River Creative Technology celebrate New Year with 2 new filter modules

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River Creative Technology Dendrites and Marble · Source: River Creative Technology Previous Next

Rutger from River Creative Technology has decided to see in the New Year by announcing two new modules for Eurorack. Marble is a dual spectral tilt tone control while Dendrites is a multi-character, multimode VCF and phaser.

Marble

Two channels of tone control, switchable between a 3dB/Oct spectral tilt and a mid-range bell EQ. The channels can either be used independently or combined into a stereo device. There’s a feedback control with soft saturation. The tone or tilt can be controlled via CV.

The great thing about a tilt EQ is that it’s stunningly easy to use. A single knob “tilts” an imaginary straight tonal line that boosts the bass and attenuates the higher frequencies, or vice versa, with the axis in the mid-range. It prevents you from making harsh filtering decisions and instead gives you warmth or sparkle depending on how you tilt it. Or, with a switch you can move into bell mode where it’s all about the mid-range. It’s a really neat solution.

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Dendrites

Rutger says it’s the most versatile Eurorack he could think of and just looking at the front panel tells you there’s something more than usual going on here. The Dendrites is based on a new discrete transistor design. It has three character modes modelled on classic filter types and 16 filter modes covering low, high, band pass and phase shifting.

The big knob in the middle selects the filter mode and has some really unusual options. There are 1, 2, 3 and 4 pole low pass modes plus 1 and 2 poles with phaser. Bandpass has 1 to 1 pole, 2 to 1, 3 to 1, 2 to 2 and 1 to phaser. Highpass has 1 and 2 pole plus 1 pole with phaser. Phaser has S and D type.

The input can be trimmed between clean and saturated while an overdrive circuit can be engaged after the filter.

On the modulation side there are three possibilities; voltage per octave, FM and envelope. While CV control is also available on mode selection and resonance.

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There’s a lot of potential in Dendrites for exploring all sorts of filter personalities. On the webpage there’s some interesting explanation of what prompted the design and what he’s achieved with this filter. This is the first time I’ve come across River Creative Technologies and I have to say that I’m loving the cool blue front panels. And both the Marble and the Dentrites appear to be well thought out and useful modules – which is a great attitude to bring to a new year.

Marble is €195 for the kit or €215 ready built, Dendrites is €290 for the kit and €325 built. Feels like there should be a bigger difference, but either way the pricing is good. They are taken orders now and hope to ship in February.

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