Mannequins - Silhouette

Combining analogue mixing, BBD delay, dynamic processing and digital ambience, it offers a highly performative approach to creating depth, movement and evolving spatial relationships within a modular system.

Rather than acting as a conventional mixer, Silhouette organizes six DC-coupled inputs into two complementary layers. The SPOT control continuously scans across the circular input arrangement, selecting one or more adjacent signals as the current foreground. These signals appear at the LIGHT output in their direct form and at SHADOW after passing through an analogue bucket-brigade delay with dynamically varying filtering. Smooth crossfading between neighbouring inputs allows continuous movement through the input field instead of discrete channel switching.

All remaining signals automatically form the background, which is distributed across a separate stereo output pair. As the foreground shifts, the background is continuously rearranged, maintaining a complementary spatial relationship between both layers. A dedicated Mix mode combines foreground and background into a single stereo mix while keeping the foreground outputs available independently.

The analogue delay is intentionally implemented without an internal feedback path, encouraging external patching instead. Routing the SHADOW output back into the input matrix—or through additional processing before returning it—enables everything from subtle regenerative echoes to complex self-oscillating feedback structures under continuous SPOT control.

The background can be shaped using the LENS control together with three dynamic processing modes. It can function as a simple stereo VCA, as a sidechain-style ducking processor driven by the foreground, or as a downward expander that shortens decays and creates additional space within dense mixes. Complementing this is BLUR, a digital ambience processor that increases temporal diffusion and texture rather than emulating a conventional reverb. Depending on the selected dynamic mode, the ambience can either be ducked alongside the background or continue swelling after transients have been reduced.

Although Silhouette relies on digital control for signal distribution, modulation and ambience processing, the primary audio path remains analogue throughout. The foreground delay is based on an analogue bucket-brigade device, while multiple analogue gain-control stages provide dynamic range management and subtle bus compression that naturally responds to the overall input level. A central LED display visualizes both the currently selected foreground position and the amount of gain reduction applied to the background, providing immediate feedback of the module's internal routing and dynamics.

Features:

• Six DC-coupled inputs arranged in a circular signal field
• Continuous SPOT scanning with smooth crossfading between adjacent inputs
• Separate foreground (LIGHT / SHADOW) and stereo background (LEFT / RIGHT) signal paths
• Analogue bucket-brigade delay with dynamically filtered SHADOW output
• External feedback architecture for user-defined delay regeneration and self-oscillation
• Dynamic background processing with Level, Sidechain (Chain) and Expander modes
• BLUR digital ambience processor with analogue low-pass filtering
• Mix mode combining foreground and background into a single stereo output
• DC-coupled architecture suitable for both audio and CV
• Dedicated ALL input normalled to all six inputs with alternating polarity
• Fully analogue primary audio path with digitally controlled routing and processing
• Visual feedback via integrated LED display showing SPOT position and dynamic gain reduction