CUNSA

CUNSA

Sound Seasoning

cunsa /ˈcuːnsa/ s.f. [dialect of Modena of uncertain etymology, probably from a Latin *comptiare, derived from comptus, participle of comĕre ‘organize,’ ‘decorate’] — curing, seasoning (of foods), tanning (of leathers).

Seasoning is crucial for cooking. It is a process that enhances the flavors, glues the ingredients together, and even adds some unexpected kick.

From a gentle refining touch to a shovelful of spice, CUNSA is the perfect seasoning tool for your patches. It can sweeten a sour lead or beef up an insipid bass line, and anything in between.

And, just like a good oil, you can even taste it by itself!

 

 

OR:

850,00  + VAT

In stock

Description

CUNSA is a quadruple analog pingable multimode resonant filter, saturator, mixer, and oscillator.

It is our sound seasoning tool: it can gently even a patch, applying a final touch, or it can set it on fire with a ridiculous amount of spice. It’s up to you and your cooking style!

It consists of four multimode resonant filters with a custom saturation and feedback control that you can use independently or in various combinations and roles thanks to a series of seminormalizations.

CUNSA features four state-variable filters that can be used independently or linked and mixed. Each filter provides three behaviors simultaneously: lowpass, bandpass, and highpass. Each behavior has a 12 dB/oct slope, except for the lowpass, which can be either 12 or 24 dB/oct.

CUNSA handles feedback and gain staging with extreme control and versatility. Besides the usual Q control that emphasizes the cutoff frequency, the Character circuit defines the amount of soft clipping when the filter overloads. High clipping guarantees a controlled behavior with fat tone and pure resonance, while low or no clipping lets the signal saturate the filter stages and make it scream.

Each filter responds to the V/oct signal with excellent tracking. It is thus possible to move the cutoff frequency along with the main melody or make CUNSA resonate with no input and transform it into a multiple oscillator. The V/oct inputs are seminormalled so you can control more filters with the same CV. Easy chords stabs!

CUNSA is ideal for percussive and organic tones. The Ping circuit offers a behavior similar to the BRENSO but AC-coupled. Instead of shooting the frequency to the moon with any trig, CUNSA gently responds to different incoming gates with a selectable decay curve. The Ping circuit can thus create natural decay sounds when fed with trigs or smoother envelopes with any other voltage, like a linear integrator with a custom decay.

Besides this, you can also feed the filter’s audio input with trigs and make it ring at high Q settings.

The four filters can work independently or arranged in groups through seminormalled inputs and sum outputs. CUNSA can thus be a 4×1, 2×2, or a massive 1×4 filter. Even odd configurations are possible, like 1+2+1 or 3+1. Mono, stereo, or quadraphonic audio is at your fingertips.

When the filter behavior is set to COMBINED, every control of the cutoff frequency also affects the input VCA, reducing the signal amplitude and saturation as it approaches the lowest range. It can make organic decays with the ping circuit or tame the low range at high Q and Character settings.

Four inputs have a cascaded seminormalization: audio inputs, VCA CV, V/oct, and Ping. Every signal patched to a filter will thus feed also those at its right, making simultaneous use even simpler. To remove a seminormalization, simply patch a dummy cable to the corresponding input.

Every filter output can be routed to an analog mix bus that sums the four filters and outputs them in three combinations: all, 1+2, and 3+4. These outputs allow for versatile audio processing. Just like we did with FUMANA, we added a gentle shelving EQ for the higher frequencies of the All output to provide additional timbral variety.

Besides the seminormalled inputs, every filter features additional CV inputs for cutoff frequency, Q, and Character, each with a dedicated attenuverter.

Additional information

Dimensions 15,6 × 23,6 × 6 cm

FAQ

c Expand All C Collapse All

A. Use

Our modules are packed with high-quality components that demand a proper power supply and can get sensibly warm.

That is its normal temperature and we can guarantee their performance.

