After Later Audio - Ornate Criminal

The Ornament & Crime has long held its place as one of Eurorack's most versatile modules — a shape-shifting utility that transforms itself entirely depending on which app you load. After Later Audio's Ornate Criminal takes this beloved open-source platform and rebuilds it around the Teensy 4.1, bringing considerably more processing muscle to the table. Running the community-developed Phazerville firmware, this 10HP module packs quantizers, sequencers, envelope generators, LFOs, a MIDI interface, and yes — Pong — into a single slot.

The expanded I/O is immediately noticeable: eight CV outputs, eight CV inputs, four trigger inputs, and stereo audio connections. That last bit matters — the Teensy 4.1's horsepower enables proper audio-rate processing, opening doors the original hardware couldn't quite reach. Hemisphere mode remains a highlight, splitting the display into two independent applets running simultaneously with their own I/O assignments. One half can be a quantizer while the other generates envelopes. Or triggers… Or strange attractors via Low-rents (dual chaotic modulation source — Lorenz/Rössler attractors). The combinations run deep.

Being open-source, the firmware continues to grow. Headers for a future MIDI expander and an I2C QWIIC connector hint at even more expandability for those who like to tinker. For anyone wanting a single module that can genuinely do the work of many, the Ornate Criminal delivers in spades!

Features:

• Based on OC Teensy 4.1 reference design
• Runs Phazerville firmware with dozens of apps and applets
• 8 CV outputs
• 8 CV inputs
• 4 trigger inputs
• Stereo audio input
• Stereo audio output
• Hemisphere mode for running two applets simultaneously
• Apps include quantizers, sequencers, envelope generators, LFOs, MIDI interface, Bytebeat generators, and more
• Headers for future MIDI expander (3.5mm IN/OUT, USB host/device)
• I2C QWIIC connector for additional expansion
• Open-source firmware with community development
• 10HP

Phazerville Apps:

• Acid Curds - Quad 8-step chord progression sequencer
• Automatonnetz - Neo-Riemannian transformations on a 5x5 matrix sequence!
• Calibr8or - Quad performance quantizer with pitch tracking calibration
• Captain MIDI - Configurable CV-to-MIDI and MIDI-to-CV interface
• CopierMaschine - Quantizing Analogue Shift Register
• The Darkest Timeline - Parallel universe sequencer
• Dialectic Ping Pong
• Enigma – Sequencer of shift registers (Turing Machines)
• Harrington 1200 - Neo-Riemannian transformations for triad chord progressions
• Hemisphere - 2 Applets at a time
• Low-rents - Lorenz attractor
• Meta-Q - Dual sequenced quantizer
• Neural Net - 6 Neuron logic processor
• Quadraturia - Quadrature wavetable LFO
• Quantermain - Quad quantizer
• References - Tuning utility
• Scenes - Macro CV switch / crossfader
• Passencore - Generate a chord progression from LFOs (from sixolet)
• Piqued - Quad envelope generator
• Pong - It’s Pong!
• Scale Editor - Edit and save microtonal scales
• Sequins - Basic dual-channel sequancer
• Waveform Editor - Edit and save vector waveforms (for LFOs, envelopes, one-shots, and phase scrubbing)
• Viznutcracker, sweet! - Quad Bytebeat generator
• Backup / Restore - Transfer app and calibration data as SysEx
• Setup / About - Check your version, change encoder directions, adjust display/DAC/ADC, screen off time