What's a Sequenced Malfunction Generator // Neutral Labs Scrooge Review and Demo

[@pablowentscobar]

The first 1:40 I'm drooling thinking "It would be so sweet just to have that, and it sucks that eurorack gets all the cool toys, and maybe I could just set up a little eurorack, really just a tiny little rack for this and maybe just a couple LFOs, and maybe just a small bank of mults..." And then he said the magic word "STANDALONE!" Nice try eurorack, you almost had me that time! Good stuff sir, top shelf.

[@SAUCYSYNTHS]

@@pablowentscobar Agree

[@pablowentscobar]

@@SAUCYSYNTHS Sometimes I feel like Pooki in New Jack City "Sh*t be callin my name!"

[@fowchiiiliedpuppiesdied]

I know, I know….but it could get completely overwhelming….or not

[@andytuke8986]

Eurorack is evil, its worse than a hard core crack habit

[@CommunityGuidelines]

The staccato nature of the voices makes it sound even better without reverb. Little clicks, bleeps, and sonic fragments all triggering for a fraction of a second--- very nice indeed.

[@StarskyCarr]

True. I thought I’d demo that it had separate outputs somehow… and you’ll notice it’s subtle reverb to demo the functionality - which sounded better to me than overblown spacey madness. I tried delay and it took too much from the glitchy nature so settled on a little tickle of reverb.

[@kzm4275]

Amazing aesthetics start at 2:00, these machines speak my language

[@Farold_Haltermeyer]

The Twisted Electrons Blast Beats shares a lot of the same DNA and aesthetics...but somehow seems a tad more dynamic. Great demo (as usual) chief, ta

[@fiddlestickzmuzik]

yes please, I just love these bits of hardware you can sit down with at your desk and just jam with for hrs..

[@NonsenseInBASIC]

The Elmyra 2 quickly became my favourite synth of all time. I don’t even like percussion and I hit the button on this the moment they announced it :) I think it’s capable of some wonderfully weird stuff. Can’t wait to explore.

[@nyppy]

@@NonsenseInBASIC Scrooge will make some cool modulated drones when running at very low tempo, or if you feed audio into the POKE inputs.

[@4ToMiCoR4Ng3]

I came here from the Neutral Labs teaser from another platform ... Your intro had me within the first 5 seconds, I had to order the DIY kit first thing ... THEN watch the rest 👍 🤣 ( Ok also a reason to make the quick decision was also to already know Elmyra 2 ) But you built nice killer beat in the intro 👍, it was to blame that I couldn't help myself nor resist ... 🤣

[@Vim-Wolf]

That’s a fun and well thought out little piece of kit.

[@AetherEar]

Thanks for the well-rounded (and paced!) overview, @StarskyCarr! Nice sounds, cool grooves 😍 Seems like @nyppy managed to once again squeeze a ton of functionality in a small form factor. It does indeed seem very logical and easy to wrap your head around, which is fantastic in the absence of screen. Kudos for that! I definitely understand the apparent limitation of having the two global mod tracks (i.e. not per voice). Given the form factor, it would have been madness to have per-step, per voice control. But I can't help thinking that it would have been nice for the X/Y toggles on the voices to have been crossfaders. Thus you could have basically limitless variation between the voices (and could get some unique modulation shapes to boot). I haven't looked at the circuit diagram, but I assume that this could be an easy mod - if the mod lines are routed down to the toggles, rather than the toggles e.g. controlling a multiplexer/switch elsewhere on the PCB. Now, back to making some blips and boops of my own 👽

[@nyppy]

In practice, I find that having 2 mod tracks set up and then toggling them on and off for specific voices already gives a lot of variety. The crossfade mod you speak off is possible in theory, but it would ideally incorporate buffers. The voice circuits are passive, and impedance plays a big role, which is also why mod will often sound different on a voice depending on how many other voices the same mod track is sent to.

