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It’s 15 days ago now that I got a few messages at 1 in the morning (local time in the Netherlands) from some friends of SoundForce, telling me that they think they just saw the SFC-8 during the SuperBowl national anthem performance ?

Obviously, I wouldn’t believe it at first. But by some unbelievable strike of magical luck, Jon Batiste performed the national anthem this year and the SFC-8 was standing on his piano on the left side. His wife painted his piano and she took the time and effort to paint the SFC-8 sides in the same pattern as well.

People were speculating on the internet about why is this device, along side a Maschine and a Novation controller, are standing there: https://www.musicradar.com/artists/why-did-jon-batiste-have-a-jupiter-8-plugin-controller-a-maschine-and-an-ableton-live-controller-sitting-on-his-piano-when-he-sang-the-national-anthem-at-the-super-bowl-were-still-not-sure

During the performance, mostly his piano and voice are present and some backing track is adding drums and extra orchestration. Maybe he changed his plans last minute. In any case, what I heard from his tour manager is that Jon Batiste is starting to experiment more with electronic elements.

This is an absolute trip to have a device broadcast to the wide world during such a massive event. People speculated that I sponsored Superbowl to get this feature, which is hilarious for me considering the size of my operation.

The video will not embed so here is the link if you want to see it

I am very happy to present MOD 6, a powerful dual-function Eurorack modulation source.It was designed and developed to compliment the other modules in the juno-themed range of modules: DCO, VCF/VCA 6 and CHORUS 6. It is based on my work with the Dual LFO and Dual ADSR modules, with the goal of merging them together into a powerful dual-function next-level module. It can do a lot!

More info on the product page.

As usual, a high quality and very detailed demo video is available from DivKid:

The module is available right now, in my webshop and at schneiders laden, cicada sound, signal sounds and perfect circuit.

The german music tech site Amazone.de posted a long and detailed review of the SFC-OB:

https://www.amazona.de/test-soundforce-sfc-ob-controller-fuer-oberheim-plugins/

The article is quite detailed and precise, thanks a lot to Amazona.de and Markus Galla for taking the time.

You can get a full page translated easily using your browser translation function, or add a plugin that implement google translate into your browser.

Many thanks to Olivier and his friend Luc from France for sending me this video. Both Olivier and Luc are visually impaired so the focus is on accessibility. I learned that you can turn on “voice over” and have vocal feedback when pots are turned and switches are pressed. This is an amazing feature to start learning an interface and getting used to the position and function of every control. I am very happy I can play a small role in their enjoyment of music technology!

Dirk E. from Amazona.de wrote a very long review (in German) of Samples II and I am happy to say he is enjoying the module a lot 🙂
To translate to english, use your web browser (google) translate module.

2 weeks back we went to SuperBooth 24 with a small group of friends helping out to move, setup and demonstrate the Eurorack modules and midi controllers. We talked to so many people, served 150 coffees and gave out plenty of stroopwaffels and chocobons. Thanks to the whole team for their help and all the visitors for their interest and questions.

Same press came along and the interview are on youtube.

Sonic State:

Les Sondiers (French)

SoundForce is releasing Samples II, a 5-channel 4-HP Eurorack USB Sample Player. Samples II is a follow-up of the Samples serie of modules, initially released back in 2020. Samples II can now play back and stream wave files directly from a USB memory stick giving users the flexibility to change samples, offering them extensive memory space and no wave file length limitation.

Samples II is now shipping directly from sound-force.nl at 199 euros (when incl 21% VAT), price might differ based on your location. There is also stock available or en route at Perfect Circuit (USA), Signal Sounds (UK), Cicada Sound (Canada), Schneiders Laden (Germany) and MIDI Amsterdam (The Netherlands).

For more information, check out the product page.

You might know him for his synth-related videos with a strong focus on gear from the 80s, Espen Kraft covered the SFC-OB in the following below:

Another Christmas miracle 🎉 The SFC-OB, my MIDI controller for OB-style synth plugins, is now ready to ship from sound-force.nl. Stock is on the way to the USA at Perfect Circuit with pre-order available soon. In the UK, Signal Sounds has stock. Units will ship to Canada to Cicada Sound next week. And Dupertuis in Switzerland will have stock soon as well.

As with previous controllers, users can enjoy 2-way integration using the latest Arturia OP-Xa V. This means that the controller interface can be updated when presets are changed in the plugin, when plugin instances are switched or even manually on demand. The controller even accounts for discrepancies between a plugin pot-position and a controller pot-position, and implements pick-up or smoothing modes to avoid juming values. This allows for an improved and tighthly integrated workflow. Other traditional 1-way MIDI CC mapping is available for the brand new GForce OB-X, SonicProjects OP-X PRO-II, DiscoDSP OB-Xd and Synapse Obsession. Those modes, even though more limited, still offer a fantastic new hands-on experience for virtual synth users.

The controller is assembled in The Netherlands with parts from Europe and Asia. It is built to last and withstand intense usage on tour and in the studio. SoundForce has an excellent track record for its controller line, with many units built and very little registered issues and repairs. The enclosure is made of 100% sheet metal and is manufactured by Grawart (http://www.grawart.pl). The case is made of bent steel and powder coated in black. The front panel is aluminum, also powder coated and screen printed with scratch-proof white and blue ink. Walnut wood side panels of 8mm thickness are fitted to both sides of the controller. On the electronics and firmware side, the controller is powered by the same STM32 Cortex-M micro-controller platform used successfully in previous products, insuring a very high level of compatibility with different computers and DAWs.

 

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Once again I asked Ben Divkid to do a demo video of the chorus modules. He prepared some beautiful patches and examples of Chorus effects in Eurorack, with plenty of surprising and original patches. Between patches Ben played back some patreon-submitted audio through the modules, which was also interesting to hear the modules on very different kind of audio material. I am very pleased with the results, thanks Ben!