The French developer Sovage Engineering has released four new Eurorack modules full of character, including Le Binôme percussive synth voice.
For car lovers, it’s horsepower; for synth people, it’s the amount a Synthesizer has. We love it when a synth or module has a lot of knobs, giving the synth hands-on control.
I found a company that puts a lot of knobs on its modules. It’s the Boutique company Sovage Engineering from France. They released four new very knobby modules: Le Binôme, Boucan, Bagarre, and Le Brasier.
Sovage Engineering Le Binôme
Let’s begin with the biggest module, the Binôme, a new percussive synth voice. The layout looks a bit crowded with knobs, switches, and features—a bit of an interface WTF moment. Not great ergonomics here, but I could be wrong.
Le Binôme is versatile: depending on how you use it, it can be a shaping tool like a filter, an envelope generator, or a percussive synth voice using its analog engine.
It hosts a unique multimode filter with highpass and bandpass options. It can oscillate and thus become a VCO to make bass drums, tons, or FM percussions. Sovage Engineering says it’s a strange filter as it’s more a resonator than a filter that colors and gives the missing natural ringing to your drums. It also includes a noise generator or an option to feed external signals into the module.
The latter is connected to an EQ and a filter, then splits it into two signals (channel A and B), each with a dedicated VCA. These channels are totally independent with their own post-filter input and controls. Exciting here is the splitting, which allows you to achieve spatial and stereo results (stereo oscillator, stereo percussive generator…)
There are also two dynamic CV-controllable envelope generators (AD or ASR) with custom shapes with exponential and logarithmic settings. A very unusual, fascinating module that makes interesting signal paths possible. This is a module concept that heavily relies on the art of patching.
Sovage Engineering Boucan
It continues smaller but not less interesting. Boucan (8HP) is a wild analog noise generator souped up with creating features that transport the module in different fields. The core consists of two noise channels: a more classic noise with individual outputs (white, pink, and unique fire), and a colored noise.
The colored noise channel is a mix of different classic colored noises with some nuances. Additionally, it offers a rocket engine and hurricane noises that cover more experimental and heavy timbres with dedicated outputs. Both channels have independent control over their output level and CV-controllable morphing capabilities via the multi-function knob.
Further, you can route other signals in via the external input and mangle them with the noise. So you get results like a waveshaper, distortion, and more.
Sovage Engineering Bagarre
The simplest of the four new modules is Bagarre. It’s a characterful CV-controllable stereo mix bus distortion module.
Thanks to its circuit, it can smoothly change its behavior and can operate as a stereo VCA, a classic stereo mixer, a stereo bus soft distortion up to a heavy hard clipper limiter. Sovage Engineering promises it will effortlessly glue and give weight to your mixes.
Sovage Engineering Le Brasier
And fourth and last new module is Le Braiser, a hybrid OTA and germanium-based analog multimode filter. It has classic functions like cutoff and resonance with CV options. The highlight, however, is the built-in germanium distortion that gives the filter a unique unpredictable character.
The germanium distortion is a unique one, centered around the interplay of feedback and clipping, says the developers. It offers two distinct flavors: a classic overdrive for added weight and power to your audio and a special fuzz that emphasizes the high-mid frequencies.
Le Brasier also works nicely as a raw VCO capable of generating intriguing waveforms. The module can be a classic filter or a heavy tone shaper full of character and warmth
First Impression
At first glance, four exciting new modules from Sovage Engineering. I didn’t know the developer company before. All four modules are more at home in the rough, characterful corner which I like here. The highlight here is Le Binôme, even if the ergonomics are a bit tough here.
The new Sovage Engineering modules are available now. Le Binôme is 350€, Boucan 200€, Bagarre 200€ and Le Brasier 300€.
More information here: SE
because reading the text is less important than big skirted knobs than don’t add any value.