Bastl's new Déjà vu is the 4HP module for when you need to fader stuff

This looks like a good case of what happens when a simple idea does a ton of stuff — the opposite of a unitasker. Two faders, but there’s attenuator, attenuverter, crossfader, preamp, line level booster, panner, mixer, and and and…

Let’s start with that, because it’s not really about the specs or features so much as it is what they can do for you. Bastl’s list — and you might well be able to think of more:

Fader voltage source
Attenuator
Attenuverter
Crossfader
Pre-Amplifier (up to 10x)
Stereo line level to Eurorack level booster
Distortion/Saturator with bias
Panner
Stereo mixing
External feedback mixer for effects
Mixer (up to 4 channels)
Unipolar to bipolar voltage converter
Bipolar to unipolar voltage converter
Combining triggers

And yes, they also hope you pair this with their Neo Trinity modulation hub. I can easily see it working in other rigs, too, though.

The trick here is that they take their two channels, A and B, assign each a fader (and fader CV), and include ADD input jacks. You can attenuate, attenuvert, or crossfade, based on the position of the switch.

It works with CV (and that’s also fun to crossfade). It works with audio. It solves that perpetual problem of Eurorack having really hot signals by adding a preamp. Flip a switch to change x-fade modes, flip another dedicated pair of switches for fader modes (1x, 2x, 10x). Bias distortion clipper at Eurorack level. 4-channel mixer. Oscillator waveform mixing. Clever.

I suddenly get the feeling that 4U of everybody’s rack is endangered. Like, something is going out with a minimum of that width, to make room for this instead. I’ve definitely seen other two-channel fader stuff, but building the different necessary functions into this one with handy physical switches was a stroke of genius.

I also appreciate the cats. Václav, why were the cats not in the press pack?