OK, I've had Keanu for a few weeks now and can offer the following observations.
I picked up the ALA Keanu as my matrix solution because of the combination of features including the function generators, matrix mixer, and VCAs combined together. It's classic 4x4, so not as many channels as larger matrix mixers, but works for my needs. It is really nice having the function generators and VCAs built right it and the modulation sources provide some great random waves with slew control, which was definitely needed and welcome in my set-up. It works great with control voltages and audio. Keanu is a very commendable set of functionality at the price point and HP (IMHO) and should be acknowledged for breaking ground by integrating the feature set together so thoughtfully and economically.
There are a few (IMHO) missed opportunities in the module that would have really been fantastic and I would have paid more to have included:
1) There are switches for each vertical channel labeled "unipolar" and "bipolar". This switch changes the column pots from attenuation to attenuverting. Ok, fine... nice and straightforward. However, the missed opportunity would have been to also switch the function generators in channels 1 and 2 from unipolar (0-5) to bipolar (-5 to +5) in the "bipolar" mode, but the module does not offer that feature. So if you want to have like a fully bipolar LFO from these, you need to either patch in some other external voltage source or mix together two different channels in the matrix and fiddle around with the attenuverters, which chews up channels quick and doesn't really yield bipolar outputs that might look exactly as you would want and is ~5V pp instead of ~10 pp. Alternatively, you could offset the unipolar output in an external module to achieve this. The only video demo currently available on Keanu was a bit thin on this detail and ends up being a bit unclear on this point, IMHO. I actually came away with this misunderstanding when watching the video so I was a bit disappointed to discover that the voltage sources remain unipolar. It seems that there is currently no manual so I wasn't able to correct my own misunderstanding from the video before purchasing. Definitely no showstopper though.
2) A big missed opportunity on the slew controls is that there is no LIN/LOG switch. This one is a real head-scratcher, especially given that channel one and two can be triggered... it just screams "use me for really customizable envelopes".
3) The frequency control of the function generators are patchable, but it's odd that they are not clockable/reset-able... Perhaps there is another way to do this that I have overlooked.
4) Not a super big deal, but it would have been awesome to include a CV control patch point for each matrix position on the mixer section. There is ample faceplate space available too.
None of the missed opportunities were show stoppers, but would have made this module from great to freaking awesome.
I picked up the ALA Keanu as my matrix solution because of the combination of features including the function generators, matrix mixer, and VCAs combined together. It's classic 4x4, so not as many channels as larger matrix mixers, but works for my needs. It is really nice having the function generators and VCAs built right it and the modulation sources provide some great random waves with slew control, which was definitely needed and welcome in my set-up. It works great with control voltages and audio. Keanu is a very commendable set of functionality at the price point and HP (IMHO) and should be acknowledged for breaking ground by integrating the feature set together so thoughtfully and economically.
There are a few (IMHO) missed opportunities in the module that would have really been fantastic and I would have paid more to have included:
1) There are switches for each vertical channel labeled "unipolar" and "bipolar". This switch changes the column pots from attenuation to attenuverting. Ok, fine... nice and straightforward. However, the missed opportunity would have been to also switch the function generators in channels 1 and 2 from unipolar (0-5) to bipolar (-5 to +5) in the "bipolar" mode, but the module does not offer that feature. So if you want to have like a fully bipolar LFO from these, you need to either patch in some other external voltage source or mix together two different channels in the matrix and fiddle around with the attenuverters, which chews up channels quick and doesn't really yield bipolar outputs that might look exactly as you would want and is ~5V pp instead of ~10 pp. Alternatively, you could offset the unipolar output in an external module to achieve this. The only video demo currently available on Keanu was a bit thin on this detail and ends up being a bit unclear on this point, IMHO. I actually came away with this misunderstanding when watching the video so I was a bit disappointed to discover that the voltage sources remain unipolar. It seems that there is currently no manual so I wasn't able to correct my own misunderstanding from the video before purchasing. Definitely no showstopper though.
2) A big missed opportunity on the slew controls is that there is no LIN/LOG switch. This one is a real head-scratcher, especially given that channel one and two can be triggered... it just screams "use me for really customizable envelopes".
3) The frequency control of the function generators are patchable, but it's odd that they are not clockable/reset-able... Perhaps there is another way to do this that I have overlooked.
4) Not a super big deal, but it would have been awesome to include a CV control patch point for each matrix position on the mixer section. There is ample faceplate space available too.
None of the missed opportunities were show stoppers, but would have made this module from great to freaking awesome.
Statistics: Posted by acousticvelocity — Tue Jan 28, 2025 11:25 pm