Stardust

Qu-Bit Stardust — Looping, in the Cosmic Sense.

Stardust combines pristine audio recording with deep manipulation possibilities in their new 18hp module. This stereo looper uses high-quality converters and 32-bit processing to deliver remarkably clean recordings – up to 10 minutes in mono or 5 minutes in stereo.

However, technical specs only tell half the story. Stardust shines brightest when you start exploring its four distinct loop modes. ‘Sound on Sound’ lets you build dense layers. ‘Replace’ mode works like a tape being recorded over. ‘Frippertronic’ gradually decays old material while adding new layers – perfect for evolving ambient textures. ‘Resample’ mode captures your mangled audio experiments into new starting points.

Stardust really comes alive through its extensive manipulation options. The Slice and Skip controls introduce probability-based transformations – from subtle tape glitches to complete audio rearrangement. Add tape wow and flutter, hiss, bit reduction, or reverb through the dual effect controls. The Varispeed encoder provides precise pitch control via CV or manual adjustment, while Inertia adds those satisfying tape slowdown effects.

The module includes USB functionality for saving/loading audio and firmware updates. Since Stardust is built on the open-source Daisy platform, it welcomes firmware modifications from the community — in other words, very hackable!

Another interesting side note is Qu-Bit’s decision to donate part of the proceeds to The Planetary Society — the organization Co-founded by Carl Sagan in order to “Empower the world’s citizens to advance space science and exploration”. So in other words – this device should land well with both tape-heads and space-explorers alike 🙂

Features:

• Cosmic stereo tape looper
• Click-less, minutes long looping with 4 Loop Modes: Sound on Sound, Replace, Frippertronics, and Resample
• High-Fidelity Audio: 48kHz, 32-bit internal, 24-bit hardware, ultra-low noise floor
• Save, recall, import and export recordings via USB drive
• Wow & Flutter, Tape Hiss, Vintage Saturation, Reverb, and other DSP effects onboard
• Built on the Daisy platform for continued official updates, and community firmware hacking