Description

NOTE: the videos on this page show the standalone version of Liquid Foam instead of the Eurorack version

Liquid Foam is a modular monophonic analog eurorack groovebox that revolves around a dual sequencer designed to encourage complex pattern exploration. By making connections with patch cables it can generate anything from straightforward 4/4 loops to ever-changing byzantine synth lines, off-key tantrums and organic percussive phrases.

At the center of Liquid Foam are two, four-stage sequencers, and rather than behaving like a typical step sequencer, each will generate gates based upon specific external factors. At the left, Sequencer A defaults to simply rotating a single gate between its four outputs on every clock pulse, but patching other signals to the X and Y inputs will redirect the rotating gate, allowing for more complex patterns to emerge. Contrasting with this, Sequencer B on the right will generate any combination of four gates at once, depending on the relationship between the clock rate and LFO speed and pulse width.

Liquid Foam has a clever way of handling melodic pitch sequencing through the use of three weighted inputs. Sending triggers into any combination of the A, B, and C jacks will generate different pitches, depending on which inputs are activated. In terms of sound palette, the VCO provides a dual-stage wave mixer, first blending between triangle and sawtooth waveforms, and then adding in a square wave with variable pulse-width. From there, the vaguely 303-reminiscent resonant filter—now with a new bandpass output alongside the original lowpass—delivers punch and warmth.

The onboard envelope is a decay-only contour generator that gets triggered every time a gate is sent into the ABC jacks, but both trigger and EG outputs have been added to make the Liquid Foam a collaborative member of any Eurorack system. By default, the EG will only affect the filter cutoff, but can be momentarily applied to the oscillator via the EG-VCO input, or inverted via the EG INV input.

Added Eurorack features:

• New input circuitry will accept any type of signal, not just 5V gates
• Newly designed filter and wave mixer
• Three new outputs: trigger, envelope generator and bandpass filter
• No more delay when unplugging an external clock signal
• The eg offset knob now affects the envelope generator also in non-inverted mode
• Module uses 3.5mm eurorack jacks instead of banana jacks

Liquid Foam – Build Document

Specs:

• Width: 32 HP
• Max depth: 20 mm
• Power Consumption: 45mA at +12V 9mA at -12V