Innovative New Modular Patching System Kickstarted

US X-Bay gives you up to 256 io plus synth modules      07/11/17

if there's one thing about the Eurorack ecosystem that's both a blessing and a curse its the infinite patchability - great for creative exploration, but for recall and repeatability, not so much.

Anatal Electronics (Leylstad, Netherlands) are aiming to shake things up with the X-BAY system - a modular system of programmable analog input and outputs, from 16 to 256 matrixes, alongside a card based system called X-Mod which can add classic IC based synthesis components such as VCF/VCA from Jupiter and Juno synths, VCF variants - 2040, 3320, 3340 single and dual options, ADSRs and more.

All of these can be discretly accessed using the the fully analog I/O routing- no ADC/DAC stuff here.

Its not only modular that can benefit, as general audio routing can also be set up - like a fully programmable patchbay - something that is usually handled in DSP and requires a lot of convertors.

It also looks from the Matrix demo, that it is possible to attenuate and store custom values for the routing paths - and that means recall of both routing and levels - which is what makes it an exciting prospect for anyone routing audio and CV.

The system can be expanded via the addition of cards housing the analog routing chips and can either be pre made or bought as a DIY system.

There are a lot of details over on the Kickstarter project page which are a little impenetrable to be honest, but as far as we can tell, you can buy the housing system (X-Bay Drawer and power supply - €699) X-Bay 32x32 system pcb €499, X-Bay 16x16 D-Sub connectors.

It is a little dense to get a final full system price out of it, but as far as we can see its around €1k for 32x32 matrix - X-mod cards are extra and start at around €79.

It does look like a very promising system, whether you are looking for specific modular patching or just general audio routing.

X-Bay is available in 4 sizes and can be populated with X-Mod modules and/or automated patchbay db-25 cards

For more information check the Kickstarter project page.

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