The Quanalog Boubou is a combination of 5 voices of filter based analog drum synth that cover the basic drum set. Kick, Low and Hi Tom, Rimshot, Snare and Hi Hats that can be the foundation for your Eurorack drum setup. Each voice has a lot of necessary control which can be developed further to reach a wider range of possibilities.
At its base every drum engine can become a signal processor with the core made by analog filter, so it can also process other engines, or alternatively other modules.
Each sound has been carefully made with specific analog filter structure to be able to create real percussion feel cover from low-end to hi-end frequency. We carefully tweak every single component to make a very classic sound quality with hi-end built with all metal pot, jack and switch to make sure its the last module that break on your setup.
- 5 voices Eurorack filter based analog drum synthesizer
- Each voice has a wide range of sound that can reach to all drums
- Pure sine resonance excited analog filter make warm thick and powerful sound that can cover very low-end frequency
- Real independence analog noise engine for snare and hats pass thru analog decay vca and bandpass filter with cv control for decay amount and filter resonance point
- Cv control for pitch, tune and decay make it more groovy
- Hi-end sound quality
- Minimal futuristic panel design in black and golden finish, Tank built quality – minimal futuristic panel design in black and golden finish with all metal pot, jack and switch.
- Complete your eurorack drums setup with 5 analog drum sound for just 28hp. Space saving!
Kick drum
The kick drum is the combination of 2 part, the bottom sound of the drums come from pure sine wave generate by analog low pass filter being excited to a resonance point giving a thick and powerful sound blend with click sound made by feedback circuit with control over frequency and mix volume to create a perfect bass drum.
All parameter being affect by 3 compression mode define 3 difference of taste and level that can be useful in difference situation such as studio, live performance…The sound from the kick voice can be from very soft and gentle, punchy energetic to very hash and overdrive that can drive the dance floor to a crazy point!
The click tone and blend control are for feedback circuit that can choose the frequency for click sound from high click to low mid boost which can be crank up til distort point.
The overdrive knob control the amount of signal that feed in. Start with a low input signal, sound familiar to 808 bass drum and can be more overdrive so its become more 909 or Vermona kicks and can be crank up until it self resonate and can be use as a sine oscillator for generating bass sound.
The new version of boubou has been add a tune cv and decay cv for kick drum, make it even more flexible kick drum pattern.
If you feed the trig input instead of a short trigger but a waveform or audio the kick drum become a wavefolder/bit crusher, can make your simple waveform become more complex. The Lo tom section without plug the trig in become a notch filter for bass drum with cv control over pitch.
Dual Tom
The Lo and Hi tom voice use the same core engine as kick voice with cv control for resonance point which affect the drum pitch. Can use voltage signal from other modules such as sequencer, envelope, lfo… to variable the pitch to create multiple and polyrhythm feels.
The Lo Tom can be variable from low frequency kick drums to hi tom/ bongo…using the combination of frequency and resonance control. Same with Hi tom can be able to be come very high pitch can be use as rimshot.
The dual tom having a retrig knobs which control the volume of the retrigger drum when gates are off. Depend on the gate length you have it creating a flam, roll or natural flap sound that make “hand play” feeling. If you had a sequencer with trigger that has difference gate length for each step can create a very complex rhythmic.
Like the kick drum, dual tom part can become a sound processor with low and hi tom as dual notch filter with low and hi freq range. Can use it to create very rich and musical harmonic based on it’s resonance peak point.
Snare
The Snare voice is an analog white noise going thru decay vca then trigger a band pass filter with frequency and resonance control define snare pitch. Turning “RES” of made it into a thin spring snare sound. By blending the Resonance amount and frequency it start to define the body tone of the snare. Can be variable from a hi tom til hand clap or 2nd hi hats.
Without plug the trig in jack of the hi tom become a notch filter for the snare so if plugs only the Snare trigger the hi tom become resonance section of the snare help creating a very thick realistic bottom snare sound with rimshot can be create by the hi tom section. By plugging the trig to the hi tom sound separated the trigger from the snare trigger input.
The Resonance and Decay of the snare is cv controllable, with the addition of the cv tune of hi tom can create a very nice variable for each step so the sound is not just simply repeated the same sound over time.
Hats
The Hats engine using an independence noise source going thru a hipass filter that resonance at high frequency then thru a decay-vca which cv control over decay amount with attenuator make not just a open-closed hihat but a lot of variable just like a real hihat that using a “cv pedal” to make it more natural.
It also have a mixer section that be able to feed in another sound source from ext vco or anything can be mix with the noise part. When the noise volume turn off this section act as a decay vca for other sound module. By this design the module don’t stick with fix vco tune like the other but allow you to be creative on the timbre of the hats to make very fine cymbal sound with precision pitch from other 1v/oct modules.
Also if instead of trig in if you plug and vco source to the trig input can make a noice vco which follow the roots vco frequency. Can use this to “ring” the ext.in vco.
Overall
All 5 voice are analog filter based that can processing the signal that being feed in, so if the gate signal being process thru vca circuit can create a multi level accent. Each module can processing gate signal to become drum sound or processing each other as well as some other sound source. The only limits is our imagination!
With 5 analog drum engines you can create a very good rhythmic part of your setup. To be pair with any drum trigger it become a very powerful drum machine that can be useful both for live and studio environments.
Boubou sound tips:
With the kick drum the best sound is when you set the volume with soft mode, all parameter are low to a resonable level then you will see the the magic when you crank it up!
With kick, lo and tom will be able to have velocity sensitive by plugging a step cv signal instead of trig or gate signal to the trigger input, create a multiple dynamic to the sound.
Lo and Hi tom sound can be part of Kick and snare sound by not plugging any jack to the trigger input. Can use the sound from lo and hi tom section to become a 2nd body sound with cv control resonance to create a thicker Kick and snare sound.
Try plugging some audio or waveform signal from another sound source or vco and using the modulation for it. Or even try to plug the result of one section to the trigger input of the other.
Quanalog Instruments 