Instruo Lúbadh

The Instruo Lúbadh is a two-channel digital emulation of a tape machine that provides a musique concrète-style of sample/digital tape manipulation. Each reel can record 10 minutes of 24-bit audio at 96kHz quality and can be linked for stereo recording and playback.

There are controls for speed, length, and start point. The virtual tape heads at the top of the module around the speed control indicate speed, length, and position with LEDs. The playback speed goes from stopped up to four times the original speed, either forward or reversed. The tape heads also feature a capacitive touch plate which can be used to stall the playhead or add warble effects. Easily performable, by holding the Shift button and adjusting the speed, you can adjust the speed in increments of octaves to easily get harmonically pleasant adjustments.

The Lúbadh also includes a clock output which is determined by the speed and length of the playback. The clock output includes a clock divider that goes from divide by 1 up to 12, then 24, 32, and 64th divisions of the master clock. The Lúbadh also includes an aux input that can crossfade between being panned left or right. It also includes an aux output that can crossfade the output of either channel. The output of each channel is normalized to the opposite input, which allows for complex overdubbing and rearranging of sounds. The input has a preamp that is modeled after analogue tape inputs and features soft compression, as well as an asymmetrical diode overdrive and filtering, unless you’re in the Clean present, which bypasses the preamp. The Lúbadh can also run in one-shot or looping modes and can act as a delay effect.

With the V2 firmware update, the capabilities of the Lúbadh have grown exponentially with the addition of presets that are user-editable and the firmware includes 12 to get you started. These range from different flavors of loopers, to Mellotron-like V/Oct scaled sample voice emulation. Additionally, you can now store and recall your decks independently per deck over 12 folders that can store 12 reels each. A completely redesigned sampling and looping algorithm makes recording smooth as butter, but you can now manually adjust the crossfade time, so glitchy artifacts are still easily dialed in. The Time trimmer also has some added uses and lets you adjust the dub level, as well as preset-specific parameters (like the amount of tape warble).

The module also includes a 2hp expander for CV control over all parameters and a 2hp USB expander for easy access to the rear-mounted USB port.

Lúbadh Features

Two-channel Eurorack looper V2 with redesigned audio engine
Digital emulation of a tape machine
10 minutes of recording and playback at 24-bit/96kHz
Store and load 144 reels
Presets allow for customizable behavior and degradation with 10 factory presets:
- Tape Looper (default)
- Clean, which bypasses the preamp saturation
- Classic, original behavior with no vari-speed recording
- Clockable, for external clock source to sync your recording
- Multi-Tape, which lets you add multiple tape heads to a reel for delay effects and the like
- Sequencing Mono and Poly, scales Speed CV input for 1V/Oct
- Mellotron turns your Lúbadh into a Mellotron-type of voice
- Octave-delay
- Broken Tape that emulates destroyed, gritty tape with added distortion and saturation
Clock output with divisions
The channels can be linked for stereo recording and playback
AUX input and output with crossfaders
Speed goes from stopped to four times the speed either forward or reverse
LED indication of speed, length, and direction
Includes two 2hp expander modules for extra CV and USB access