Aikido: the Japanese martial art of nonviolent self defense, of redirecting your opponent’s momentum and using it against them, and mixing VCA signals for creative and nuanced performance with Eurorack modular synths.

Bastl Instruments have been hard at work in the dojo with our favorite sparring partner, Casper Electronics, and now emerge with a new Eurorack module demonstrating our newly developed techniques in the ancient art of the Voltage-Controlled Amplifier: Aikido is a 4-channel performative VCA mixer with flexible submix routing and two styles of integrated envelope followers — and, naturallement, a whole heap more…

The Way of the Single Palm

Neatly compact, Aikido is a perfect tool for single-hand operation: independently mute each channel using stealthy, clickless mutes, and flex your sound using a single finger to control crossfader action, smoothly adjusting signal input strengths. 

A holistic discipline, students of Bastl Aikido will develop their mix prowess by mastering the pulse of CV, via premium attenuverters on the CV input channels; stealthily adjust the strength of the CV's parameter automation in true (positive) or inverted (negative) directions, allowing for deceptively simple or richly complex variations in sound, controlling all by a gentle twist of the wrist.

Dynamic Style: the Art of Compression

Grappling with both audio and VCA signals is simple even for beginners with Aikido: take your skills to the next degree with Aikido's dual spectral analysis and envelope-following techniques! 

The envelope follower found in other Bastl/Casper modules, such as the Ikarie dual-peak filter, makes a repeat appearance, allowing you to route audio signals into the chain to affect overall output volume and strength, or take the internal audio's envelope and patch it out to impact the behavior of your other modules.

Spectral Processing joins the fray, allowing you to take a magnifying glass to the high, mid, or low frequencies in your mix. Flick between frequency isolation for enhancement, de-essing, compression, even parallel side-chaining audio (can we get a "hai—ya"!?) that ascends Aikido well above the typical territory of Eurorack mixers.

No-one Fights Alone

Need more than 4 channels of this wizardry? Stack two Aikido modules together with jumper cables to bring the total to 8 channels. Or, take the mix output of Aikido and patch it through to your Bastl Buddy with the same jumper wires, opening up possibilities of parallel processing and much more. Switches on the back of the module allow users to customize the mute functionality between Pre- or Post- VCA settings.  

Where would we all be without feedback play? Self-patch Aikido's outputs back into the inputs to get that BVVRRR goodness, or take advantage of the cascading internal routing to play with the mixed audio, layering and bulking your sound. 

Discipline in training brings rewards, and the strength of the alliance between Bastl & Casper has yielded some of our best playability techniques to date. Aikido - your one-stop control shop for Eurorack in just 11hp. Pick your pre-order up from the Bastl Shop from the 7th February '23, or your local retailer. Shipping begins later in February.

Bastl AIKIDO

You will notice small objects, such as ornaments, oscillating
You will notice vibrations in your diaphragm
You will hear a distant hissing in your ears
You will feel dizzy
You will feel the need to vomit
Your only protection is flight

Interdisciplinary sound practitioner

@karkhana_collective

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