Ritual Electronics - Altar II & Amnis Review
Our new favorite Eurorack filter!
Ritual Electronics is a Eurorack module manufacturer from France that offers a few 3U and 1U modules. The first thing that stands out is their branding and concept of the gruesome rituals of the Middle Ages which is apparent in the graphics and the naming of their modules. They even have a module called Guillotine. I mean, how cool is that?
So we got our hands on two of their modules, the Altar II and Amnis, to do a full hands-on review after testing them out for around a month.
Altar II
Altar II is a 3-pole, 18dB/octave state-variable discrete filter that is 12HP and it’s feature-packed! I have expressed my love for the Wasp Filter here and while I still think that the Wasp is, for its price, a must-have and has a few similarities with the Altar II, the Altar II has taken the reins as my favorite Eurorack filter for now.
Design
Before going into the technical specs of it, let’s talk about its design. I can honestly say that this module is the most well-designed module I have in terms of ergonomics and overall build quality. It’s sturdy and looks beautiful, all the knobs are easily accessible, and the pots are in the correct place to know what you’re doing and don’t get in the way of the knobs.
And as we talk about the knobs, these are hands-down the most satisfying knobs I’ve ever touched. They’re big, do not wiggle at all, and have the perfect amount of resistance while you turn them. The main Frequency knobs is also slightly looser so you can quickly do a filter sweep. You may think that these are not important but I do feel that good ergonomics and overall feel you get out of a module makes you use it more. So in terms of looks and build quality the Altar II gets a 10/10!
Inputs & Outputs
So now let’s go to the technical specs. A very welcomed upgrade from the first version of this module is that it now has two inputs so you can simultaneously filter two signals with the same filter settings. As for the other inputs, it has Frequency control, Color, and Resonance inputs. All three of those inputs also have a dedicated attenuverter which is quite handy. The last input is a 1V/Oct input which means you can use the Altar II as a sound source. But we’ll get to that later. Lastly, there is of course a main output to get your signal out of the filter.
Controls
On the top part of the module, you’ll find the big knob for Frequency control, and below that there is Resonance and Color. The Resonance on this filter is very well-tuned and has a different effect throughout the knob’s travel. Up to the center of the knob, the resonance is round and smooth and adds that extra punch to the sound, and up to 100% it starts to really pop before it reaches its self-oscillation and becomes a sine wave. Before you ping the resonance, it is usable and pleasing without becoming too much. And now the 1V/Oct input comes into play. The sine wave produced by the resonance is pure and punchy and you can definitely use it as a sine oscillator. It has a percussive nature to it that is very nice sounding and it often finds its way to my patches. Although not that often since I love using Altar II as my main filter.
Now the Color knob is my absolute favorite feature of this module. The filter is variable and smoothly goes from Bandpass to Lowpass and finally to Highpass. That’s a feature that I really liked on the Wasp Filter that goes from Lowpass to Highpass but on the Wasp you cannot modulate that movement. And the modulation of the Color knob makes a huge difference. By modulating the Color knob you can get all sorts of interesting patterns and movement that’s relative to the Frequency knob position.
And last but not least, there is the Gain knob that acts as a level control but also overdrives and distorts the signal at high rates. The distortion is quite mild and can be used to add some crunch to your sound without becoming overwhelming.
Overall Experience
As I said in my intro, Altar II is my current favorite Eurorack filter. It just ticks all the boxes that I need and it does that in a beautiful and satisfying package. It is not on the affordable side for a filter as it costs around 280€ but, in my opinion, if you want to have just one filter for your system that might be one of the best and kind of overlooked ones. It’s not easy to find that many features and a highly usable voice on a filter. It’s smooth as butter but can also do aggressive 303-style sounds and overall a beautifully designed module.
Amnis
The next module by Ritual Electronics that we tested is called Amnis. A shift register module that can also do a lot of things altogether. As I am a very fresh Eurorack user, you can understand that a shift register meant nothing to me before diving into this module. So I’ll take you with me on my journey of exploring this weird and fun little module that can be used in numerous ways.
