A Frap Tools Fanboy Thread

[cbm]

There’s no sense in pretending otherwise.
I’ve become a total Frap Tools Fanboy.

I’m a long-time Buchla user, and Frap is the only manufacturer who’s been able to tempt me into Eurorack. Everything in their lineup is really well thought out, really well made, and very feature rich. They may be taking some inspiration from the innovations that Don Buchla put forward, but they are not simply cloning designs. They are taking lessions from them, and building new things inspired by that history, but each with their own twists and innovations. Every Frap module I have has so much to recommend it, for example:

Up until I got the Brenso, my favorite analog oscillator was the Buchla 259. The 259 is an extremely muscular waveform generator. The Brenso is at least as good, and in many areas better. The FM busses are a clever implementation, the Timbre bus is terrific, even a relatively simple thing like the S/H on the main frequency pots is brilliant, and an indication that the people designing these things also use them, or at the very least listens to people who do.

The Falistri is so useful that if I ever get a second case, I’m getting another one. The two function generators are really solid & snappy, track surprisingly well in the audio range, and have enough ins and outs for any use case I’ve come up with. The collection of utilities at the bottom of the panel are all really useful.

The GCM mixer sounds terrific and is really well thought out. I love that I can grow it if I need to.

The USTA is comprehensive and fun. That’s right… I said fun. Most advanced sequencers are as much work as they are fun. With USTA seems like fun was one of the characteristics they were going for in the design. I’m still getting my head around it, but having individual tracks that can have their own elastic timing is really nice. The various ways you can randomize parameters is also lovely. I only recently got this one, so there is much exploring left for me to do, but it strikes me as a module that will repay the investment in learning it, with interest.

Even the small CV processors, the 321 and 333, are feature packed and very well thought out.

I am “patiently” waiting for the next run of Sapel, but on paper it seems almost perfect. I do wish there was an external input for the Sample/Hold, but I don’t know where they would have put it.

I don’t have room for the Fumana in my system, but on paper it looks really great as well.

===

I know some people don’t like the cryptic nature of the panel design, but I think that they are quite elegant and attractive. Once I understood the design philosophy, I found them easy to navigate. I think that the clarity of thought that goes into the module design makes for a fairly easy learning process.

I have no plans to get rid of my largish Buchla (although I am downsizing a little) but my portable 7u 104hp Eurorack case is getting more play time at the minute. This surprises me, for sure.

I guess the only point of this thread is - Yay! Frap Tools!

[GuyaGuy]

Fumana is the only one I have. It takes up about 25% of my "audio" case and it's totally worth the space dedicated to it. Well thought-out and versatile with tones that are from everything to 70s studio sweetness to cacophonous mayhem. Plus a really pro manual, harkening back to manuals like the one for the ARP 2600.

[cbm]

I'm sure Fumana is a great module, and while my case could technically hold a Fumana, I wanted a few other things more.



Your point about the manual is totally accurate. It's a terrific document. The Frap team seem to take the educational aspects seriously. The Frap Talks series is well done and informative. I haven't experienced an on line workshop, but they seem to get high marks as well.

[gran_syth]

Although I would not call myself a Frap Tools fanboy, their modules are amazing. Falistri is my favourite the Quad channel mixer has become a centre node of most things I patch and I am considering getting more of them. However, same feeling I have about expanding on my collection of Joranalogue and Instruo.

[nios]

I have quite a few Frap modules (fumana, sapel, falistri, brenso, 321 + 333) and yeah somehow pretty much without even thinking about it I pore over their entire range from time to time analyzing if I could even make a reasonable excuse to buy more of their gear if I can. Probably more 321s at the very minimum and Falistri is indeed nice enough you could arguably use two, although I'd say a Falistri+Maths or Rampage basically will get all bases covered better.

Given how I instinctively think of Fumana and Brenso as perhaps the best analog modules in my system if you asked me (Rubicon 2 and Belgrad are way up there though), not because Frap is pricier or looks cool but just on sound, build quality and functionality? I guess you could say I'm a fan. I await to see what they make next with great interest, been really curious to see how they would do a filter or LPG as that would help round out a Frap-only system (Fumana can do it but I mean like a resonant filter). I'm kind of afraid it might be something rather vanilla, but I'm guessing they would figure out how to make it desirable anyway as either the vanilla to beat all vanillas or having some unique quirk/innovation to it.

[Whatisvalis]

I only lack the Fumana - ended up with the Bark for now.

I can echo the praise - the build quality and sound / function is superb - the best build quality I’ve experienced in Euro.

Customer service is also great.

