A family of eight VCV Rack modules that pair the gritty, idiosyncratic character of mid-century Soviet synthesizers — the Polivoks, the ANS, the Aelita — with the patch-cable, function-generator tradition of West Coast synthesis. Drum voices, oscillators, a master clock, a plate reverb, and generative sequencers, all in one rack. Soviet machines met the West Coast nowhere in real life; Mashina puts them together.
Mashina is in final preparation for release. Follow SHLabs for availability.
Each carries the red family-stripe under its header strip.
Analog-style drum voice with an 8-step sequencer (a DFAM homage): two VCOs, noise, a tanh-saturated ladder filter, per-step pitch/velocity/gate modes, conditional triggers, and polyphonic per-step trigger/velocity outs.
A Labyrinth-style pair of step engines with per-step probability, length, divergence, and feedback for evolving patterns — feeding their own VCO → filter → wavefolder → reverb voice or any other module.
A punchy kick: pitch-swept sine, filtered click, sub layer, tanh drive, tilt EQ, and a choke input. KIT MODE turns one polyphonic trigger cable into kick / snare / hat / clap — a mini drum kit in one module.
A Pamela-style master clock with eight independent divided / multiplied outputs (/64 to ×64), tap tempo, run/stop, reset, global swing, pulse width, and BPM CV.
A warm Dattorro-style plate with shimmer, a self-ducker, modulation, tilt EQ, and tape drive in the feedback path. CHARACTER morphs ROOM → PLATE → HALL → SHIMMER; pre-delay can be tempo-synced.
A register-driven additive oscillator inspired by 1950s Soviet console computers: a 16-bit switch register controls 16 harmonics, a clock shifts the register, and a polyphonic bit-CV input combines via OR/AND/XOR. Spectral thinning, tilt, phase distortion, and drive.
A polyphonic oscillator with four simultaneous band-limited outputs (sine, triangle, saw, pulse), PolyBLEP anti-aliasing, CV-able PWM, hard sync, FM, per-voice drift for natural chorus, and a warmth control.
A Subharmonicon-style polyrhythmic voice: two VCOs each with two integer-divided sub-oscillators, dual 4-step sequencers on independent clock divisions, a ladder filter, per-step gate modes, and a drone mode.
Why Soviet? The Eastern-bloc synthesizer tradition worked under tight component constraints, which produced characterful nonlinearities — overdriven envelopes, drifty VCOs, idiosyncratic filters — that became part of the instrument's voice. Mashina treats that voice as a design ideal, not as kitsch. Each module's name is its Russian function: udar (hit), volna (wave), strela (arrow), bochka (barrel / kick), takt (beat).
Why West Coast? Buchla, Serge, Make Noise: synthesis as patching rather than playing, timbre as a parametric space rather than a preset library. Mashina inherits that grammar — open-ended, parameter-rich modules that reward exploration.
Aesthetic. A consistent SHLabs panel grammar — a gunmetal field, a red family-stripe under each header, and clear left-to-right signal flow — shared with the other SHLabs series so a Mashina module reads as part of one instrument family.
Status. All eight modules are functional and in final preparation. Release details and a cross-platform build are on the way — watch this page for availability.
Mashina is built for VCV Rack 2 and is in final preparation for release. This page is an early look at the family; details on how to get it will be posted here when it ships.