Countdown

Merry Happy 2022!
We hope that this year will be better than the old one in all the ways that matter and wish everyone good health, much creativity and a number of nice surprises.

Superbooth was such a welcome get-together! Meeting many people again and greeting new ones while beeping happily for days. Showing off our Fenix IV and the new ARDABIL & SWITCH utility modules  – check out this wonderful write-up – and a Wobbler² prototype. It is always such a pleasure to have people play with the things we make. Having dinner with friends and fellow manufacturers did the beeping heart good.

After Superbooth we had a break in Venice and we seem to have returned to work at a slower pace. Some of it dictated by things beyond our control but also due to recognizing that we might have been ‘just a little stressed’ for some time. On top of this are the mixed feelings of all that is lost in the pandemic, while being grateful that we managed to continue creating all through the last two years and that we are fully vaccinated and still covid-free.

We had hoped to have our new utility modules out in the world by now but if 2021 has taught us anything, it is that things may not go as planned and you better roll with it. So, we are rolling with delays upon holiday breaks – and should receive part of our assembled electronics this week. Then we can do our testing and final assembly and packaging and finally send out our combo of smart & dumb in-between-audio that might greatly improve your eurorack.

The issues with the Fenix IV cases were resolved via a small redesign. We made the top/bottom ridge on which the frontpanel rests a separate part that we put in ourselves. This means less ‘actions’ on the case in the factory that might warp it – and this has been a great success as all these new cases now pass our QA.

We are still working on our Fenixes – number 100 is in sight. There is a little line of Fenixes still going through burn-in, calibration and QA and that will be it. It is so nice to already have a flock of more than 80 Fenix IVs out in the world and to hear what people make with it. We are very much looking forward to Ott’s new album coming out in February which should be full of Fenix IV sounds. Another Fenix IV is going on tour with Tool and we expect to hear some Fenix IV sounds under the 030303 label in future. Several movie scoring studios now have a Fenix IV so who knows what might be Fenix supported in future. We’ve had the pleasure of delivering a few Fenixes ourselves and witnessing ‘first-contact’ and did some really happy patching together.

We are hoping that once all 100 Fenixes have landed, we will have more time to make beeps with our own Fenix IV.