Superbooth 2025: Bastl Instruments Kastle 2 Wave Bard is a new pocket sample player with an inspiring engine that invites to long experimental jams.
Bastl Instruments recently discontinued the Kastle 1 generation and the popular Microgranny granular sampler. This was to be expected after the Kastle 2 FX Wizard release. There isn’t a successor to the Microgranny plan, the developers announced.
However, for their Berlin trip, they have something new with samples but without a granular engine. For Superbooth 2025, Bastl Instruments released the Kastle 2 Wave Bard, a new experimental stereo sampler that fits in your pocket.
Bastl Instruments Kastle 2 Wave Bard
Kastle 2 Wave Bard is not an MG successor but a standalone new sampler product. Bastl Instruments describes the Kastle 2 Wave Bard as an experimental, patchable stereo sampler player for rhythms and riffs.
The core of the Wave Bard is a 44 kHz/16-bit stereo sample playback engine that can host up to 89 seconds of mono or 44 seconds of stereo samples at 44 kHz. If you reduce the sample rates, you can squeeze even more samples into it.
It has six factory-loaded banks, with each containing eight samples, and user samples can be loaded via a straightforward web-based app. Of course, you can do a lot of mangling fun with these.
First, you can select and sequence through the different sample banks using the knobs or via the built-in CV modulators. Depending on the loaded samples, you can create a rhythm just from this feature.
Then, you can reverse your sounds with the dedicated length knob and the Wave Bard’s unique reversing envelope. Turning the envelope knob to the right gives you a classic decay while turning it left reverse the samples and add attack to them.
Shapeable Melodies
Melodic thingies are also possible. You can pitch the samples with the pitch knob with a range of ± 2 octaves (4 octaves total). The built-in selectable factory and user scales option allows you to play them in quantized pitch.
Plus, you can modulate on-the-fly-the pitch and adjust it with a dedicated attenuverter knob. Continuous, unquantized pitch modulation is also possible.
Bastl Instruments Kastle 2 Wave Bard also offers a solid range of sound shaping tools for its pocket size. It has an onboard resonant filter with lowpass and highpass modes, allowing you to attenuate or emphasize frequencies.
It also packs a modulable stereo delay, chorus and flanger FX. Not sure if it has three individual effects or a delay that can also be turned into a flanger and chorus by modulation.
Modulation
Talking about modulation. Besides the neat CV controllable sample engine, the modulation is the second pilar in the Kastle 2 Wave Bard, with which the instrument can unfold its modular experimental roots.
It features a patchable syncable LFO with triangle and pulse outputs and reset input all adjustable with an attenuverter. Further, you have a tempo-syncable pattern generator with CV and gate output The gate generator contains rhythm patterns that user programmable via the web-based app.
The tempo generator can works with tap tempo, has a divider and can be externally clocked.
Connectivity
On the connection side, it has a stereo input with input gain control (up to +12db and 6Vpp signal) that can be mixed with the sound engine or run thru the built-in effects. Then, it has a stereo output, analog sync in/out, and additional modular connectivity via the right channel of the sync jacks.
The USB-C port transfers data and powers the Bastl Instruments Kastle 2 Wave Bard. Alternatively, you can power it with 3xAA battery power that givs you up to 18 hours of operation.
First Impression
Since the videos won’t be online until 7 PM CEST, I can’t say much about the sound yet. But on paper, it looks like a fun semi-modular sampler instrument with many experimental patching options.
Bastl Instruments Kastle 2 Wave Bard is available now for 192€ incl. tax. The official release will be today at 19:00 CET. It ships with 10 patch cables, and a sticker.
More information here: Bastl Instruments
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