Its main function is to act as a generative sequencer for gates and CV. Since the absence of knobs may confuse you, to get things going you’ll need to feed Amnis with a Clock in the Clock input and pretty much anything in the Data input. On each tick of the Clock input, the module will read the Data value, and if it’s high (above 2.5V) it will output a Gate on the output of Gate I. If it’s below 2.5V it won’t output a Gate. So far so good.
So what I did for my first patches, I fed the Clock input with the clock from my sequencer (OXI One) and then fed the Data input with an LFO. Since I don’t have any drum modules in my case the goal was to create some interesting pitch sequences using Amnis. For the Pitch information, I set up a couple of melodic sequences on the OXI One that were going to two oscillators. The oscillators had Pitches going up and down but no Gates to trigger them. So, instead of using the Gate outputs from OXI One, I used two of the Gate Outputs on Amnis. To trigger the Gates on Amnis, I used an LFO in the Data input so that it was random when those Gates would be triggered. Still with me?
But why you didn't just use the Gate outputs on the OXI One? That’s a great question and that’s why a module like Amnis is interesting and useful to have in your case. Instead of you setting up the gates and pitch for your oscillators you can just set up a few pitches and let Amnis take care when the gates will be triggered - meaning you’ll hear the oscillator’s sound. And since it’s synced to a clock you’ll end up with a random rhythmic pattern each time which makes the whole process more fun and experimental. Which is probably the reason you got into modular, right?
This whole gate-triggering thing that Amnis does give you a lot of options, not only the example I showed earlier. A very typical way to use it would be to trigger different drum voices with each gate, creating a drum pattern. That’s probably the most obvious case that I couldn’t test myself but I’ve seen a few videos showcasing it.
Furthermore, having 8 clocked Gates and 4 CV outputs can be used not only for triggering an oscillator’s VCA or V/Oct. You can trigger the envelope of your filter, a Sample and Hold module, you can use the CV to modulate anything on your voices, filters, etc. There’s even an example where Amnis is used to generate a digital noise that can be tuned and used as a clap or a cymbal.
Amnis also has 3 staircase CV outputs and a Slewed CV output. That means you can use it not only for triggering gates but also for controlling CV. In this case though, a quantizer module would be needed to control the CV that those outputs are sending to have musical results.
A screenshot of Amnis Manual with all its controlsOverall Experience
This is probably the first time I got a piece of gear that I could not get my head around on how to work with it. If you have a full understanding of what this is and how you can use it, then you probably don’t need this review to help you make a decision. But if you are an explorer and like to experiment like me then here’s my take on Amnis.
Amnis is slowly growing on me as I use it more and more. It’s a module that an empty canvas and you should experiment and envision different ways to use it. And there are tons of ways to use Amnis. I really love randomness but every time I find myself wanting to have some control over it and Amnis gives you that control. Having a Clock is crucial to me to control the tempo and rhythm and the ability to reset and even “freeze” the random gates is very helpful.
As I’m doing a lot of sequencing with my modular, Amnis has become a great companion to spice things up creating some intertwining melodies by shifting the Oscillators triggered, controlling modulation modules, and more. And to be honest, it’s one of the first modules that reminded me why modular is so much fun. It invites trial and error, it invites confusion and happy accidents and gets you scratching your head on how to use the tools you have.
I promise to revisit this review or maybe make a new one once I find more patch ideas with Amnis because I feel I barely scratched its surface and there are more things to discover. So if you love to experiment, I’m sure you’ll have fun using Amnis.
Conclusion
I am so impressed by the quality that Ritual Electronics is offering. Besides their amazing build quality and ergonomics, they make modules that are well-thought, deep, and attention to every little detail. And since they only have three 3U modules (and a 3U expander) and a few 1U modules, I can’t wait to see more stuff from them in the future. I would love to see their take on an oscillator or a resonator module for example.
So make sure to put Ritual Electronics under your radar cause I think we’ll be hearing from them very soon with more exciting modules and concepts!
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