In September 2022, Canadian company Hexinverter Electronique announced the closure of its operations, much to the disappointment of fans who had long enjoyed its popular modules. However, Erica Synths stepped in to take over the portfolio and has been re-releasing these sought-after modules one by one.
Now, four more iconic Hexinverter modules—part of the Mutant drum series—are making a return under Erica Synths’ guidance.
The reissued modules include the Mutant Bassdrum, Mutant Snare, and Mutant Clap. These analog circuits, inspired by the legendary Roland TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines, are now updated with expanded features suitable for Eurorack workflows.
Each module maintains the original 13HP format and feature set from Hexinverter’s versions but has been redesigned by Erica Synths in collaboration with the original developers.
Mutant Bassdrum
The Mutant Bassdrum leads the new Erica Synths Hexinverter Mutant Drum series. It’s based on analog bass-drum circuitry capable of producing classic TR-808-style sounds. Tweakable parameters like tone, decay, and pitch allow for customization on the hardware.
A key feature is the built-in voltage-controlled distortion (batteryACID distortion), which offers further sound-shaping possibilities. It also includes an external input, allowing it to function as a distortion unit when not used as a kick drum. The Bassdrum offers both clean and distorted signal outputs and boasts robust CV connectivity for distortion CV, decay CV, and more.
Mutant Snare
The Mutant Snare is a versatile snare generator that uses analog bridged sinewave oscillators, capable of producing classic 808 snares and more.
With complete control over the sound, users can adjust shell tone, pitch, snappy noise, decay envelope, overdrive, and a filter with three resonance settings: classic 808 (low resonance), high resonance, and self-oscillation. The snappy generator can also be customized by routing an external sound source into the module. CV control is somewhat limited to decay and cutoff parameters.
Mutant Clap
Inspired by the Roland TR-909, the Mutant Clap module adds features fans wished the original had. It combines a voltage-controlled LFSR noise generator with a powerful percussion synthesis engine.
The Clap module offers a variety of controls, including noise pitch (for different tonalities), drive, bandpass filter cutoff, sustain envelope, and reverb decay. An internal reverb adds depth to the clap sound, and users can choose between internal or external noise sources for reverb generation. It also has an external input to synthesize claps from virtually any sound source.
In terms of connectivity, it features a main output and independent outs for noise and filter. CV control is available for the reverb decay and pitch.
Mutant Hi-Hats
Finally, the Mutant Hi-Hats module features analog circuitry inspired by the famous Japanese drum machine. This updated version offers the ability to generate both open and closed hi-hat sounds simultaneously, with dedicated analog drive controls to shape each sound. You can achieve anything from soft metallic tones to extremely overdriven, crunchy hi-hats, further enhanced by a resonant bandpass filter and decay control.
The module allows external sources to synthesize hi-hats, and there’s a switch to control how the two hi-hats interact when triggered simultaneously. The Mutant Hi-Hats also offer independent outs for each sound and CV control over decay. Notably, Erica Synths replaced cheap transistor amplifiers with low-noise opamp and OTA equivalents for improved performance.
With the re-release of these classic modules, Erica Synths is bringing back the highly versatile Mutant Drum series. These modules are praised for their hands-on approach to sound design without overwhelming the user with excessive features, making them an excellent addition to any setup.
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