[plragde]

Also a fan, and I also don't understand the complaints about the designs. If one is going with icons and graphics in lieu of text (a very European trend, and one that makes sense in this multilingual world) then these are quite good examples. Others complain about the panels being "cluttered", and I can understand that more, but it's really great to have all these attenuverters and inputs/outputs. The one thing I would change about Brenso and Falistri is the small switches, which are a bit hard to tweak on the fly (and I have small hands). I worry about their durability, though I have no basis for that other than their size. Admittedly, I don't see how the switches can be much larger (e.g flat or bat toggles) without increasing the width, and I wouldn't want that. Given the attention paid to detail in their designs, I'm sure they thought about this a lot.

[Nutritional Zero]

The panel designs are only inscrutable if you’ve never owned the module and have only ever stared at a tiny jpeg. As soon as you get the module in your hands and can look at it close up, it makes total sense.

I bought a Brenso on a whim. It sounds unbelievable.

[Telefone_529]

I don't own any but I'll say they're easily the most elegant and professional looking brands. I enjoy the "edgy" designs of MN and NE a lot but this ultra clean gorgeous panel design they stick to is to die for!

Then the quality side of it. They definitely feel like a nice Italian sports car vs a lot of American muscle cars. It has the power but they're so elegant and beautiful in doing it. Just really well built and designed modules it seems.

I'd love to get a brenso or fumana some day... Anyone wanna gift me their fumana?

[nectarios]

Had Shapel. I liked it, but after patching it more and more I realized that it was getting very cramped... so because of that, I was only using the main parts of it, or not at all and if I was not using it for a few days I had to refer to the manual to remember some jacks, due to the cryptic icons on the panel.
Also the octave random was not exactly an octave. Didn't even check to see if there was a trimmer for it, so that's on me if there is a trimmer.

Despite my negative experience with the Shapel's panel, I do think the aesthetics are some of the best around. They're just not particularly great when in actual use.
Might get a Brenso at some point though. The modules look so good I am definitely giving them a second chance at some point.

[studioutopia]

@cbm - Chris, Thanks for starting this thread.
I echo the sentiments here.
I am sure many would agree, your considerable knowledge and experience with Buchla carry a lot of weight - and your statements and opinions about Frap Tools give a lot of credibility to their work.

Here are a few experiences with the other modules....My Frap Tools collection is shown in the photo below, adorned with Befaco Bananuts and Thonk Trimmer Toppers.

CGM+QSC
I bought the original CGM Master, Group and two Channels at the beginning of the pandemic. I thought, "man - this is a lot of money for what is essentially a two channel mixer with loops for two stereo effects." But when you consider all the VCAs inside them - you can apply CV to EVERYTHING. For a typical voice the a gated VCA at the end, I literally stopped using my Intellijel Quad VCA, as the Frap CGM VCAs are amazingly controllable, and convenient. Modulating pan for evolving stereo image - right through to creating stereo effects by modulating pan at audio rate. I had info that Simone and the team were working on something new (what becamse the QSC) - so I just waited. I jumped the gun a bit and when I called Moog Audio to preorder QSC, the guy there said - it doesn't exist. Then he called me a day later to take my preorder.
QSC is a bit different than the Channel modules - the VCAs dont have as much gain. With the Channel you can push a signal much further into clipping. But for 18HP - the QSC is an incredible amount of mixing capabilities. And CV on just the right amount of features... 8 VCAs, two Pan CV, and CV on a send on the two end channels.
Masterone looks like a great upgrade to Master, but I don't think it's worth the upgrade for me - to consume another 6HP and the added expense - just to get more granular metering (love this) and balanced outputs (hmmm). I have a pretty solid noise floor already with Master directly into my UA Apollo 8 Unison preamps.

Fumana
I waffled over this for a while. It's Huge. It's expensive. I questioned "How often am I going to use this?". But the fanboy in me, and a video by DivKid made me pull the trigger.

Fumana is a monster that needs to be fed. It needs sources.
I found that it does very magical things when you have harmonically rich sounds, and use sampled sounds (recordings, dialog, etc) as modulators for spectral transfer. I've had a lot of fun this year pairing it with Instruo Lubadh as the spectral transfer source. Which I have now replaced with Assimil8or. I have Beads, and I've often thought I should get Rings (or Elements), jsut to revisit the "Rings+Clouds" thing - but adding Fumana to expand that universe of ambient textures.
I have also had some great experiences using Fumana in place of LPFs and LPGs. It brings a character that you cannot get anywhere else. After 9 months, Fumana is worth every penny. it is like bringing an RPG to a knife fight. A Bolshoi balet dancer to a childrens dance recital. Or more appropriate - bringing a Ferrari to the Honda Civic car meet.

