Modular Monthly
We delve into Studio Electronics’ Tonestar
SE (Studio Electronics) have been making high-quality synths since 1981, but in more recent years their Boomstar synths may have caught your eye, plus their modular range has expanded massively with a range of Boomstar-focused modules, new digital modules and the Tonestar.
The Tonestar is a full semi-modular synth voice for Eurorack and it simply sounds stunning! It features an oscillator based on the Boomstar Oscillation module, their 2600 ARP filter clone (there’s some serious mojo here), two envelopes, a VCA, LFO, feedback circuit and mixer. With just a pitch CV and a gate you can get a wide range of tones from the internal ‘normalling’ (the internal pre-patched signal path), but you get 21 jack sockets to go to town on a fully patchable modular experience.
Before we get into using other modules, there’s plenty on the Tonestar that offers more than other, more basic ‘full voice’ module options. One of our favourite tricks when making thick basslines is to patch a triangle or sine wave from our oscillator into a mixer. Then take a square or saw wave into a filter and mix the filter’s output into the mixer before hitting a final VCA. So you can go wild with resonance that might sap some low-end energy and bring those fundamental frequencies back into the signal path with the unprocessed sine or triangle.
It may seem complicated, but it’s simple in principle and even simpler on the Tonestar – literally the flick of a switch. There’s lots of drive on tap too, with overdrive on the filter and the feedback path bringing the final output back to the input of the filter.