Erica Synths' Sample Drum And Plasma Drive Are Out Now

Hardware synth specialists Erica Synths have announced the immediate availability of two new modules - Sample Drum and Plasma Drive - to add to their impressive lineup of instruments, Eurorack and other modular gear. Here's what's new.

Sample Drum

Sample Drum is 14HP eurorack sample player module with straight-forward, intuitive interface, functionality and great sound quality, designed with live performance use in mind.

Features

• Sample playback with fast trigger response (~1ms)
• Various effects for real time sample processing
• Sample recording functionality
• Manual and automatic sample slicing
• Cue point loading from WAV files
• 1V/Oct tracking
• 3 assignable CV inputs per channel
• Preset memory
• User-friendly interface
• Performance mode
• 16 GB SD card with factory preset samples included

The Sample Drum is composed of two identical parts and allows you to play back, record and slice up samples or loops directly in your modular system. For processing there are different play modes, tuning functions (including 1 V/Oct pitch tracking), virtual VCAs plus AD envelopes and realtime effects.

Three freely assignable CV inputs per channel guarantee a lot of expression during performance. 16bit mono wav samples are loaded into RAM (32MB / ~ 5 minutes of sampling time) from SD card (16 GB SD card with factory preset samples comes with the module) for instantaneous playback response. All settings can be saved and recalled during live performance.

The Sample Drum comes with free factory preset sample pack developed by producers Pitch Black, Nero Bellum, T.Raumschmiere, Otto von Schirach, Raitis AG.

Plasma Drive

Plasma Drive is the Erica Fusion Series module developed in collaboration with Gamechanger Audio.

Features

• Unique distortion flavor
• CV control over distortion and dry/wet mix
• Assignable equalizer (pre- and post effect)
• 1 octave up & 1 and 2 octave down tracking oscillators

Similar to Plasma Pedal, Plasma Drive gives you a new and previously unexplored method of achieving signal clipping. Instead of using LED circuits, transistors or vacuum tubes to produce overdrive, the Plasma Drive boosts audio signal to 3000V and transforms it into a series of continuous high-voltage discharges in a xenon-filled tube. In essence – you are playing a lightning bolt of electricity, and the electrical discharges produced by your instrument are instantly converted back into an analogue audio signal, producing a quick, responsive, and extremely heavy distortion with tons of unique character!

The eurorack module Plasma Drive brings sounds of the Plasma Pedal to the next level. As per eurorack standards we added CV control over distortion level and dry/wet mix, as well as octave up and 1 and 2 octaves down tracking oscillators that add even more harmonics to the original signal. Tracking oscillators can be switched on/off manually or via trigger signals. The Plasma Drive module is powered via conventional eurorack PSU ribbon cable and the power consumption is around 150mA.