Night Rider

RYK’s Night Rider is a bag full of surprises. A Quad Band Sequential Resonator with six different modes covering a huge range plus an integrated modulation sequencer.

The module also offers a delay line mode for heavy flanger/chorus/carplus-strong action. And an Allpass mode for phaser-like sounds. With the Sequencer (with SLEW) you can morph through six different Stages. RYk’s module is suitable for vocal/robotic sounds, of course, but also for much, much more.

Night Rider comes with six (!) different Filter modes:

• 6db Band Pass, parallel, RES=resonance
• 12db Band Pass, parallel, RES = resonance
• Variable-width Band Pass (VBPF), parallel, RES regulates the width
• All Pass (AP1), serial, delay line based, RES regulates dry/wet
• Karplus-Strong (KP), parallel, delay-line based, RES acts on delay feedback
• All Pass (AP2), serial, IIR based, RES controls Dry/Wet

Mode selection applies to all four bands. Frequency, Level and Pan can be set individually for each band. The stylish UI with LED-bands help you to keep everything in view. In action it does indeed look like a certain speaking car…

When leveling, you have to keep in mind that due to the way Night Rider works, it can produce large level jumps – especially at high RES settings in BP or KP mode. Desired distortion can still be added in a very measured way: The last five LEDs in the Level LED display light up a bit brighter and signal the onset of Saturation Clipping/Limiting.

The highlight is certainly the sophisticated modulation sequencer. It has up to six steps and the following features:

• Start and end point freely adjustable (MIN/MAX)
• Clock input with integrated Clock Divider (via settings)
• POS-regulator and POS-CV: steps can be “jumped to” directly
• POS-CV and Clock can be used simultaneously
• SLEW regulates the transition between steps: hard cut or soft morphing.
• SLEW is CV controllable

Each Filter-mode has its merits: Karplus-Strong is brilliant for mutant string sounds and chorus-like. The All Pass modes give more “body” to hi-hats, for example. The VBPF is good for subtle vocal/formant filtering, and the two Band Passes are excellent when pinged. All kinds of bongo, marimba, woodblock etc. sounds are possible here. Check out the video below!

Night Rider leaves a wonderful impression, topped off with thoughtful features like the aforementioned Clock Divider, as well as the somewhat hidden Formant and Chord presets (13 each).  The Clock Input also has a double function as MIDI input. If you want, you can use it to control the most important functions via a MIDI controller or DAW automation. If you are considering buying a filter bank or resonator (or a very special Eurorack-only FX), you should definitely check out RYK’s Night Rider.