Squarp Core - 6 HP MIDI Brain For 64 CV Outputs

Squarp Instruments built its name on sequencers - Pyramid, Hermod+ and Hapax -their new release is  Core, which ius a new direction for them. Core is a 6 HP MIDI hub that turns MIDI into CV and Gate, and then generates it on its own.

Core has no jacks,  it is the brain; the xp32 expander is the body. Connect one xp32 to SLOT A with the supplied ribbon cable, add a second on SLOT B, and you get up to 64 freely assignable outputs, 32 per expander as 8 tracks x 4 outputs.

USB Host, USB Device and TRS MIDI In and Out are all on board and all merge at once, so a DAW, a hardware sequencer and a keyboard can play the same rack together. Each port is independently set for sync or MIDI forwarding, and there is a Play/Stop button, an internal clock from 1 to 360 BPM, global swing, and per-track latency compensation from -128 to +127 ms.

Fourteen Engines, every output assignable. Every output on every connected xp32 can be routed to one of fourteen Engines. Motif folds Euclidean rhythm, arpeggiation and persistent step mutation into melodic loops that drift as they repeat. Euclid adds probability and rotation to Bjorklund patterns. Logic runs twenty operations between any two outputs, across tracks. AHDSR envelopes are loopable, velocity scaled and invertible for ducking.

Sixteen bits per output. Core drives the xp32's industrial grade 16-bit DACs over a -10 V to +10 V range, with pitch tracking in V/Oct or Hz/V at 384 PPQN resolution. Any compatible Engine can be quantized to a custom scale edited in real time and applied to every output at once - change it mid-take and the whole rack moves with it.

It runs with nothing plugged in. With no MIDI cable connected, the Engines keep going on the internal clock. Squarp frames two jobs: an interface - a keyboard or DAW playing voices polyphonically, with per-voice pitch, gate, velocity, aftertouch and CC - and a generator of clocks, LFOs, Euclidean rhythms and melodic loops.

Core is also the rack's preset manager: eight global presets store routing, Engines, parameters, scale, BPM and swing across both xp32 slots, recalled instantly or over MIDI Program Change, with up to 32 MIDI CC mappings per preset and inverted response available.

"We set out to build a small utility in two months," says co-founder Benoit Desaissement. "Two years later we have a machine that plays on its own. It still isn't a sequencer."

The xp32 gains a second option: until today it could only be driven by Hermod+, which continues to work exactly as before. Core runs coreOS 1.0, updated from a USB flash drive on the Host port, so no computer or driver is needed.

Pricing excludes VAT: Core alone is 190 EUR, an xp32 is 490 EUR, a Core plus xp32 bundle is 590 EUR, and Core with two xp32s is 990 EUR. Core requires an xp32, and is sold through the Squarp store only, with authorised retailers to follow this year.

More Info: https://squarp.net/core

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