Tindie

For ARCANE // GENERATIVE CHIPTUNE FM DRUM SYNTH

Easy build, very fun to use. I have a Befaco Rampage and the Vortex Generator can substitute for much of what it does. The rungler function in the Vortex Generator is an interesting function that the Rampage does not possess. I'm still playing around with it, there seem to be many interesting possibilities.

Misha | Feb. 11, 2021

A fascinating and fun, quirky little synth

If you'd rather see it in action, check out a little jam I recorded with the ARCANE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVEhU6wtYME

But here's tl;dr: Order and shipping went well, despite COVID and no tracking it arrived in a totally ok timeframe. Communication with JC is great and he quickly answers any question you may have. The product itself is a lot of fun and is exactly as described. I enjoy it very much. My only gripe is that sometimes the noise / static is very loud. But that is not always the case, so I'm happy to give 4 out of 5 stars for the product.

Conrad | Oct. 19, 2020

amazing little machine!

This very musical glitch machine took me about an hour to build. It's pretty easy to assemble and sounds great!! thanks for the fast shipping and stay healthy (:

Oliver | Oct. 16, 2020

I hope for future updates

Nice niche product :)
I enjoy the different approach to using it.
I do hope for a midi implementation. That would be great.

Tobin | Oct. 7, 2020

Opera Rotas is the shiznit

Loving the Opera Rotas. Super crunchy fresh FM sounds, very usable. Really looking forward to having clock in capability.

Jo | Oct. 1, 2020

love it

For Eurorack Macro Oscillator TH

Built one of these , it sounds really nice smooth and gritty and anywhere in-between , ive not heard one with 16bit dacs but the 12 bit ones sound great , was a easy ish build and the two pcb's go together really well so no wiring , highly recomend it , think ill build myself another one

Tom | Sept. 26, 2020

Extremely useful

For KIT OPERA ROTAS//GENERATIVE FM DRUM MACHINE

This module is extremely useful, especially on this small footprint with all the cv possibilities.
the build was good fun, with the advantage of the pre-soldered SMD things.
#mustbuy

could use a little more documentation about all the functions.. but the YouTube video btw Friendly Noise does the trick too

Mark | Sept. 21, 2020

Brilliant synth/drum machine

Opera Rotas sounds great. A generative pseudo random synth/drum with TONS of character. If you have reasonable soldering skill it's completely doable to build it yourself. If you just want to buy it or would rather avoid soldering the two SMT components when building there are options for that too.

Spherical Sound Society created a very unique instrument with this project. The firmware is still in development and the MIDI side is not yet implemented.
That said, he has never failed to deliver firmware update's, advice and good support for his other products such as Vortex Generator and Glitch Storm. So it is only a matter of time before he releases the next firmware update for Opera Rotas through his own commitment to support the Synth diy community.
Outstanding creator! Thank you.

Daniel | Sept. 19, 2020

∆ ∆ ∆ 1/2

For KIT OPERA ROTAS//GENERATIVE FM DRUM MACHINE

The wright thing, in the right time and wright price..... what do you want more?
:-) PEACE ___________________________________________________

Antonio | Sept. 15, 2020

Lovely drum machine and top support

The drum machine sounds excellent, FM sounds, generative and random patterns/soundsets, lots of features for the money.
The seller is very supportive and helped me in solving some issues I had with my build!
Absolutely recommended, also check out his "Storm Glitch" for another devilish sound machine ;-)

Brisn | Sept. 10, 2020

Phantom gaming

So this is way fun and easy to build. My kiddo says it should be named "phantom gaming" because it's like video games on a black screen. She also adds that it sounds "epic." Heads up: the BOM doesn't mention an audio jack, but I had one laying around, and it took me a while to figure out that I needed to paste the ecuaciones.ino file into the main Glitch_Storm.ino.

Ben | Aug. 27, 2020

I love this drum machine

Completely mad and unexpected sounds come out of this thing. I love it. Already one of my favourite bits of gear ever.

Daniel | Aug. 15, 2020

opera rotas ¿

For KIT OPERA ROTAS//GENERATIVE FM DRUM MACHINE

I like it for sure and more...... use it with modular synth fx, like µCell..... hope that one day there will be .... a (complete) MANUAL about ?? thanX
good job juan carlos! a belgian user

Romain | Aug. 14, 2020

Amazing !!!!

If you are into music production, you should definitely get one !!! That little drum machine will give you inspiration while playing it !!

Andrew | Aug. 3, 2020

Looking forward to it!

For Eurorack Macro Oscillator TH

Got the boards in the mail today, they're really nice quality. It took about a month to get to the US from Spain, not bad considering the state of the world right now. I'm looking forward to putting everything together!

Aditya | Aug. 3, 2020

Great Module, Great Seller!

Great little dual function generator, a must-have for any Eurorack system, regardless of if it's lacking a Maths/Rampage or not! Great seller too, helped out a ton with messed up shipping situation in my country. Easy, well-documented build.

Duane | July 26, 2020

Great little Synth

Due to my lack of Arduino knowledge I could not get it too work, I contacted the seller and he kindly explained what I was to do. He was very helpful. Now I get to play this amazing little synth. I think I may in time incorporate this into a toddler friendly toy for my kids. Great fun, with +1000s of sounds.

