Ritual Electronics has introduced ALTAR II, a revised version of its characterful 3-pole analog discrete state-variable filter mode.
In recent months things have been quiet around the young French company Ritual Electronics. Known for the Miasma distortion, ALTAR filter, or their variety of 1U modules. No booth at Superbooth 23. So some social media users were already thinking about the end of the company. That’s not the case.
Today, Ritual Electronics is back with a new module—a familiar one in a new version.
Ritual Electronics ALTAR II
The ALTAR is one of the most famous modules from Ritual Electronics. It’s a characterful 3-pole 18dB/oct state-variable discrete analog filter. A very Rolandish filter module. After two years of absence, this is now back as ALTAR II with some additions.
ALTAR II comes with a second input, which allows you to feed the filter with two signals. Also new is a refined resonance and gain circuits. The rest remains the same. It can still smoothly crossfade from bandpass to lowpass to high pass. This movement can also be CV-controlled using the dedicated input and attenuverter. Especially nice to create unusual harmonic filtering.
Like the previous version, the refined resonance also comes with CV control with an attenuverter. It is handy to create accent patterns à la 303, which boost the resonance a bit, says Ritual Electronics.
Further, it has a gain knob to beef up your signals. It’s basically a built-in distortion that gives you sound heat. Additionally, you can turn the filter into a sine oscillator. Crank up the resonance, patch the 1V/oct, and the filter will track over 4-5 octaves giving you an oscillator. In the case you have a Miasma, you can also combine both modules and use ALTAR II as a waveshaper-style module.
First Impression
I have the ALTAR I in my rack, and it is one of the most distinctive filter modules that I own. It’s fun to work with it. I’m happy to see that Ritual Electronics is now continuing the module with some improvements
Ritual Electronics ALTAR II starts shipping this week for 280€ incl. VAT + shipping.
More information here: Ritual Electronics
RE modules are available at my partner
Be the first to comment