Tiptop Audio has launched ONE, a Eurorack sample player module that was born out of a desire to bring the entire world of sampled sound into the modular system with a tight coupling to the beat. ONE combines the great audio quality of 24 bit and 96kHz files with high performance and ease of use.
SD card media provides access to an unlimited palette of sounds from user created WAV files or commercially available cards crafted only for ONE. Each SD card can hold up to 256 sound files in 16/24bit mono WAV format. Files can range in length from under a second to over an hour long.
ONE brings organic sound and super low latency sample playback to the modular. It differs from other sample players in that it handles the digital audio bits as a continuously manipulated electrical flow, a feature inspired by our analog knowhow. This unique core makes ONE truly integral within the Tiptop percussive modular ecosystem thanks to a lightweight and responsive digital circuit with a very analog feel.
ONE brings a world of colors to the modular right out of the package. We have invited some of the best sound designers in the Industry to create professional sound libraries with content tailored to the unique sonic framework of the modular synthesizer and that fully takes advantage of ONE’s unique qualities. To start with, ONE comes with a SD card loaded with a free set of 60 sounds designed by Glitchmachines. More cards are available to purchase separately each containing carefully selected material with up to 256 sound files. Using your own sample libraries or recordings is easy too, just copy 16 or 24bit mono WAV files onto the SD card, pop the card into ONE and go.
ONE offers several modes of operation, with the primary being the super low latency Trigger mode that retrieves audio data off the SD card adding no artificial processing such as click removal, crossfading, eq or gain normalization. In this mode, it’s a highly transparent player up to 24 bit 96kHz with no interpolation of the audio data: what you put in is what you get out. With a delay as low as 0.25ms from the moment the trigger hits, ONE offers harmonically dense, clear and detailed audio with a great rhythmic feel.
ONE handles external CV through a user selectable multifunction jack. Pitch is the main control with two modes available: Free pitch allows for fine tuning of the playback rate, great for adding subtle vibrato or wild tape speed effects; Quantized pitch maps CV to the standard 12 tone system over 3.5 octaves and is ideal for melodic content. CV can also be used to sequence through files off the SD card allowing far more varied sounds from a single source; almost like an entire percussion section behind the slim panel.
Although originally designed to play tightly with our analog drums and envelopes, ONE’s rich sound quality encouraged us to make it work in a variety of other applications that are less demanding of sub millisecond timing response. The extra headroom at the core level allows features such as Gated playback, Looping, and Triggering with fades in and out to accommodate different types of sound sources from drum loops to polysynth chords to noise sources and other yet unimagined uses.
ONE offers another useful dimension since it can play CV signals too. Drop in a card with LFO signals, random CV, slopes and envelopes for a whole set of new control and modulation possibilities.
ONE is as simple to use as it is affordable and plays extremely well with it’s analog cousins – our vision for bringing samples into the modular world.
ONE includes VCTRS, a SD card featuring 60 sounds from the 5 sound banks developed by Glitchmachines.
We have included some of the most compelling material from each bank in order to showcase ONE’s strengths and demonstrate the broad range of sounds available on the PERC, SBSTRT, KERNL, HYBRD and BENT cards which are available separately from Eurorack retailers.
VCTRS and the other Glitchmachines cards include the entire sound set sampled at 48kHz, 64 kHz and 96kHz. The 48k rate allows for easy pitching up of one octave, 64k offers some upward pitch while maintaining much of the 96k fidelity and full 96k source and full 96k offers the purity of the source as well as the lowest latency possible for great performance.
Forthcoming cards from a wide array of sound designers, artists and producers will expand the range to include poly and mono synth tones, field recordings and even CV source material.
ONE is available from retailers, priced at $175 USD/185 EUR. The PERC, SBSTRT, KERNL, HYBRD and BENT cards are $25 USD/29 EUR each.
More information: Tiptop Audio / ONE
