earthlink modular - TRAILS

TRAILS is a six-channel utility from Earthlink Modular, a small Italian maker. Every channel has an input, an active level control, a mute button, a Eurorack output and a TRS output. The mixing runs on normalisation: each output sums its own channel with the ones above it, so output 6 gives you all six inputs. Patch into output 4 and the chain breaks there — one jack carries 1–4, the other 5–6. Three stereo pairs, five channels plus a spare attenuator, whatever the split needs to be. Inputs are DC-coupled, so LFOs and envelopes are as welcome here as audio.

The TRS jacks run their own version of the same cascade. Each carries a copy of its channel at −20 dB, impedance-balanced and ready for an interface or a desk. So one set of submixes can stay inside the rack while a different set goes to the recording setup. The unglamorous parts have had attention too. The level controls are active rather than passive dividers — a Baxandall arrangement, where the pot sits in the op-amp's feedback loop. The result is a level curve that comes closer to what your ears expect, with usable resolution near the quiet end. The mutes are mechanical latches: clickless, more than 80 dB down, and they stay where you left them when the case powers off.

Earthlink count 36 op-amp channels in here, which sounds excessive for a mixer until you add up everything that has to stay independent — more going on than the panel lets on. Good for the end of a medium-sized rack, where mixing, muting and getting signals out to the interface all want to happen in one place.

Features:

• 6 channels of mixing, sub-mixing, attenuation and line-level conversion
• Cascaded output normalisation — patch a cable to split the chain into submixes or stems
• Eurorack-level inputs, DC-coupled for audio and CV (10 kΩ)
• Active LEVEL control per channel, −∞ to 0 dB (unity), logarithmic response via Baxandall topology
• Eurorack-level outputs, DC-coupled (1 kΩ)
• 6 × line-level outputs at −20 dB on 6.35 mm TRS, impedance-balanced, AC-coupled (100 Ω); TS cables also fine
• Separate normalisation for Eurorack and line-level output chains
• Clickless latching MUTE per channel with LED, >80 dB attenuation, state retained at power-up
• Max input level 20 Vpp before clipping; max Eurorack output 20 Vpp at unity; diode-protected outputs
• Reverse-polarity protected power