Superbooth 23: Knobula Pianophonic is a new 8-voice polyphonic oscillator that combines wavetables with four elements of piano.
The Superbooth 23 announcements are slowly being delivered. After the Befaco FX Boy, the Knobula Pianophonic is now also available.
Pianophonic is one of the most unusual wavetable oscillators for Eurorack. It’s 8-voice polyphonic with three wavetable oscillators and one multi-sample playback part packed with acoustic instruments —for example, pianos or guitars.
In this, you can mix the hammer/transient portion of the sample with the wavetable sustain/release portion (sides). This is not classic layering or mixing of two sounds, but rather intelligent “morphing”. With Pianophonic, you can achieve very natural-sounding wavetable timbres in polyphonic. They take on the organic chara
In conjunction with the internal reverb, you can make the whole thing sound very cinematic.
Knobula Pianophonic is available now for $449,9/508€.
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Article From May 5, 2023
The British company Knobula has focused on making polyphony more accessible in Eurorack. They offer digital modules that pack a lot of features into a single module, like the Poly Cinematic, an 8-voice synth voice for the Eurorack.
For the Superbooth 23, the developers are expanding their portfolio with the Pianophonic, an 8-voice wavetable oscillator, but one that is stuck in a piano.
Knobula Pianophonic
Pianophonic is not a classic wavetable oscillator for Eurorack. According to the developer, it is a 12HP wavetable synth voice that takes inspiration from the hammer and string action of the piano.
The core (24-bit / 48 kHz) consists of three wavetable oscillators and a sample-based playback engine for each of its eight voices. Pianophonic mimics the characteristics of the three-string piano sound, using a range of professionally sampled wavetables and hammer samples.
There are 16 banks of preset sounds with the included SD card with stretching, morphing, and reverse functionalities. Plus, you can route it through the onboard module’s filter, envelope generator, compressor, and reverb, giving tons of different Piano-flavored timbres.
“I wanted to create a synth that borrowed its design from the four elements of a piano mechanism: three strings and one hammer,” says Jason Mayo, founder and CEO of Knobula. “It has been an enormously gratifying journey and we could not be happier with the result. Simply put, Pianophonic can make anything sound like a piano, and make a piano sound like anything.”
Knob Per Function
The module has a large feature set but has a knob per function feature set allowing you to tweak the parameters on the fly. Then, it also has MIDI connectivity, gate I/O, chord select, and volt per octave inputs. This makes it compatible with any Eurorack system, either compact or large.
Knobula ships the module with an SD card featuring many key-mapped wavetables derived from a wide variety of instruments, including four types of acoustic piano, electric piano, guitars, tuned percussion, several classic synthesizers as well as other useful sets of harmonic waveforms. You can also upload own sounds via Knobula’s online Waveslicer tool. Thus, you can also create your own custom sounds for Pianophonic.
Several sounds will be included on the SD card that ships with every module. Each sound can be modulated and manipulated with Pianophonic’s onboard controls for almost limitless possibilities. These sonic varieties include an eclectic mixture of acoustic pianos, guitars, and vintage synths.
First Impression
An exciting, different way that Knobula is going for his new wavetable oscillator. On the one hand 8-voice polyphony, that’s a lot, on the other hand, a sample engine with sounds from a piano, giving the whole thing its own character. The first demos sound excellent.
Knobula Pianophonic will be available in September for £350 (UK), $440 (US), and €400 (EU).
More information here: Knobula
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