Winterbloom & Decapod Deviecs have teamed up for Neptune, a new resonant filter module with a salty distortion circuit.
New Eurorack modules come onto the market almost every day. Many of these come from small Boutique module manufacturers. One company that has hit the spot with its modules is Winterbloom from the US.
The best-seller here is the Castor & Pollux, now in version II, a dual oscillator based on the Juno sound but taken to distant, fascinating worlds. This now has company in the form of a new filter. For this project, Winterbloom has entered into a collaboration.
Winterbloom & Decapod Devices Neptune
Neptune is a new lovely filter module for Eurorack. The module is the result of a collaboration between Winterbloom and Carson Walls of Decapod Devices.
The core consists of a resonant diode design with a unique twist. Multimode filters usually have separate modes and outputs, offering a lot of patching flexibility. Unlike these, Neptune offers separate lowpass and high-pass inputs into a single diode filter core. That’s indeed a different take on a multimode filter.
On top, it is coupled with a feedback-modulated distortion circuit called salt that adds spice and dirtiness to the filter. Winterblom says it gives you a tonal range from tame to dirty to outright chaotic. I like to patch distortion behind the filter. But if this is already built into the filter, it’s much more filthy fun. It reminds me of my screaming distortion-packed Waldorf VCF1 filter.
Then, it also hosts a built-in VCA. On the front panel, you have manual and CV control over the cutoff, salt, resonance parameters, and the VCA. There is also a lovely visualization. The knob borders light up when signals come in. Further, you get a main output.
First Impression
A nice filter module with some nice twists. Also, I like a lot the implementation of the design and its visualization component. Two demos are linked in the article, and so far, what I heard is that it’s not the smoothest, gentlest filter on the market; it’s more a lovely growling machine in a princess dress. Great release.
Winterbloom & Decapod Devices Neptune is available now for $219 or as a DIY kit for $189. The module is also open-source under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license.
More information here: Winterbloom
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