Acid Rain Technology Constellation, a wild take on euclidean rhythm generation

April 29, 2022 Synth Anatomy Eurorack, Hardware, News 0

Acid Rain Technology Constellation, a new euclidean rhythm generator for Eurorack with a wild concept that doesn’t need step sequencing.

Modular synthesizers allow you to break the limits that you otherwise have in classic synthesizers. For example, the limitation of two or three oscillators, two LFOs… in Eurorack or any other modular synth you can use as many as you like. Some developers take this freedom even deeper and make their modules very user-definable.

With the Maestro, Acid Rain Technology has a module on the market where you can build your own modulations from scratch. Like you have a kit for advanced modulators with a hands-on interface. They are now taking this concept in other directions. This time not with modulations but with rhythm patterns.

Acid Rain Technology Constellation

Constellation is a new advanced pattern generators that takes a “parametric” approach to rhythm. More precisely, they try to evolve the euclidean rhythm generation and raise it to a new flexible level. The module has 8 channels of trigger/gate generation, however, doesn’t feature step sequencing.

Instead of sequencing, it gives you a super customizable pattern generation engine that allows you to combine multiple dense and sparse patterns to create new, long, complex, and musically interesting trigger and gate rhythms. These can be generated using the different parameters (Euclidean…) that build the rhythms mathematically for you. All without step sequencing.

A rhythm can have up to 8 individual euclidean patterns of different lengths and densities. It’s like you are clipping or stacking pattern blocks together resulting in a big pattern/rhythm with up to 999 steps. Then, these patterns can have their own clock divisions, multiplications, burst, ratchet, and probability settings. You can store your channel settings in up to 999 banks and load them straight from up to 20 save slots per bank.

Modulation

The Acid Rain Technology developers don’t leave it at that. The Constellation’s parametric engine/approach allows you to modulate any of these parameters with CV through one of 8 freely assignable CV inputs. This makes your rhythmic output even more variable over time. And if you pair it with Maestro or Navigator, they promise hours of interesting morphing rhythms without tons of step programming.

The interface is strongly reminiscent of the Maestro module. A single knob, and tons of buttons with which you can generate the patterns, and set parameters. There is also a trigger and gate output per channel (8 in total) and in/outs for the clock and reset.

When writing music, rhythmic interest is often built through the combination of repeating and non repeating elements that work together to anchor the overall feel but also keep the ear free from boredom over the duration of the piece. We feel that Constellation provides a unique set of tools to accomplish this goal and achieve rhythms that are intentional, unexpected and exciting to use as the foundation of your compositions.

Demo

At first look a wild new take on euclidean rhythms. If it can convince like the Maestro, then this module will be a lot of fun. Jeremy from Red Means Recording has an in-depth walkthrough video of this wild pattern generator module on his channel.