Product Description:
This new device is a powerful new cv controlled effects unit for your electronic music setup and pairs extremely well with the KOMA Field Kit.
• Looper
• Frequency Shifter
• Sample Rate Reducer / Bitcrusher
• Digital Delay
• Analog Spring Reverb
• 4 Channel VCA Mixer
• 4 Step Mini Sequencer
• Envelope Generator
All of this, combined with the new 4 Channel CV Interface which allows you to route four cv signals throughout the device, means an incredible control over sound and timbre and a great addition to your mobile performance rig.
Let’s get more detailed…
The Field Kit FX is built up from 7 separate functional blocks all focused on mangling and changing incoming audio and CV signals. They are designed to operate together as a coherent addition to our Field Kit Electroacoustic Workstation or alternatively together with other pieces of music electronics with the ability to use control voltage signals.
The 4 Channel VCA Mixer is where all the signals of the Field Kit FX come together, providing a fully functional mixer with individual Volume and Tone control over each channel. We added CV control over the VCA so you can use your modular synthesizer, the CV outputs of your original Field Kit, or any other device to tweak the audio levels of the signals coming from the effects or feeding into them.
The level of the Master Output can be set with the Master Volume rotary control, use the CV Select buttons to route the CV signals of the CV Interface to the separate channels. We like to push the limits with sound. Just like the mixer in the Field Kit, there is plenty of Gain to play with and the Tone control is a Low/Hi Pass filter that can drastically change the sound.
One of the classic effects is the Spring Reverb, which – especially taken from it’s enclosure – is the experimentalists’ dream. You can touch it, hit it and use the physical properties to create spooky and unearthly sounds. We got so many requests of users of the Field Kit to add one, so we did.
The Spring Reverb section in the Field Kit FX is Otto’s take on classic Spring Reverb circuitry and it rocks! He added a switchable Resonant Low Pass and Bandpass Filter in the audio path and a dedicated Cutoff rotary control to shape the input signal. In addition to that, we added variable Gain In, so you have maximum control over what you send into the effect. The Spring Reverb comes with CV control over Cutoff Frequency and Feedback.
Please note: the Field Kit FX does not have a build-in spring reverb tank. You can use a whole scala of reverb tanks by connecting them to the Tank In and Out RCA connectors! Try playing around with different sizes.
CV Controlled Frequency Shifter. A super useful and interesting effect – and very popular here in the KOMA workspace – is the CV Controlled Frequency Shifter. A frequency shifter moves all audio frequencies by a given frequency amount, rather than a musical interval, like a pitch shifter. Technically, it modulates the audio onto a high frequency carrier wave, while filtering off one sideband and demodulated using a slightly different frequency.
This gives super cool results. Small shifts in frequency can give you deep phasing effects. Larger shifts will allow you to enter a highly interesting sonic world, where for instance frequency differences which are related to a note give strange harmonic structures, which when the note changes give the weirdest sort of musical dissonance – which was a much used trick of KOMA favourite Karlheinz Stockhausen.
or instance, when you input a piano sound and shift the frequency up you will end up with a piano which is very metallic sounding. When you shift the frequency down, the sound will be more like a membrane. You can change the sound of the Frequency Shifter with the Amount control, which allows you to set the frequency shift amount, and the Sideband control where you can tweak the harmonic structure. Of course both controls can be controlled via the CV Interface too.
Not only a Frequency Shifter… Also a Phaser!
The Field Kit FX Frequency Shifter has a special Phaser mode. Built as an easter egg you just have to find it! The Amount Control becomes the Rate Control of the Phaser and the Side Band Control becomes Phase Amount. The onboard Phaser sounds very liquid and natural and gets that funk on!
The Digital Delay is another creation of Otto, where he tweaked known configurations of the PT2399 Delay circuit to a Digital Delay with KOMA character! Create crunchy delay effects, add additional effects in the Feedback loop and enter the endless echo space!
Use the Time and Feedback rotary controls to shape your sound, both can also be controlled via control voltage! We added a Gain In rotary control to manually feed the signal into the delay path, which is helpful, since this effect can easily go into overdrive!
