Bastl Instruments’ transformation of the Kastle into the firmware-swappable Kastle 2 line is one of the best things in gear right now. The Wave Bard sample player firmware debuted just before Superbooth, winning over audiences at the packed show with patchable breakbeat mangling charm.
No, seriously – this thing is like a breakbeat wonder. Turn a knob and great stuff starts happening. Patch something and some other expected goodness starts happening. At a show when frankly a lot of gear becomes purely baffling, this one was just bafflingly good all the time. It’s like an adjustable shower head of sonic joy.
I’m going to embed this Son Wu video just because – I agree with the headline. You almost don’t have to watch the video. Trust us.
If you do want the full breakdown, though, Bastl launched their video manual during the show last week.
It’s great to me, in that Kastle 2 is the full embodiment of the ethos of Bastl (and I’d dare say even the predecessor Standuino). It’s nerdy, patchable, hackable, and then does great things to samples. The hardware inside – and Bastl’s own engineering prowess – has caught up to that original vision.
It makes sense that Wave Bard was at a modular show, in that if you look closely at this, it’s really a tiny semi-modular system, ready to manipulate pitch, pattern mods, envelope, and even external signals if you choose. The effects unit was great, and the two obviously go beautifully together, but even the Wave Bard itself has ample effects onboard.
My favorite video of Superbooth, though, is True Cockoo’s demo in the woods. It just perfectly captures the spirit of being out in the woods with synth folks and Václav Peloušek’s personality, which I think you need to take in alongside the hardware.
Features:
- Banks, samples – with sound select also sequence-able / under CV and LFO control
- 8 samples per bank (adjustable from 3 to 32 samples in the editor)
- 44 seconds stereo sample limit at 44.1 kHz (more with mono, lower bit rate)
- Pitch with 4 octave range
- Sample triggering and mod (and some really clever cueing)
- LFO with triangle and pulse output, reset input, synced and free operation
- Tempo-synced pattern generator
- Gate generator with rhythm patterns you can program via Web
- Length with reverse and – this part sounds great – a reversing envelope
- Quantizing for playing samples in scales
- Filter
- Delay and chorus
- Web-based app/editor
- USB-C (for data – firmware, sample upload – and power)
- Runs on 3x AA batteries (for around 15-18 hours promised!)
And a ton of patching, including analog sync in and out, headphone output, stereo input. Tiny tiny patching! This is a surprisingly powerful – if also wonderfully weird – sampler. Artist Oliver Torr did the factory bank, which sounds terrific even before you start loading your own content.
Price: 160 € ex. VAT (approx. 190 € with VAT)
https://bastl-instruments.com/instruments/kastle-2-wave-bard
Available now in the USA from Perfect Circuit, too:
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Kastle 2 Wave Bard Experimental Sampler
Václav told me at Superbooth that he’s been, like, singing in Czech a lot. And sure enough, he’s doing some hyperpop blend of anime and grooves under his Toyota Vangelis alias with BoLs/sLoBa (Matěj Dvořák) and sxilence (Matteo Ruggiero) with additional mixing and production by our friend Oliver Torr. I think there was some comment that people outside Czechia wouldn’t want to hear people singing in Czech. (Uh, Karel Čapek’s ghost would like a word about that!) I’ll bet you do, as in “CDM readers who get this far in a story reading.” Listen:
Oh PS Václav’s co-founder Ondřej Merta is part of this amazing trio with Petr Valek and Jara Tarnovski that did this wonderful album, because :
You don’t have to make music anything like either of those, but I think you’ll agree that somehow the same spirit that went to those two extremes also put that full range in this tiny box.
And damn – Oliver Torr’s latest music is pure fire. Have to write up these cats properly soon.
Meanwhile, BBQ your ears: