ceithir

quad state-variable filter/resonator/oscillator

This is the largest module I have designed to date. Measuring in at 58HP!
It’s been a design project I’ve been tapping away at in the background since Christmas Eve 2024. (It was my holiday entertainment)

I’ve been keen for a while to do a design project reminiscent of my approach ~10 years ago when I was designing the troika.
That was the original Instruō module and came about entirely because I wanted more oscillators in my rack! I actively Timelapse recorded the troika design process and scored it using that original troika to be an extremely nerdy music video!
I did a similar video document project when I designed the tràigh filter later that year.
I did actually record the harmonàig PCB design as well… but that never made a cut because I ended up getting too busy focussing more on the module development side of things more so than the documenting.

For ceithir I have gone a little bit further… I ran timelapse recording for the majority of the process, but also “vlogged” the process and did my best to record key milestones stages.
Over the coming weeks I am going to be publishing these as focussed mini documentaries that focus in on particular design stages.
Some of these include:
• sketching the interface layout/hardware components and then designing the interface graphics
• hardware layout considerations
• troubleshooting initial prototypes
• first power up and then calibration/testing of the first full hardware iterations

As Instruō has grown over the years I have enjoyed collaborating with this team of designers. Sharing ideas and learning from each other is a big part of how we create. I hope some of this series might serve as some form of reference to anyone interested in module design. I feel like it’s becoming more and more common for bands/artists to produce some behind the scenes content surrounding writing and production of new albums. I’m hoping the format translates to some module design bts content. It is perhaps not a step by step tutorial, but I have tried to capture the process quite comprehensively.

This module is a ridiculous one! I don’t know what the current next step is beyond a handful of them existing for my own personal rack(s).
If there is interest, please let me know and I can see what’s possible. This thing is definitely not suited for large scale production! But I am very excited to see what people do with it.

Thanks for reading.
Please feel free to join us on Discord and say hi!
~ Jason