UDO Audio RBN-1

UDO’s ribbon controller puts Super Gemini‑style expression at your fingertips.

Ribbon controllers have always attracted a somewhat mystical reputation, thanks to the association with vintage synth behemoths such as the Yamaha CS‑80. It hasn’t stopped Kurzweil, Roland, Korg and Alesis from flirting with ribbons within their own products, but thanks to the UDO Super Gemini, there has lately been a resurgence of interest, leading UDO to produce a standalone ribbon, designed to engage with any hardware synth that provides control capacity to host it.

Ribbon Dance

The RBN‑1 is a stylishly engineered product. The base and surround is manufactured from milled aluminium, extending to 581mm in length. The soft‑touch ribbon surface feels entirely smooth (unlike some other ribbons), with the UDO moniker visible on the far left‑hand side, and a cable protruding from the right. During my first point of engagement my own particular brand of OCD insisted that the UDO logo was the right way up, even though it was more convenient to use the ribbon upside down, with the cable to the left. It’s a small detail, but we all have our own pressures in life!

On the unit’s underside, two long non‑slip rubber pads allow secure placement on a synth of you choice, providing protection to any wooden synth casework. The base is also magnetised, providing a very stable mounting solution, which is particularly effective when placed at an angle on a synth with metal casework. It’s not going anywhere! The trailing cable is finished with a 3.5mm TRS mini‑jack, and a quarter‑inch TRS jack adaptor is supplied for both connection scenarios.

Unsurprisingly, the RBN‑1 is likely to be popular with existing UDO owners, who may have a Super 6 or 8. It will immediately introduce some of that Super Gemini kudos...

The idea is to connect the RBN‑1 to some form of control input on the back of your hardware synthesizer, or VCF/VCA input if you have something more vintage in design. Unsurprisingly, the RBN‑1 is likely to be popular with existing UDO owners, who may have a Super 6 or 8. It will immediately introduce some of that Super Gemini kudos, albeit with a trailing cable. UDO obviously have this in mind, as their products are set up to immediately cater for this level of control. But what of other synths, vintage and modern?

I began by connecting the RBN‑1 to the filter control jack on the rear of a Jupiter‑8. Aesthetically it looked great, and sure enough, control was quick and evident, but it immediately highlighted a shortcoming of interfacing with vintage gear. As the RBN‑1 is a passive device, you are reliant upon the synth’s attenuation to enforce the level of control you desire, which is regrettably lacking on a JP‑8. Don’t get me wrong, it worked nicely and was lovely to use, but more control over range would be useful.

Next up, I hitched the ribbon to a Waldorf Quantum. Sure enough, the complexities of the Quantum’s modulation matrix allowed me to go far further than the Jupiter, dialling up substantial control, attenuation and generous routing options via the Quantum’s interface.

After several hours of happy experimenting with a number of modern and vintage synths, the newer kids on the block unsurprisingly yielded the most successful and useful results. Engaging with a ribbon on the vintage cousins was fun, but results were variable, and that’s very much down to the synths themselves. However, this is not the end of the story!

This Just In... Eurorack Module

Conceivably drawing inspiration from Dieter Doepfer (who produced a ribbon for Eurorack users), UDO offer an accompanying product, the RBN‑1‑C. This 6HP Eurorack module is the ideal companion, taming the ribbon’s operation beautifully. Firstly, it provides both gating and 1V/oct output, with scaling attenuation. This means you can easily create broad pitch or CV sweeps. You can also switch the ribbon to hold mode, which will generate note or CV sustain, and even record short loops, which can be replayed via a trigger input. This undoubtedly offers an enormous number of control benefits for Eurorack users, and should also provide the perfect means to tame the ribbon’s response, for users of vintage hardware synths.