I don’t know what it is about drum modules, but I will never not be intrigued when one is announced. The original Mutant Machine was released not far off a decade ago, and it’s worth mentioning a little of the context for this iteration of the module. In September 2022 Hexinverter Électronique founder Stacy Gaudreau announced that all Hexinverter operations were to cease, citing the post‑pandemic manufacturing climate as “the final nail in the coffin for us at Hexinverter”. Enter Ģirts Ozoliņš and Erica Synths, who put out a statement of their own: “We strongly believe the effort and innovation incorporated in Hexinverter Électronique Eurorack modules is far too great to prematurely become history.” For that I commend them.
One immediately visible difference between this edition of the Mutant Machine and its forebear is its finish, which is completely gorgeous. It really does look the part of a premium electronic musical instrument, with textured black‑on‑black patterning to differentiate its different sections and an intricate gold design around its Output Drive knob. Hexinverter Électronique, as the name suggests, are French‑speaking; but calling this the Édition Noire is fully becoming of its sleekness regardless of nationality. The original Mutant Machine was grey, silver and orange; a finish clearly inspired by the classic Roland drum machines from which its circuitry draws much inspiration.
‘Another Roland‑inspired drum module?’ I hear you yawn... but not only does the Mutant Machine do it better than most, that’s not the only thing on offer here — not by a long shot.
‘Another Roland‑inspired drum module?’ I hear you yawn. True, it seems everywhere you turn nowadays there’s some sort of homage being paid to the sonic signatures of the 707, 808 or 909; but not only does the Mutant Machine do it better than most, that’s not the only thing on offer here — not by a long shot. Apart from anything else, it’s fully analogue — or, as the official spiel declares, ‘microcontroller‑free’ — which somehow sounds like the healthier option. Just don’t tell Noise Engineering I said that, whose digital BIA drum module I am a huge fan of.
In many ways, the Mutant Machine is a little like its own miniature modular system for drums, with a markedly discrete design encouraging individual manipulation of pretty much all of the elements of its overall sound. This it offers down to a fine level of detail. It also makes sense in light of the fact that, allegedly, the Mutant Machine originally started life as a snare drum synthesizer to work with Hexinverter’s other Mutant drum modules, but became too big and expensive to justify that sole purpose.
Indeed, the pursuit of the perfect snare drum sound is a good way to think about the Mutant Machine and its workflow: you might say that within the sonic signature of a snare are more or less all the ingredients of the drum spectrum: there’s the initial click of its transient, the thump of its lower frequencies, the sizzle of the snare itself, the mid‑tone crack, and so on. Explode these all out and you can indeed build a kit of sorts with a thumping kick, sizzling high hats and the rest. It occurs to me as I write how even conventional snares can sound like almost any of these, depending on the context. Some are so beefy they almost sound like bass drums; if you don’t believe me, just listen to the snare in Dire Straits’ ‘Money For Nothing’.
The left two‑thirds of the panel, ostensibly, is taken up by the Membrane section, while on the right is the (less technically‑named) Snappy section. Two analogue VCOs constitute the core of the Membrane section, each with their own level and relative tuning controls. These offer sine, triangle or square wave shapes and while, disappointingly, their CV input doesn’t track at one Volt per octave, it’s possible to get things passably melodic at the Pitch CV input if you’re careful on the attenuator. Fundamentally, these work in much the way you’d expect, with a combination of amplitude and pitch enveloping to create drum sounds high and low, and this it does beautifully. Things get much more off‑kilter and interesting, however, with the Wave Scanner, which has one or both oscillators cycle through the three waveforms. This it can do slowly, in time if desired like a kind of timbral arpeggiator, or at audio rate to create snarling, squealing, metallic textures that can be brought in and out by sending CV triggers to the Enable input. Excellent.
On the other side of things is the Snappy section. This, ostensibly, is a noise generator, but it also has a Click control for more pronounced transients. This by itself was just the ticket to achieve, for example, that little dose of attack on an otherwise soupy kick drum; but together with the Pitch and Decay knobs there’s a huge amount to play with, and with just a little reverb I found some very realistic rim‑style sounds alongside those more ostentatious 909‑style white noise bursts.
A lovely touch here is the ability to process other audio beyond white noise through the Snappy circuit, and a dedicated Noise output to send the white noise by itself elsewhere — perhaps to another envelope. In fact, the I/O of the Mutant Machine is generous to say the least: it’s also possible to exchange both the internal oscillators with other audio sources via the Wave 1 and Wave 2 inputs. Beyond its Main Out, it has outputs for both the Membrane oscillators and a clock output, as well as a CV output for the pitch decay envelope. While the Main Out is by far the one you’ll use most often, the other outputs are primed for achieving stereo width, perhaps, or for sending elsewhere in a system for further sculpting.
I must mention the celebrated Basimilus Iteritas Alter at this point. As a multi‑function drum heavyweight, it may well have met its analogue match in the Mutant Machine. Like the BIA, this module doesn’t just hit, it hits hard. Erica Synths have hit a home run.
£329
$389