Sapel
This was the last Frap Tools module I bought. I must admit - I never really saw the value in having this. The smooth random that I love using so much, I can get with Batumi and Pamela. And up until Sapel, I had Intellijel Noise Tools for S+H and noise sources. I really didn't see the value in Sapel. Until it arrived. It has become a tools that adds spice to everything I modulate.
I now understand fully why Buchla users speak so venerably of the Source of Uncertainty. The only complaint I have is that I really wish the Distribution trimmers, were more prominent knobs - and had CV control! I would have forfeited the CV input to enable/disable External Gate Sampling in favour of CV control over the distribution.
Sapel is like having a painter's palette - with 4 noise sources, 8 CV sources, and the two random clock sources as little pigments to add to your brush.

For Fumana, Sapel and Falistri - having 333 and 321 makes anything possible. For Brenso - they are not really needed - as Brenso has attenuverters on literally everything with controls that properly act as offsets to your modulation inputs.

Don't even get me started on my love for USTA!
Chris - you said it right. It is FUN. Definitely my most used module... the center of my modular workflow. It very much feels like having four session musicians in your studio, giving them some direction on what to play, and then letting them "run with it". The control over probability/variation are the best thing I've seen on any sequence generator both in hardware or software.
I only have one wish. Allow us to use CV to change the pattern on the next cycle. I still have hope that we will see this on the next firmware. This would change my music forever. Imagine if you could define the next pattern to play by a voltage detected on CVa on the last stage of the currently running pattern? Plug Sapel's stepped random in there and you have an infinitely changing and evolving generative musical piece. The practical compositional goal for me is to select the next pattern on USTA by having various clips on Ableton Push2 that set the pattern on USTA in time with the other clips I've created for beats and my polysynths. Improvisational composition.

Just one tidbit for Brenso. Add a Tokyo Tape Music Center TokyoGate. The two pair so well. Like a Buchla 259 and 292.
Of course, I'd love to see a 6HP dual lowpass gate from Frap Tools, but I think we will be waiting a while.

There's my Frap Tools braindump for sunday morning.
Happy patching, Frap fans!

[everydaycurry]

If Frap sold a hard copy of the manual I’d buy one. The PDF is nice (and necessary) but it’s nice to have a paper reference.

[bronzebygold]

The only reason I don't have more Frap Tools is I really don't like mini pots. It's a shame, because I do really love their designs. I had a Brenso on order and canceled it because it just looks very cramped to me. Still, I think I'm going to go for a Fumana in the 2022. Thanks for the detailed reviews. Reading this thread does tempt me to make an exception to my mini pot aversion (not for the first time tbh...).

[ŘłB23³]

I started w the Brenso which hooked me, now I own the rest of the current lineup. Just lovely and definately well constructed. I like what someone above did w the colored jacknuts. Smart

[KVK]

Fan here! The only Frap modules I don't have are the mixer series. I've got them in a 7u104 case with Data. I've got a Natural Gate but would like to see Fraps take on a LPG and some kind of touch plate / controller

[studioutopia]

The only reason I don't have more Frap Tools is I really don't like mini pots. It's a shame, because I do really love their designs. I had a Brenso on order and canceled it because it just looks very cramped to me. Still, I think I'm going to go for a Fumana in the 2022. Thanks for the detailed reviews. Reading this thread does tempt me to make an exception to my mini pot aversion (not for the first time tbh...).

I hate those things too. At first I was skeptical, but functional density convinced me. The QSC is probably the densest. Having VCA level, two Sends and pan knobs on four channels in an 18HP module is a feat. But I don't seem to have a problem performing live improvised recordings with them. Brenso without the trimmers would be upwardsof 60HP+.
I bought a motherlode of the Thonk Tripper caps - for every module I own. They make the trimmers look nicer, their position more visible, and the feel more substantial. I went crazy on the colors, but you could just do black or dark grey.
https://www.thonk.co.uk/shop/tall-trimmer-toppers/

I started w the Brenso which hooked me, now I own the rest of the current lineup. Just lovely and definately well constructed. I like what someone above did w the colored jacknuts. Smart

That was me. I probably spent the equivalent of a decent module on all the Bananuts. I have no regrets. I love the aesthetic. Feels more Buchla-like. But beyond the aesthetic, I've built my own color-coding for them. A little bit of inspiration from the functional Buchla coloring scheme, and a selective way to visually differentiate CV inputs (sometimes polarity), Gate inputs, Gate outputs, etc. All my primary inputs are silver (V/Oct, Filter inputs), and my outputs are black. For Fumana, like a Buchla 296e, having the alternating colored nuts goes beyond making it look cool - it makes it very easy to visually find odd or even bands. On Brenso, I coded the outputs green and gold, and I can see that red Final output from across the room. The colors on Sapel's noise sources match the type of noise. The colors combined with my familiarity to my modules mean that I almost never look at the labels - whether it's Helvetica on an Intellijel module, or the wonderful (IMHO) iconography of Frap Tools.