Scott | July 18, 2020

Awesome

I bought the assembled version so I cannot speak to the building of the kit, but the synth itself is fantastic. I've got quite a variety of inexpensive "noise toys" and this is one of, if not the, absolute best. The variety of sounds available, and the range of "quality" (from crystal clean to glitchy, gritty dirt) is phenomenal. Comparing it to the Korg NTS-1 and the Bastl Microgranny I would put it nearly equal to the NTS-1 (only because the programmability puts the Korg in a class of its own) but well above the Microgranny because of the ease of getting such a wide range of usable sounds so easily.

If you're looking for glitch you absolutely need this, in the first 3 minutes I was able to getting slowly evolving drones, melodic leads and almost percussive bass lines--and that was just trying to find out what the buttons and knobs did. Just playing around with it is well worth the money, but running it through FX pedals, a DAW or a modular/semi-modular system will make worth 10 times the price.

My only complaint is the lack of an option for tracked shipping. It was shipped within less than 24 hours, but between being unable to add tracking and the current world-wide shipping delays, I was starting to get worried I wouldn't see it. It was well worth the wait. If you are curious enough to be reading the reviews, you owe it to yourself to buy it.

Valeriy | July 17, 2020

Great kit, easy to assemble and fun to play

Lovely kit!
The PCB is beautiful and high quality, it makes very clear which parts you need to put where.
Assembly is straightforward and easy - it makes you feel like a soldering pro even if you aren't one.

It's fun to play with it once assembled, very relaxing to experiment with positions of the knobs and hear the response.
You can connect it to an amplifier or use headphones directly.

Another awesome aspect of the kit is that you can replace the formulas used to generate melodies with some other ones if you want - it's Arduino based, so all the tools are available and free.

The idea of this kit has a lot of potential:
- knobs could be replaced with a gyroscope or accelerometer(s)
- an OLED display and buttons could be added so that we could have more formulas and an easy way to select them
- a MicroSD card could be added to store parameters and perhaps even whole tunes
Most of this you can pretty easily do yourself if you get bored with the Glitch Storm as it is!

T. | Feb. 26, 2020

Sweet

Great little module, easy to build and a nice addition to any rack. Not sure what else to say, but apparently I need to write some more words for this review;) Thumbs up!

Mark | Feb. 18, 2020

A great module :)

Adds lots of sonic possibilities to a rack. A must-have Function Generator... With a Vortex!
Very happy with the result. Great support from Spherical Sound Society.

Robert | Feb. 16, 2020

A fun device, once you put it together.

Firstly, I'd like to say that this sonic gizmo includes no documentation at all. (Even a single-page how-to would've helped.) However, if you've soldered any other projects before, it'll be fairly obvious what goes where and how (meaning, which holes are POS and which are NEG and which don't matter). The only not-obvious connection was the sleeve (GRD) for the 3.5mm out. After consulting the online photos, I rolled the proverbial dice and bent a stiff wire to fit from the hole to the appropriate prong and was up and running in little time at all. Lucky guess maybe. Oh, be mindful to bridge the indicated contacts on the underside of the PCB! Not sure what'll happen if you don't, but best to be on the look-out going into this project.

That out of the way, this little guy SCREAMS! So many sounds can be pulled from just the few knobs provided. I've barely scratched the surface I'm sure--having only just completed the build--but it is indeed VERY glitchy, but surprisingly "musical" and at times also very rhythmic. Can't wait to dive into it more!

tl;dr: Great sounding device! Would benefit from a simple guide. So long as it's not your first project, you should be fine though.

Response from Spherical Sound Society | Feb. 17, 2020

Loving your review, Robert... I agree with all, except that in the github page there´s the BOM listed, so it has all the info you need to build this evil machine :D. Anyway maybe I should just print it and include in the packaging... nice suggestion.

There´s also a thread in Muffwliggers with some hackings explained the expand even more the machine possibilities.

You can take a look. Enjoy!!

Cheers!!

Taylor | Feb. 13, 2020

So much fun for so little cost and work!

This is a perfect beginner kit for those into electronic music, sound design, or video game sounds. I have only played around with it for an hour, but there are so many usable sounds that can be coaxed out of this device. I am a relatively inexperienced solderer and it took me around an hour to build. The most tedious part is soldering the header pins on the arduino itself. Everything else on the pcb itself is very well laid out with plenty of space. Quite a musical machine despite being "glitchy. " As a bonus the pots came with knobs so you don't have to fuss with the mini-pot stems. It has a mono signal (I think), but a stereo audio jack which makes it useful for playing through headphones or computer speakers. Overall a great kit!

Benjamin | Jan. 26, 2020

Straight-forward design and immediately useful!

I really love designers who pack a ton of function into these Arduino platforms and then mount it on a neatly-designed, simple through-hole package made of fairly easy to find parts! This came together pretty quickly and I was immediately getting some fun new shapes out of my sound that I hadn't had before - thanks!

.M.Verhallen | Jan. 14, 2020

Super cool little synth project