Floating Knobs Cuisine is a new 12-track standalone and Eurorack sequencer for notes, drums, and modulation from Berlin.
Welcome to the last day of the year. Don’t worry, the world won’t end. Before we celebrate the new year, there is some interesting news.
Floating Knobs is a new company from Berlin that has recently released a lovely sequencer.
Floating Knobs Cuisine
Cuisine is a new hardware sequencer that runs standalone, powered via USB-C, or as a Eurorack sequencer mounted in a case.
Floating Knobs promises one-hand operation using a big endless potentiometer and different buttons. Steps are set on/off with big black vintage-style buttons. The design of the sequencer is somewhat reminiscent of the Erica Synths drum sequencer.
Technically, the Cuisine features sequencing of three main elements: notes, drums, and modulation. So, an all-in-one sequencer with which you can turn your Eurorack system into a groovebox.
According to the developers, the hardware is built around an Atmega 4809 microcontroller and is open-source making alternative firmware possible.
Cuisine has 12 tracks; each track can have up to 64 steps with independent step length and individual track clock division settings. This allows you to create very complex sequences, a.k .a. polyrhythmics. 8 patterns per track and 16 banks for storing patterns are available per track.
The sequencer offers a wide range of musical features, including user-customizable scales per track, transposition options, an Euclidean rhythm generator, and various play modes. Other features are:
- override/Performance mode for performing a track as a sequenced arpeggiator
- individual gate length control per step, as well as a track-specific gate length relative to the next note
- velocity control, including the track’s main base velocity and the track’s main accent velocity for more expressive sequencing
- drum track with full-range velocity per step
For the operation, you get functions such as copy, paste, and clear or quick save/load for selected tracks. You can also change patterns for the current track or all tracks simultaneously, says the developers.
Connectivity
On the front panel, you get inputs and outputs that are freely assignable to one or more tracks. It hosts four CV outputs (0-8V), eight gate/trigger outputs (0-5V), and four gate inputs. The latter also handles functions, including clock input, reset, or play functions.
Further, there is MIDI TRS input and output, allowing you to sequencer external gear via MIDI. On the back of the device is a USB-C port for powering and firmware updates.
First Impression
At first glance, an intriguing new sequencer. I find the option to use it standalone very practical. This means you can use the space in the rack for other modules. Looking at the website, you can see that there are more modules in development, such as a quad wavetable oscillator and quad LFO. Interesting interesting.
Floating Knobs Cuisine is available now for pre-order for 450€. Shipping starts in mid-January 2024.
More information here: Floating Knobs
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