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MBrane 11 Percussion Synthesizer

MBrane 11 Percussion Synthesizer

Regular price $ 299.00 USD
Regular price Sale price $ 299.00 USD
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The all new Jomox MBrane 11 uses Analog Membrane Modeling.

Two analog T-bridge oscillators become electronic membranes. Why? Because they can be coupled. And because their dampening can be controlled.

Then add a little noise, add a little envelope, and the brand new electronic percussion synthesizer by Jomox is ready.

But because this would have just been too simple, everything is storeable again and controllable by MIDI. You can use this small box either in a live setup driven by a hardware sequencer or in production as very versatile synth in order to create incredible analog electronic percussion sounds.

How does it work?

A T-Bridge oscillator is actually something like a band-pass filter which is working close to the resonant frequency. Because it becomes an actual sine oscillator at perfect tune-up, you call the deviation of ideal resonance dampen. In this case, the oscillator decays in the form of an attenuated vibration if it's excited - similar to a single membrane that is hit.

In the M.Brane 11 there are two such T-OSC. The dampen can be either negative (as just described) or positive. Then it really becomes a steadily vibrating oscillator. The more negative the dampen is, the more the T-OSC becomes a filter with sharp q-factor (quality). This can be useful at e.g. snare drums or hi-hat like sounds.

Looking at the drumskins of an acoustic drum, there are 2 membranes positioned that modulate and interact with each other by the coupling through pressure waves of the air within the shell. That produces the typical sound of a drum. By resonance and counteractive interference, new frequency bands and overtones are created.

Similar to that the parameter Coupling works at the M.Brane11. Both, in the first place independently vibrating T-OSCs, can attenuate or gain the vibration of the partner by means of negative or positive coupling on either ways (1_2 and 2_1). With light-fingered tweaking you get these interesting membrane-like dampened sounds, especially by cross-wise positive/negative coupling.

The values can be very close to another. Therefore it is a great advantage that the M.Brane allows for storing the parameters, because sometimes tiny value changes can cause great sound changes if the system is close to a chaotic state.

The M.Brane 11 is definitely for sound nerds, as the manifold and sensitive modulation settings beg to be explored and played with.

In Split Mode 2 both T-OSCs can be played over the keyboard, which again causes creativity to rise.

The LFO can either modulate a choice of one T-OSC or both. It always restarts with the note trigger and works like an additional pitch envelope. Two frequently asked questions may be pre-answered here: No, the LFO can not be midi clock syncronized, and: No, the LFO isn't very fast. Both things would absolutely make no sense in this product (percussion!) and are also for technical reasons not possible to realize.

In order to create snaredrum-like sounds, the M.Brane has a noise generator with its own envelope. A part of this signal is fed into the T-OSC to excite the "membrane" with the noise signal. The noise can be either white noise or metal noise.

The length of noise decay and the decay of the resulting tone are controlled by two different envelopes that are commonly controlled by the parameter Decay.

  • Instrument: Percussion Synthesizer
  • Membrane Oscillators: 2 T-OSC, each of tune and dampening adjustable, both couplings in either direction adjustable
  • Presets: 110 (10 User RAM, 100 FLASH)
  • Sound Engine: Fully analog with storeable parameters
  • Envelopes: 2 analog envelopes for membranes and noise that are controlled by one parameter (decay)
  • Noise: White Noise, Metal Noise with 65535 different noise pattern combinations
  • Gate: Trigger gate time 0.5ms-10ms, up to 4-times multi trigger possible LFO 8 wave forms: Saw +/-, Sine +/-, Tri +/-, Rect +/-, modulates the pitch of one or both the T-OSC, starts always syncronous to the note trigger and is pitch envelope at the same time
  • Display: LED 7 segment 3 digits
  • MIDI: MIDI In and MIDI Out
  • User Interface: 1 data wheel, 1 potentiometer, 5 buttons, 16 LEDs for parameters and functions
  • Outputs: 1 mono out 1/4" RCA jack
  • Output Level: About 0dBu
  • Input: External analog trigger input, sensivity adjustable
  • Power Supply: External wall wart adapter 9V DC
  • Weight: 1.1 lbs.
  • Size: 145mm x 155mm x 35mm, or in American: 5 3/4" x 6 1/8" x 1 3/8" ;-)
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