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Crater

Crater module front panel: an 8HP black Eurorack kick drum panel. A row of six red LEDs sits across the top, below it eight knobs arranged in two columns (DECAY, CLICK TIMBRE, PITCH, CLICK DECAY, PITCH DECAY, CLICK LEVEL, AMOUNT, SUSTAIN), a three-position CLIPPING slide switch between the bottom knobs, then two rows of jacks (1V/OCT, DECAY, TIMBRE, CLICK LVL, TRIGGER, ACCENT, SATURATION, OUTPUT) and the WMD logo at the bottom.

Earth Shattering Hybrid Kick Drum

1Introduction

Crater is an earth shattering hybrid kick drum module. Slamming impacts and endless Aftershock leaving a wake of warehouse destruction. “All I remember was a trail of red lights. All that is left now is this crater.”

Crater pairs a deep kick oscillator with a dedicated pitch envelope and a sampled click engine, then runs the result through a saturation stage and a switchable diode clipping circuit. A row of red LEDs provides visual feedback on the hit.

2Front Panel Overview

Crater's 8HP front panel: six red LEDs across the top, eight knobs in two columns (left column DECAY, PITCH, PITCH DECAY, AMOUNT; right column CLICK TIMBRE, CLICK DECAY, CLICK LEVEL, SUSTAIN), a three-position CLIPPING switch between the lowest two knobs, and two rows of jacks (1V/OCT, DECAY, TIMBRE, CLICK LVL on top; TRIGGER, ACCENT, SATURATION, OUTPUT below).
Crater front panel layout.

A row of red LEDs across the top of the panel provides visual feedback on the hit. The remaining controls are grouped below and detailed in the following sections.

3Kick Oscillator

  1. PITCH: Pitch of the kick oscillator. Ranges from 5Hz to 100Hz.
  2. DECAY: The kick oscillator will decay according to the DECAY parameter then sustain at the sustain level while TRIGGER remains high. When trigger goes low, the oscillator will decay to silence at the rate set by the DECAY parameter.
  3. SUSTAIN: Eight Ohh Great. Hit those dirty deep kick drum basslines by setting the sustain level and sending a gate to the TRIGGER input. Make it even hotter by sending a sequence to the 1V/OCT input.

4Pitch Envelope

  1. PITCH DECAY: Decay time of the pitch envelope. Go from snappy clicks to long disco toms.
  2. AMOUNT: Amount of pitch envelope applied to the kick.

5Click Engine

  1. CLICK TIMBRE: Select through 14 sampled clicks paired with a noise tail.
  2. CLICK DECAY: Control the decay time of the click sound and noise tail.
  3. CLICK LEVEL: Volume of the click.

6Saturation and Clipping

SATURATION: Boost and saturate the signal using this CV. Saturation is before clipping, adding more continuous control over the character of the clipping if enabled. This input will also respond to negative CV by attenuating the signal.

CLIPPING: The clipping circuit utilizes a classic symmetric diode clipping method. Use the three-position CLIPPING switch to set the amount of clipping:

  • Left position — the clipping circuit is not activated.

  • Middle position — engages a restricted version of the clipping circuit, giving distortion that trails off to a clean signal as the amplitude decays.

  • Right position — provides the maximum distortion (gabber worthy) by allowing the diodes to fully clip.

7Inputs and Outputs

  1. 1V/OCT: Pitch CV input for the kick oscillator. Send a sequence here to play melodic deep basslines.
  2. DECAY: CV input for the kick oscillator decay time.
  3. TIMBRE: CV input for selecting the click timbre.
  4. CLICK LVL: CV input for the click level.
  5. TRIGGER / ACCENT: Trigger the kick, or beef up the hit by accenting the kick. Plug into ACCENT only to always trigger the accented kick.
  6. SATURATION: CV input for the saturation stage. Positive CV boosts and saturates the signal; negative CV attenuates it.
  7. OUTPUT: Audio output of the module.

8Specifications

Dimensions:

  • Width: 8HP
  • Height: Eurorack 3U

Inputs:

  • All CV Inputs: 100k ohm impedance
  • Gate Inputs: 100k ohm impedance, 2V threshold Schmitt Trigger

Outputs:

  • Audio Output: 220 ohm impedance, 20Vpp range

9More Information

Visit the Crater product page for demos, updates, and support.

Visit the Crater product page (opens in a new window)