Category: A. Use

B. Design

We have two main kinds of capacitors.

The first one is necessary to AC-couple the audio signal: they prevent any unwanted DC offset, and they offer protection against wrong connections. For this reason, you can patch nearly every input to every output, and the worst thing that can happen is some pops or some silence.

The second one is power filters to guarantee a cleaner current flow across the case. They might sound a bit over the top, but we must remember that a Eurorack system is not something that comes straight out of the factory. Instead, every Eurorack setup is unique and may change according to the musician’s need. For this reason, we want to add as much protection as we can, both to avoid issues with our modules and to ensure that even the other modules behave correctly. We use a wide mix of capacitors in our modules: ceramic, electrolytic, tantalum, and multilayer. They can be assembled thru-hole or SMD, according to what gives the best balance between result and space. For example, all the electrolytic capacitors are mounted thru-hole because they perform better according to our tests.

However, the capacitors have zero impact on the power draw, on which you can read in this other FAQ.

Category: B. Design

Power draw should always be related to what a module does.

Generally speaking, there are modules like SAPÈL that undoubtedly consume more than other random generators. However, SAPÈL is a double module, so a fair comparison would be between it and a pair of similar modules. The same can be said for FUMANA, the most power-demanding filter bank. However, it is also the only Eurorack filter bank with 32 analog bandpass filters, half of which have a 48 dB/oct slope. So, also in this case, a fairer comparison would be between FUMANA and TWO other 16-band filter banks, which leads to similar power consumptions.

More in detail, we engineer our modules to be safe to use. To protect both the modules and the rest of the case, we add a proper buffering stage to every input and output: even if a single buffer doesn’t draw that much power, all the ins and outs piled together can significantly impact the final power draw.

Category: B. Design

C. Shop

Yes! We opened our online store in October 2022. Check out the full catalog!

Category: C. Shop

In Europe, we sell exclusively through our distributor: we do not have access to the individual shops’ orders or stocks.

In the rest of the world, we sell directly to the shops, but even in that case, there’s no way for us to know whether the modules that we’re restocking are sold, available, or reserved for another customer.

Category: C. Shop

We restock every module at least once over a year: we focus on a module’s batch at a time, then we move on to the next one, and so on.

If you want an estimated delivery time for a specific module, drop us a line! We’ll be happy to answer you.

Category: C. Shop

Specs

Size

42 HP

Depth

38 mm

Current draw

330 mA @ +12 V

330 mA @ -12 V

Recommended warmup time

30 min

Audio input impedance

> 20 KΩ (Single)

> 5 KΩ (Quadruple)

VCA CV input impedance

> 50 KΩ (Single)

> 12,5 KΩ (Quadruple)

V/oct input impedance

> 90 KΩ (Single)

> 22,5 KΩ (Quadruple)

Ping input impedance


> 90 KΩ (Single)

> 22,5 KΩ (Quadruple)

Attenuverted CV input impedance

> 100 KΩ

Output impedance (each)

100 Ω

Filter slope

12/24 dB/oct (lowpass)

12 dB/oct (bandpass)

12 dB/oct (highpass)

Cutoff frequency knob range

<18 Hz to >21 KHz

Fine-tuning

>1 semitone

Filter tracking (±2 octaves from 440 Hz)

±5 ȼ

Sine wave maximum amplitude

±4 Vpp (lowpass, 24 dB/oct)

±1,8 Vpp (lowpass, 12 dB/oct)

±4,2 Vpp (bandpass)

±1,2 Vpp (highpass)

Maximum individual filter output gain

+2 dB (lowpass, 12/24 dB/oct)

-5 dB (bandpass)

-2,5 dB (highpass)

Maximum 1+2 and 3+4 combined output gain

+6 dB

Maximum ALL output gain

+1,5 dB

Maximum dry output gain

-5 dB

Attenuverted input usable voltage range

± 10 V

CV input absolute knob offset

10 V