several distorting circuits. Stages are:
- Filter section (LP and HP)
- Digital section (Bit crush and Downsampling)
- Analog (9 disotrtion circuits one of them being a Nu-tube)
- Mixing section (dry and wet).
Then a feedback control with an insert between. From the analog section back into the filter. And also an envelope follower normaled to the filter input but breakable with normal and inverted outs (very good to control the filters before the distortion.
The idea of using HP and LP before the distortion circuit comes from the process of filtering the signal before the clipping stage in all the distortion circuits in the market. Generally is what defines the sound. The different distortion circuits will add more or less harmonics, being a compressed clipped signal, a fuzz, or the even harmonics produced by the tube.
Each section has its own I/O so you can skip the digital section if you want to avoid the 12bit of maximum bit rate or if you want to change the order. Overall it’s a very versatile distortion unit.
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the spice is amazing, and I can't believe it took me this long to make a video about it. Full disclosure, even though I got early access to the design, I purchased my own unit as part of the Kickstarter launch campaign.
Music Gear: kit.co/o0/musique-electronique
Video Gear: kit.co/o0/music-video-gear

[@stickytentaclesmusic]

Man, this sounds so good. Looks very versatile too. Love it!

[@OlivierOzoux]

Thanks, my only wish would have been for it to be a stereo unit, like the Elektron Analog Heat

[@glennclyatt5455]

Looks like a very versatile unit. The envelope follower sounds like fun. I also like the way the filter split would allow to more easily morph between modes.

[@PaulBoos]

Some nice low-fi when you isolate the bit crusher like you did. Really nice vid showing how great this machine is...

[@OlivierOzoux]

Yeah. I really need to spend more time understanding the other bit modes, crushing is simple because it's always least to most significant. muting, inverting and swapping is a different beast altogether

[@MusicianParadise]

This is so good !

[@corfekun9667]

Best video I ever seen.

[@goodboid]

This is quite mad!

[@averagepainter]

10:00 getting predator vibes there.

[@ullbasunen2732]

hello! awesome. have i understood this correctly: the feedback section can not be controlled with cv? cheers!

[@OlivierOzoux]

That’s right. Only the cutoff and the drive in that section

[@ullbasunen2732]

@@OlivierOzoux thanks!

[@majorcloud9141]

wonderful video, what do you know of that is comparable to this and also good for table top use?

[@OlivierOzoux]

Do you mean specifically saturation/distortion/ bit-crushing or tabletop effect units in general? For similar sounds, I’d say Elektron Analog Heat and OTO Boum comes to mind

[@majorcloud9141]

@@OlivierOzoux I'd say the saturation and everything else minus the distortion and bit crushing ?

[@HornieCow]

2:04 it's really noisy... i get loads of high freq. noise.

[@OlivierOzoux]

it is just at that point? or throughout the entire video? I just switched to using a H6 and this is the first real recording, so there's that too.

[@HornieCow]

@@OlivierOzoux sounds like it's only when you fiddle with the filters.