[GuyaGuy]

Also a fan, and I also don't understand the complaints about the designs. If one is going with icons and graphics in lieu of text (a very European trend, and one that makes sense in this multilingual world) then these are quite good examples.

OTOH, English is the lingua franca of the world, but also specifically for synths. With few exceptions like Polivoks, just about all synths use English for labeling. Here are some of the design issues:

- Color blind people (10% of males) can't always distinguish the color coding
- Icons rely on memory and are only effective if standardized, but many designers use their own standards
- The icons are tiny, making them really only helpful in bright light scenarios

That said, they wouldn't prevent me from getting another Frap module and there are certainly worse examples of product design in Euro.

[drowld]

Just one tidbit for Brenso. Add a Tokyo Tape Music Center TokyoGate. The two pair so well. Like a Buchla 259 and 292.
Of course, I'd love to see a 6HP dual lowpass gate from Frap Tools, but I think we will be waiting a while.

What's special about the TPMC Gate ??

[studioutopia]

Just one tidbit for Brenso. Add a Tokyo Tape Music Center TokyoGate. The two pair so well. Like a Buchla 259 and 292.
Of course, I'd love to see a 6HP dual lowpass gate from Frap Tools, but I think we will be waiting a while.

What's special about the TPMC Gate ??

Tokyo Tape Music Center - his modules are unashamedly derivative of Buchla 100 and 200 designs.
The TokyoGate is half of a 292 with a few additions. It definitely has the Buchla mojo - and it sounds much closer to a 292 than any other LPG in Euro I've ever heard.
I still have my LXd, but even the 6dB channel sounds too hyped to get the real bongo sound. TokyoGate does it perfectly.

[Mtdining]

I succumbed and ordered USTA today. I am hoping it will replace Marbles as go to generative sequencer, with more complexity and control. It’s time to pull Vector out of my main rack, and sell it if I fall in love with USTA, or keep it in a skiff with USTA…then IO Labs Flux next year and hopefully sequencing will be done. If I had more space (and $$$), Fumana would be next.

[Domin]

USTA knobs are the best I've experienced.

Talking USTA, I like it though I see a few decisions questionable by my standards. I guess this comes with the territory, the more complex the module is, the more preconceptions it has baked in. I've never used any other sequencer of that power so I can't compare. I have spent a good few hours researching them battleships and most seemed to assume making EDM.

Icons rely on memory and are only effective if standardized, but many designers use their own standards

Well, it depends. Look a the Quadrax. Even if you could squeeze the text in there, it would probably cause more time with the manual. For concepts that have a clear visual metaphor, icons are faster to recognize and use less space. The problem arises when designers want a cleaner looking design and start to use icons for stuff that doesn't mesh well with that. Text also depends somewhat on standardization, less usual stuff sometimes ends up with rather unhelpful label.

[GuyaGuy]

Icons rely on memory and are only effective if standardized, but many designers use their own standards

Well, it depends. Look a the Quadrax. Even if you could squeeze the text in there, it would probably cause more time with the manual. For concepts that have a clear visual metaphor, icons are faster to recognize and use less space. The problem arises when designers want a cleaner looking design and start to use icons for stuff that doesn't mesh well with that. Text also depends somewhat on standardization, less usual stuff sometimes ends up with rather unhelpful label.

The Quadrax uses pretty standard pictograms, many of them also found on Frap modules. But I wasn’t arguing against icons.

[plragde]

English is the lingua franca

I can't and won't deny this, but these particular five words have always amused me.

I agree that one should not rely on colours. As for text, it is frequently abused, as in a switch whose positions are marked "Wasted" and "Stoned". I don't mean to pick on Xaoc, whose products I also respect. There are a lot more examples out there.

[studioutopia]

Has anyone attended Giovanni's workshops?
I really enjoyed the last few I attended. I know it's difficult for a lot of us in North America, as it typically is around noon EST.
His Frap Talks videos are great too.

[GuyaGuy]

English is the lingua franca

I can't and won't deny this, but these particular five words have always amused me.

I agree that one should not rely on colours. As for text, it is frequently abused, as in a switch whose positions are marked "Wasted" and "Stoned". I don't mean to pick on Xaoc, whose products I also respect. There are a lot more examples out there.

That sort of thing is even worse in the pedal world with labels like Snarl, Juice, and Tweak.