Aikido

Bastl Instruments Aikido is a quad VCA mixer with flexible submix routing.

In the modular system, Aikido is at home as a central mixing interface or powerful utility module. Thanks to two types of envelope followers, signals can interact or be combined in innovative ways. DC-coupled VCAs allow flexible modulation routing.

The input of the sidechain envelope follower is normalized to the input of channel A and is overdriven by patching any external signal. Its output is normalized to the CV routing path and allows instant compression: patch a kick to the input of channel A and the attenuators can provide either compression (CCW) or expansion (CW) of other signals. The switch controls the response of the envelope follower.

The Spectral Follower “listens” to the output of channel D (which can also be a mix output thanks to Cascade mixing) and focuses on Lows/Mids/Highs as desired via a switch.

Features:

• 4 VCA channels
• Clickless mute with LED indicator
• Level fader with 6dB boost
• CV input with attenuator
• input and output DC-coupled
• Mix-Output AC-coupled
• Sidechain envelope follower
• Rear jumper for pre/post mute switching of the direct VCAs
• Cascaded mix input/output connects two Aikidos to an 8-channel mixer
• Main mix input (for chaining normalized mix outputs)
• Can be chained with Bastl Buddy