The Echo Cinematic from Knobula is a stereo effects module inspired by the Jamaican dub music culture of the 80s. Back then, it was practically standard practice to feed an analog tape Delay into one channel of a mixer, process this signal with the Equalizer and integrate a reverb unit via the FX send path. By constantly manipulating the EQ bands, the tape head and mixing ratios, these characterful sound constructs were created. Anyone who follows the musical paths of Maurizio, Basic Channel, Rhythm & Sound or DeepChord only needs a sound source for chord sounds such as the Poly Cinematic and dive into the depths of dancehall, reggae and dub techno.
The ingredients for authentic dub sounds
Functionally, the module mainly consists of the EQ, Delay and reverb functions. The equalizer can work either as a Lowpass or Highpass filter, peak EQ (bandpass or notch) or as a comb filter. The EQ itself can be used at various points in the signal flow using a toggle switch. You can choose between the feedback loop of the delay, between Delay and Reverb or directly at the audio input. The delay can either run freely or be synchronized via Tap tempo or clock input and can even handle ping-pong delays for extended stereo width. There are two independent LFOs for modulating the EQ frequency and Delay time, which generate sine or random waveforms depending on the direction of rotation. The last element in the signal path is an impressively good-sounding 24-bit Stereo reverb, which can be adjusted in terms of mix amount and room size. With the Knob Recorder, all knobs can be recorded for up to 30 seconds. The recorded knob progressions can be triggered using the play button or the corresponding trigger input. It would be conceivable to use a clock divider here, which restarts the motion sequence every eight bars, for example. All knobs can be assigned to the two control voltage inputs in a matter of seconds.