Acid Rain Maestro

£365

When creating patches with modular I’m always looking at how my modulation is controlled. For me, finding musical modulation is the key to success and much as I like ‘set and forget’ modules I love being able to perform too. That’s where Maestro comes in.

When I’m in Logic Pro X I use a lot of automation, plotting modulation myself or recording live changes and, as the Acid Rain site says, Maestro is inspired by this kind of workflow. So what is it?

Maestro is a fully clocked 6-channel modulation source, which is built perfectly for performance or preset. The size is about right at 20hp, keeping it compact but usable on the fly. As with a few other performance-oriented modules, the patch points run across the top, for ease of use on the bottom row of a rig (often angled in cases aimed for live use) giving free access to the grid of buttons (that are illuminated but not too brightly). I’m a fan of the small LEDs below the output sockets, which pulse in time/intensity with the corresponding modulation.

Although it does have a solid internal clock, Maestro will happily accept external clocks and resets as well, with an LED indicator for speed. The cleanly designed fascia is left with space for the micro SD card slot for saving and loading modulations and firmware.

Like many of the best designs, Maestro is simple to use, allowing its functionality to allow the user to create as little or as much depth as needed for the music. Logically laid out, it has a section of wave shape buttons, including ramps, triangles, random and square, plus an option for smoothing these shapes.

The next section is for adjusting the speed of modulation, which ranges from 1/2 to 1/32 with dedicated buttons for triplets and slow mode, so clock division and multiplication are easily handled. Buttons for loading and saving, switchable bipolar and clock options are grouped too, leaving the bottom row as a set of mutes; one for each of the six channels.

I love having a single button per function. It makes for a really fluid workflow, with no need for menu diving or button acrobatics.

So far, so good. Simple to use and lots of modulation options and channels, but the star of the show is chaining. This single feature is what makes your Eurorack feel almost DAW-like in operation. This allows you to cue up modulations, so you can easily have a whole track (or set) ready to go, loaded from your memory card. Have channel one controlling the reverb amount of a melody, with different wave shapes and timings for different sections, for luscious swells. Have another channel controlling a VCA, so you don’t need to manually switch. The possibilities are limitless and remember, this is all clocked, so you know that a live show will stay tight but you also have the freedom to adapt your performance to a gig. In the studio, this works just as well and means you don’t need six hands to adjust things as you record.

Acid Rain’s Maestro is one of the Eurorack highlights of recent times. It is cleanly designed, logical to use, and makes setting up modulations fun. Chaining is simply amazing – a must-try for modulation lovers.

Simple to use and lots of modulation options, but the star of the show is chaining

VERDICT 8.5