Electronic music can occasionally sound a little too pristine and digital, and some of the best electronic musicians stand out for the way they dirty their productions up to give them an organic edge. To aid with that quest, Latvia’s Erica Synths is launching a new eurorack synth module called the Plasma Drive — whose job it is to add distortion to your music via the novel approach of turning it into lightning.
This synth module overdrives your music using actual lightning
Erica Synths’ Plasma Drive is an electrifying tool for adding distortion
Erica Synths’ Plasma Drive is an electrifying tool for adding distortion
Devised by the mad scientists at another Latvian company, Gamechanger Audio, this approach works by boosting your audio signal up to 3,000V and transforming it into a series of high-voltage discharges in a xenon-filled tube. That makes for a stunning show of literal lightning in a bottle and, after applying some user-adjustable modulation to the sound, it converts the discharges back into an acoustic signal. Erica says the result is “a quick, responsive, and extremely heavy distortion with tons of unique character.”
The Gamechanger Audio gang has already enjoyed success with its Plasma Pedal, introduced at NAMM last year, and the Plasma Drive is an adaptation of the same technology, though with a different creative audience in mind. The new module is making its debut at NAMM 2019, which is taking place this week (and The Verge will be covering live), ahead of a February 20th release date at a price of €310 (about $350) before tax.
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