[@AetherEar]

@ Thanks for the reply! Ah, you are totally correct! The impedance/load is an extra dimension when it comes to modulation. Each voice is affected differently depending upon where it is in the chain and how many others have that modulation enabled. So maybe I should let my soldering iron sleep on this one :) Putting in a buffered crossfader will give you something, but it would take a bit of the passive magic away.

[@PWMaarten]

Keep calm or don’t! Seems like a lovely bit of kit. Great LED’s, not those overly bright and sharp colored ones 99% of gear has these days.

[@Bata9999]

Interesting piece. Reminds me a bit of the Landscape Noon sound wise. Similar passive feedback circuits going on I suppose. This looks like a hard piece to demo but you did a good job here.

[@WoolwichHouseStudio]

2:58 sounds pretty good mate!

[@ITATTRACTS]

Sounds very much like a much easier to control Landscape Noon. Dig it.

[@jumpingman8160]

What a crazy sounding little box of mayhem. I want 4 of them

[@nyppy]

Most I've ever run at the same time when testing was 3. It was quite intense.

[@jumpingman8160]

@nyppy did you use external fx with them? I can tell the SMG must be a delight with fuzz and reverb

[@nyppy]

@@jumpingman8160 I usually run voice 1 through compression and saturation, and some of the other voices through delay and reverb.

[@jumpingman8160]

@@nyppy nice touch sir.

[@L3D0L3]

I think this and Moogs DFAM would pair nicely

[@jakojako_live]

I want!

[@chazotron600]

2:50 sounds like early Seefeel

[@skywalnut]

Oh man, I need an Elmyra 2. 😆

[@michaelkonomos]

Right?! That was kind of my takeaway too.

[@andytuke8986]

Its a granny scarer. I want one

[@jm6734]

very cool. A hitting bassdrum in there would've made it irrisistable.

[@the_glove]

Reminds me of the mono tribe

[@lostralopitek_23]

is it eurorack compatible

[@NathanHedin]

"...available as a 42 HP Eurorack module or semi-modular desktop synth." -from Neutral labs website.

[@Magnus_Loov]

Seem like it is the ultimate fart sound generator, ie "Buttocks malfunction generator". Waiting for the "Behringer Methane". Looking at the rest of the comments, this seems to be the best thing since sliced bread. I simply don't get this twisted part of modular sounds. It mostly sounds like something is broken(ok "Malfunction", I get it). But not in the best way. A broken chiptune generator. A Sid 64 with a really bad attitude gone semi-modular. Anything different seems to sell these days...

[@nyppy]

This was my main design goal actually, I wanted all the farts without the smell. Thanks for confirming I achieved that. 🙂👍

[@dinogoldie9716]

Price?

[@fowchiiiliedpuppiesdied]

Not a fan of staccato, it destroys my ears. Cool machine anyway. I love them all, to be honest.

[@MikkelGrumBovin]

this flies right over my head ..... "A drum machine for unique torture" i simply dont get the.... fun ..... it gives me a feeling of nerveous breakdown - viseral fear - fight and flight territory - sounds like batteries dying on my dr-55 !

[@StarskyCarr]

haha.. anything you cant do on a Juno2 is a revelation to me :)

[@Imaninternetuser]

This is not an instrument for a musician, its like everything else in the world right now ... chaos. This is not an invention for a musician. Its a garbage creator, and any sane music lover knows where garbage belongs.

[@TheMinorSeventh]

I found the Scrooge

[@nyppy]

Thank you for your feedback. With your permission, I'd like to use this and turn it into a Neutral Labs promotional sticker. I'm sure it'll inspire people, as it has inspired me. (I'm serious, by the way, if you allow it, I'll do it.)

[@CommunityGuidelines]

Yeah, where are the French horn reviews on this channel? If you can't play Strauss with it, what's the point?

[@StarskyCarr]

😂😂

[@MikkelGrumBovin]

i must agree wholehearted !