Herbs and Stones - Pathways

With Pathways, Herbs and Stones provide a well thought-out set of functions to expand the concept of the Matrix Mixer immensely.

Matrix mixers are very practical devices, with which everyone can get a new way of signal combination into their house. Whether you assign control voltage signals to a modulation destination or feed audio signals through an effect or filter (etc.) is up to you. The Pathways is built around exactly this concept, but with four inputs and four outputs it is relatively modestly equipped...one might think.

Pathways is a matrix mixer, but it wants to be more of a sound generation tool...with matrix functions. It is designed to generate feedback loops and then modulate them with the two internal LFOs, the envelope follower, clock divider and external modulation sources, because each parameter is CV controllable.

From rhythmic clicks to wafting drones, anything is possible here. The inputs have a gain control, with which the incoming signal can be strongly deformed and if you patch the Pathways into itself, self-oscillation is also possible. Here you get a polyphonic CV controllable drone synthesizer with great sound.

Features:

• 4x 1/4″ inputs with gain / drive control, 4x 1/4″ outputs
• Each of the 16 matrix intersections can be controlled manually or via CV, a dedicated LED gives visual feedback of the channel volume
• An envelope follower is normalled to input four, the signal then gets fed through a clock divider with three cascaded outputs. Willingly, an external signal can be inserted into the divider
• Two voltage controlled LFOs can modulate any parameter and create dynamic feedbacks, asymmetrical panning, tempo-related fx send/returns
• If patched into itself, each channel can self oscillate so it can be used as a polyphonic cv-controllable drone synthesizer
• Full eurorack compatibility, each parameter has its own 1/8″ input jack