2HP Modules: Small, Affordable, Powerful

It's no secret that Eurorack modules are expensive for the most part. For some, the price is justified, as they have the ability to do some pretty amazing things.

However, as an interested person looking in, this was one of the things that initially deterred me from Eurorack. I remember thinking "how much do I actually need to spend so my rack can produce a sound, let alone a sound that I like!". Adding in the cost of a case and accessories only added to this worry. There is a company that is challenging this status quo though.

Tagging themselves as the "smallest company in Eurorack", 2HP is not your average modular company. Every module they make is (you guessed it) 2HP in width and reasonably priced. The company boasts about having one of the best performance to size ratios in the industry and also offers a variety of modules.

I am a personal fan of this brand. This is not an endorsement for 2HP by any means, rather, I've simply found that their modules suit my needs. Their popularity is certainly well deserved though. They're addressing both the cost and space issues with Eurorack modules at the same time, all while offering great products.

To demonstrate what you can expect from 2HP, I've wired up a little "2HP Patch", consisting of 2HP's TM, Pluck, Euclid, Arp and Tune modules (with a little help from Pam's Workout).

I love this patch for so many reasons! Its smoothness and arpeggiated note changes all jive together so seamlessly and melodically. Plus the off-beat plucking and modulation adds tons of depth to the sound. It's amazing that this kind of sound can be produced from only a handful of modules. 

To put this all into perspective, those five modules add up to 10HP of space and about $550 (assuming they are bought new, which certainly doesn't need to be the case)! Wow, amazing!

So what's going on in this patch?

• 2HP TM sends random voltages to 2HP Tune, which quantizes them to a melodic scale (chromatic here). The quantized voltages are sent to 2HP Arp's Root input, which sets the root note of the arpeggio

• 2HP Euclid generates a Euclidean rhythm as a series of triggers, which are sent to 2HP Pluck's Trigger input

• Pam's Workout sets the BPM of the patch and sends triggers to 2HP TM's Trigger input, telling it when to generate a new note and 2HP Arp's Trigger input, telling it when to start the arpeggio

• Pam's also sends triggers to Reset inputs of 2HP Arp and 2HP Euclid, so the arpeggio and Euclidean rhythm reset when a note is generated

• I also manually adjust Pluck's decay/damping knobs, Arp's mode knob and Euclid's steps knob, to vary the fullness of the sound, note sequence and rhythm, respectively

In other words, Pluck is the voice here and its being "strummed" by Euclid, and its notes varied by Arp and TM. 

If you have a 2HP module that you like or have used or a cool patch involving some of them, let me know in the comments below. I'm always curious to see what people can do with these modules.

Happy patching friends,

-Uncle Peter