The Archaea Exchange falls into what is possibly my favourite category of modules: essentially very simple but with massive scope. It has eight inputs on the left and eight outputs on the right. Patch a signal into one of its inputs and then, with that input selected via its own light‑up button, simply push the buttons corresponding to the outputs you want to send that signal out of.
I suppose the very simplest application of this is to patch a single input and use it as a buffered eight‑way mult — and with no complaints; it’s very useful being able to switch various outputs on and off. For instance, you might audition or combine different oscillators being controlled by the same sequencer, or use it to performatively send an LFO to various destinations without having to keep un‑patching and re‑patching.
The Exchange, of course, can go further than this. With all eight inputs patched, you can select any combination of outputs for each — although be warned you can’t use it to sum several input signals to one output. I’m sure the developer would have a good answer for why this parallel mixer functionality wasn’t possible (in fact, I’d imagine it was one of the first questions on the R&D table), but at the end of the day there are plenty of Eurorack summing mixers available, some as small as 2HP, and I daresay it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have one nestled alongside the Exchange for when the need arises.
64 Patch Slots
Once you have a patch in place, you can save it to one of 64 preset slots, any of which are accessible in two button pushes (eight banks of eight presets, if it wasn’t clear). Here’s where the Exchange shines, in my opinion. Once saved, you can use the Copy and Clear functions to move presets into different locations if desired, and once they’re there, you can sequence them in all manner of ways — which is another way of saying you can sequence patches. The Exchange supports an astonishing variety of methods to do this: you can use USB MIDI and send notes corresponding to different presets, or you can assign input 8 to accept triggers or CV.
If set to expect triggers, it will progress incrementally through a designated range of presets with each pulse, representing the progression with its light‑up buttons. If set to expect CV, however, it will divide 5V by the number of presets in the range; so you can sequence them in any order from a CV sequencer, randomise them with stepped voltage or for that matter send an LFO to have them sweep back and forth. Very, very fast if you want to. It made for some wild and unpredictable results, and in honesty challenged my patching technique a bit too, since it required not a little parallel thinking to create a patch and then sufficiently vary it into sequence‑able sub‑patches.
Now is probably a good time to say that, of course, things like the Erica Synths Desktop Matrix Mixer are juggernauts in the patch‑recall department. That unit can handle 256 connections, accept MIDI Program Changes, and so forth. What it can’t do, though, is sit in the very middle of a system, patched in and ready to go, and it can’t change patches with CV. Also, in my opinion the linear ‘Y‑Y’ layout of the Exchange (as opposed to X‑Y) suits it perfectly to being sequenced. Simple enough to use at speed, complex enough to facilitate deep‑diving. In this way it can either be a type of ‘set and forget’ module or it can be a highly performative and dynamic one, playing a key role within a patch as well as external to it. It’s also worth mentioning that Archaea have purposefully created a substantial expansion system to support multiple Exchanges in a setup, if you do have need to exponentially increase the size of your matrix.
The Exchange somehow manages to be elegant, creative and useful all at the same time.
Archaea are a fairly new face on the scene, but they mean business. The Exchange somehow manages to be elegant, creative and useful all at the same time, and on more than one occasion gave me genuine pause for thought when I realised the amount of things I might be able to do with it. Whether your system is big or small, I guarantee it has a place for this lovely little design.