Rat King Modular Cell Desktop

Three cult synthesisers in one with plenty of patch sockets

With Cell Desktop, Rat King Modular presents an analogue synthvoice with a focus on basslines and typical acid sounds; the desktop version corresponds in all respects to the Eurorack version, except that Cell is housed in its own compact case and can also be used outside a Eurorack modular system. The controls have plenty of space between them and invite you to tweak the sounds extensively. Cell is a monophonic synthesiser and consists of the following components: oscillator, filter, VCA, envelope, VC envelope and Random sequencer. With a total of 19 patch sockets, there are many ways to combine Cell with other modules and/or semi-modular synthesisers. The oscillator is based on the AS3340 IC, a replica of the CEM3340, which was used in the original SCI Prophet-5. This offers the waveforms square and sawtooth, which can be crossfaded manually and via control voltage using the SHAPE controller. In addition, the oscillator is tuning stable over a wide range and has an FM input and hardsync. The 24dB Lowpass filter and the VCA are based on the AS3372 IC, which is a replica of the CEM3372, whose sound is familiar from the Oberheim classics Matrix-12 and Xpander, among others. The ADSR envelope has also been used in various classics; here it is the IC AS3310; this was used as the CEM3340 in the SCI Pro One and has a percussive control behaviour. In summary, it can be said that Cell contains the DNA of three different cult synthesisers. The modulation options are supplemented by a voltage-controlled slope generator (VCE), which functionally moves between an envelope and an LFO, and by the random sequencer. The latter independently generates self-changing sequences with which the sounds of Cell can be brought to life. Since all functions are normalised, the cabling effort is kept to a minimum and genre-typical basslines can be generated.