It’s been a long time since we’ve written our last newsletter. We’ve not been sitting still. Hold on, this is going to be a long one!

GR-1 Dust covers

First of, a lot of GR-1 users have been asking us for custom dust covers. Initially there were no options, since for instance Decksaver supplies covers for the most popular devices, but not for the more niche and experimental devices like the GR-1. Recently, a GR-1 user showed us these covers. Nice find: https://lecover.com/proddetail.php?prod=11060.00

The dust cover and the GR-1.

GR-1 Production schedule update

Unfortunately, this summer was a bumpy one. We’ve had setbacks with a couple of our suppliers. Right now dozens of units are already finished and ready to go, but their knobs are still missing. They should finally arrive the coming week, after which we’ll send out finalization mails in bulk! All-in-all the preorder wait has grown from 2 to 3 months because of this. Keep an eye on tastychips.nl/gr1schedule for the exact time table.

FM-Bison synthesizer

Yes, we’re pushing into FM territory and making it more usable in the process. The engine is now as good as finished and supports 6-operator voices a la DX7, of course with dozens of voices of polyphony. We’ve also added proper monophonic and unison modes. Last but not least the user interface offers a better overview than any other FM-based synth available.

FM-Bison UI

ECR-1 [Eurorack convolver] Development

Our new Eurorack module is true-stereo convolution reverb, allowing you to use recorded real-life reverbs of many places like tunnels, caves, churches, basements, and resonators like bells, glasses, etc. While this is a first only in Eurorack format, it offers features to manipulate the reverbs smoothly and in real-time, which is actually a world first. It can also record responses on the spot and save them to usb stick. But we’ll not dive any further into the details here. We’ll reveal them at Dutch Modular Fest later on this month. https://www.dutchmodularfest.com/

Of course the model we’ll show there won’t be production ready, but it’ll be functionally complete, at least. The last stages of development have now begun: we’re ironing out the bugs and trying to boost the performance (signal-to-noise ratio, power usage and temperature, max length of reverbs, etc)

GR-1 Firmware

For those of you that missed it, already a couple of months ago, firmware 2.1 was released. This brought a vastly more usable multitimbral mode. Numerous small additions and bugfixes were also added. After we’ve demonstrated the ECR-1, we’ll get back to the GR-1 firmware updates, starting with the most demanded bugfixes.

That’s about it for this newsletter. We’ll probably write the next one in two months or so. See you!