Studio Electronics Tonestar Folktek’d 2600
TONESTAR FOLKTEK is an Arias Blaze / Folktek Fibonacci flight, feast and fancy. We were hyped when Arias told us, “I like your layout – it’s very approachable. And you’ve got some hex things happening which I’m all about” Who knew the Tonestar was so hexy?
ABlaze continued “I’m a circle person so you’re going to end up with something that circle driven. The design will end up like a mescaline vision. If you’re not into that, say the word now…” Oh but we were. He continued—well he wrote this bit before the last, “One of my goals is not just to throw some image stuff on this but to create something that makes sense visually as it corresponds to functionality. I find that kind of thing difficult with complex layouts like this – it’s difficult to find the room for pure design, yours or mine. But at this point I’m starting to come to something…”
We think it’s quite something and… necessary.
Caswell Knowledge (circuit designer):
“The VCO is the same affair as the Oscillation, the Boomstar, and the Omega. It’s kind of a combination of Arp®, Oberheim® and Moog® circuits (sort of a greatest hits), time-tested, very stable—very good tracking over a very large range; certain parts have to be hand selected to achieve that level of exacting performance. Editors Note: This module is a TONESTAR—its own thing—and not a 2600 clone attempt; nevertheless, the Tone☆ tugs lovingly at times on the sleeve of the 1970’s era classic.
Another bit of fun: The LFO is voltage controlled, so you can envelope, LFO, or otherwise modulate both the rate and the depth; the ADSR amount is also voltage controlled, so it can be manipulated by MIDI dynamics, MIDI volume, an LFO, etc. Greg
[St. Regis] has decreed that anything must be patchable to anything, so some technically wrong patchings (for example, pulse wave out to ADSR out) may often produce unexpectedly interesting, x-mod/notch filtering—quite pleasing effects.