I was a bit surprised when I couldn’t find any discussion of the Recursive Machine from The Human Comparator.

It hits alot of marks for my own interest, since I abandoned eurorack, but miss some patachability. Also, the combination double pt2399 and Belton reverb brick, lends itself to alot of feedback experiments.

Anyone here have any experience with this thing?

The instrument is DIY only, battery powered and contains:

2 x vco
2 x vca
1 x vcf
1 x distortion
1 x digital spring reverb
2 x pt2399 delay
2 x lfo
1 x mixer
1 x speaker

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I’ve been using one for a few months, and like it a lot. It’s a unique instrument with a lot of possibilities. I love the timbres I’m getting out of it. Unfortunately, they’re only available as pcb/panel/frame sets, so it takes some work assembling all the parts and doing the (tight) build. It’s a lot of circuits in a small package, so I would have preferred a larger version, but once you get used to it, it’s reasonably playable.

It’s at the intermediate level of diy builds–the pcb is deceptively small, but you’re building a full synth. Mostly through hole, but a non-trivial number of SMD components. THC had some aesthetic ideas that go against the grain of sensible diy design, but anyone who’s built at least a few modules or other types of kits can likely finish a successful build.

The strengths are the interesting normalled signal flow with multiple feedback loops, and the dual PT2399 delays. There’s some similarities to the Make Noise Strega, but the RM allows you to break any normalling and patch the complete signal flow any way you like.

Here’s my first track made with the RM. It’s 90% one recorded pass, with a a small number of samples from other recordings added in post.

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I’m in the middle of building mine. For me it fits that sweet spot between the cool feedback machines from the like of Ciat-Lonbarde, Meng Qi, and even the Make Noise Strega in a more straightforward package. Cheaper and DIY, which is a plus for me, though I know for some that’s either not an option or just a turn off.

Am looking forward to processing it through my Norns Fates as well.

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Thank you for the thoughts! And the sound example is great, i love the grittyness and that feedback tone.

I’m not so concerned with the DIY part, as I’m quite experienced.

How do you find the stability of the jacks? Do they seem solid when patching around? My first and only worry when I saw the design, was breaking a jack one day.