You would be forgiven for hoping that Strymon were bringing Supermarionation to Eurorack with some kind of strung‑up Supercar integration. However, this is SuperKar with a K and the all‑important ‘+’ that puts the strings firmly inside the module rather than dangling from them. This module is based on the Karplus‑Strong algorithm that uses short delay circuits to produce surprisingly lifelike plucked string and vibrating pipe tones. It’s ‘Super’ because the SuperKar+ can produce up to 32 voices and has a bi‑timbral split to offer a Chord voice and a separate polyphonic Solo voice all within the one 12HP module.
The design is dark and brooding, with imposing knobs and a pair of intently staring green LEDs. The labelling is very clear with a trace of a dotted line separating the Solo and Chord voice patchbays and wandering off to delineate between the controls. It’s a very handsome module. However, it quickly becomes apparent that the knobs are a little too imposing for the space and access to every control is not very comfortable.
Once you start playing with the SuperKar+, most of the design frustrations melt away in response to the sheer beauty of the sound. Most modular users will be familiar with the sound, probably via Mutable Instruments’ Rings, or in my case via the 2HP Pluck and Qu‑Bit Surface. What I find most interesting about the SuperKar+ in comparison is how restrained it is. The 2HP Pluck will often squeak at the higher end of things, and the Surface could easily drown itself in sustain, whereas the SuperKar+ is thoroughly well behaved throughout.
The Solo voice is on the left and you have three main controls: Damp, Decay and Attack. Damp refers to dampening of the strings, pulling up from heavily muted to ringing free, whereas Decay governs how much space is given to the ringing. You’ll find there’s a lot of interesting interplay between the two. Attack is not a rising envelope attack; it’s more of a move from pluck to bowing action, and it doesn’t really go much past staccato. It’s oddly authentic and sounds great in most cases, and a bit weird in others, depending on what you’re doing. With the second pipe‑like timbre, the Attack is used more to introduce breath and overblowing, which definitely brings a convincing bit of breathy woodwind to the module.
You also have secondary controls — accessed by holding the right Timbre button — over level, glide and polyphony amount. The knobs do that annoying thing where once you’ve moved a secondary parameter, the primary parameter will jump to where the knob is now pointing as soon as you touch it. Some kind of soft takeover would be appreciated. When using CV, the polyphony is only relevant to the sustain of notes continuing to play as more come in. However, plug in a MIDI TRS cable and you have up to 16 voices of SuperKar+ happiness at your fingertips. The MIDI implementation is minimal; you have notes and velocity, that’s it, and it’s only for Solo mode, not Chords.
On the right, we have the Chord voice which gains an additional Harmony knob. There are 15 harmony options ranging from the root note, and then dialling up it adds fifths and octaves in various combinations. The right side of the knob adds ‘smart harmonies’, which include thirds, sevenths and ninths that all respond to the Scale setting that you can choose via the knob’s secondary function. So, as you feed the Chord mode a root note, you can use the knob or CV to reveal and remove extra notes. The scales are not CV controllable, which leaves you with all the chords having the same quality unless you change them manually. So, for instance, you can’t sequence in a change from major to minor, which might be something you’d do in a chord progression.
Solo and Chord mode were designed to play together, and it’s quite thrilling to be able to feed the Chord voice some root notes and then play the Solo voice over the top. Both voices end up at the same outputs, but we have some useful options here. You can set the outputs to give a wide stereo feel with alternate notes from the Solo voice being panned hard left and right, or pull them closer to the centre with the Chord voice in stereo. There’s a mono mix option, or a split option where the left carries the Solo and the right carries the Chord, which is great for processing them differently.
Both sides offer an audio input so you can use the Karplus algorithm as a sympathetic resonator array. This opens the SuperKar+ up to all sorts of tonal possibilities.
The SuperKar+ is a well‑thought‑out module with a stunning sound and a habit of occupying your time.
The SuperKar+ is a well‑thought‑out module with a stunning sound and a habit of occupying your time. The Chord and Solo voices give it multiple layers of usefulness in your rack with plenty of tonal variations to explore and modulate. It would benefit from greater MIDI control, CV‑controllable scales and slightly slimmer knobs, but otherwise it’s a superb implementation of Karplus‑Strong, and a lovely piece of work.
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£399 including VAT.
$399
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