Bazille – Digital Modular Synthesis

Bazille is a large modular system combining digital oscillators with analogue-style filters and modelled effects, with a flexibility that only modular patching can provide.

After ACE, the second spawn of our ongoing ‘Berlin Modular’ project, this one is a very different, much larger beast…

Ultraflexible modules – Bazille is highly unusual for a modular synth.

Although the filters are traditional analogue models, the oscillators are unashamedly digital: They combine the two technologies that made digital synthesis affordable (and analogue synths suddenly unfashionable) in the 1980s – FM (frequency modulation, more correctly ‘phase modulation’) and PD (phase distortion).

In Bazille, each oscillator panel has five distinct sections:

• Pitch, Phase / FM
• Phase Distortion
• Fractal Resonance
• and the Outputs

Since the 4 main oscillators have a frequency range which starts at zero Hertz, they can be used as synchronized or unsynchronized LFOs or also adopt custom shapes thanks to Bazille’s mapping generators. The oscillators are also capable of all kinds of FM sounds by plugging an audio-frequency source into the phase modulation input.

One of the most interesting features included in Bazille’s powerful oscillators is an unusual process we call Fractalize (fractal resonance). This can be used to create very bold sounds from tame waveforms, with a similar result to the classic cutting sound of the sync effect.

MAIN FEATURES

• 4 digital oscillators with simultaneous FM (frequency modulation), PD (phase distortion) and FR (fractal resonance)
• 4 multimode analogue type filters with up to 6 parallel outputs each
• 4 modelled effects: stereo delay, distortion, phaser, spring reverb
• 2 LFOs with 3 parallel outputs each
• 4 ADS(S)R type envelope generators
• Signal processors: Inverter, rectifier, sample & hold, lag generators and quantizer
• 2 mapping generators (waveshapers) with a variety of drawing tools and controls
• 8 x 16-step morphing sequencer
• Multiplex modules for signal mixing, RM (ring modulation), AM (amplitude modulation)
• Single-page alternative skin included
• Microtuning support (.tun files)
• Multichannel MIDI support
• User interface zoom in 10% steps
• Over 1700 presets…