Finally, Endorphin.es Ground Control, a 42HP wide 4-track performance sequencer for Eurorack is out now and Golden Master could be your next go-to finalizer module.
Many are waiting for Ground Control. Not the airport thing but Endorphin.es powerful Eurorack sequencer workstation that we already saw at Superbooth 2019 for the first time. The development took almost two years, some knob wigglers already wrote about vaporware. Products that are presented but never come onto the market. That is definitely not the case here.
Ground Control is ready to guide your system in the right melodic and rhythmic directions. Ok, almost ready, some features will be delivered later in a firmware update. That’s not all for today. There is also a second new module that every live modular performer will be very interested in.
Endorphin.es Ground Control Performance Sequencer
Ground Control is Endorphin.es’ interpretation of a performance sequencer for the Eurorack format. It has 42HP and features three melodic tracks with CV/gate and a drum track consisting of 8 drum triggers and modulation/accent output. Then, you get dedicated mute buttons for each track, handy, MIDI and USB-MIDI I/O, external CV, and a built-in 2-octave piano-style keyboard. Like the Shuttle Control, GC has a built-in power supply that can power any other module. No other sequencer offers this feature. But quickly back to the more important information, the functions of the sequencer.
GC has 4 tracks, 24 patterns per track with chaining option, up to 64 steps per pattern, and 24 projects that contain the data of the 4 tracks. Clever, you can select these with the keys, which each has the project/pattern number printed as a Latin letter. A crash course in Latin would certainly not hurt here
Pattern Input
For the pattern input, you can either program the steps in 101-style or record them live using the built-in keyboard. You can adjust notes/drums using the 303-style editor. For the drums, the developers opted for an XoX-style sequencer inspired by the famous Roland drum machines. Anyone who loves the workflow of vintage Roland instruments will love this module. There is also velocity and MIDI CC available but it requires an external MIDI controller. Individual channels can be muted directly on the interface.
The creative bits of this new performance sequencer are hidden in 14 menu items that can be called with the keys. Here you get access to a fully-featured arpeggiator, nudge (pattern rotation), roller, slides, ties/resets, ratchets, and more. It also hosts a lot of important utility functions like pattern queue, live note removal, or quick transpose. At the start, some functions will not work yet. Since it is a large, complex project, these will be delivered step by step as a free firmware update.
Ground control looks very promising. Above all, its extra features such as the keyboard, its deep MIDI implementation, or the built-in power supply make it very unique in the Eurorack sequencer market.
Endorphin.es Golden Master
Golden Master can be your go-to tool to finalize your tracks in your Eurorack system. It’s a 96 kHz 16-bit multiband processor module that inspiration from studio mastering and radio units from the 90’s. The Endorphin.es developers even describe it as a game-changer for everyone who performs live in a Eurorack Synthesizer. I neither want to confirm nor deny that, but from the feature set, it looks like a super helpful tool for live performances. The whole financialization magic starts with the stereo inputs, each with an input gain control.
It operates in three modes. In mode 1 (blue) it acts as a 3-band EQ with an additional compressor for each band via the “enhance” buttons. After this section, the signals run in a brick wall limiter. In mode 2 (red), Golden Master became a 3-band compressor with three different styles to operate. Either light, normal, or harder/harsher, controllable via the knob sweet spots of every band. The third mode (white) is a 3-band mid/side stereo processor with which you can spread the signal in the stereo field Plus, there is a neat functionality with which you can easily mute bands.
At first glance, Golden Master is a very neat utility module with which you can give your track the final touch. But it’s also a clever module that allows you to instant punch and sound pressure to every signal, no matter if drums or synths.
Endorphin.es Ground Control is available now for 549€/$699 USD and Golder Master for 190€/$200 USD worldwide.
More information here: Endorphin.es
Endorphin.es GC & GM are available at our partners
Isn’t this just a racket beatstep pro with an extra channel and less controls? Or am I missing something…
Or let’s call it a sequencer for the Eurorack format. The Beatstep Pro didn’t do anything new either. Is also a sequencer but standalone 🙂 Ground Control has a different workflow than the BS Pro, has an integrated power supply for modules. There are still differences. But both are sequencers, so yes there are similarities.
The Golden Master – has three modes > are circuits independent from each other and you can use all 3 at the same time, concurrently?
I think you can only use one at the same time
Wow 🙂
Tom, does it sound like I could get a kind of OTT compressor for eurorack ? <3
kind of 🙂
Who decided to include XOX programming with 14 steps and then two “extras” on the black keys for 16? It’s so laughably awkward. The obvious solution was to have two rows of 16 with lighting showing the different configurations.
I think one guy designs all the stuff. I could see shrinking the buttons a bit to fit in 16 at the bottom. Seems very, very, very strange to me.