It’s hard not to think of the brain trust behind Bastl as geniuses. I’m extremely fond of their whole Pizza series of modules, as well as the same-sized VCF Ikarie. They’re staples in my travel case, packing much versatility in 8HP, while still being very playable. These are deep modules, and their size belies their vastness. Neo Trinity is another; a modulation masterpiece offering six channels (A-F) of configurable LFO, envelope, or CV recorder per-channel. By patching out of a channel of NT and into a CV input of another module, you can add uni or bipolar modulation to any parameter that will accept it, similar to a lot of other modulation sources. But there are some major, major things that set Neo Trinity apart from the rest of those modulation sources going about their normal modulating operations (Agent Smith voice here), the biggest one being that you can record (and overdub!) and loop these dynamic changes with six different fixed record lengths that go from short, quick loops (two steps) to long recorded changes (sixty-four steps).
CV mode, which seems kind of like a “free mode,” is where you can make and record CV changes of frequency speed/pitch with the Rate knob, and insert triggers (quantized to a clock or not) to make all sorts of complex modulation or pitch CV. You can make the output stepped or smooth and create your own LFOs or melody lines. Neo Trinity can also be quantized for this, with eight different types of scales (chromatic, minor blues, major/minor diatonic, major/minor pentatonic, and simply major and minor). This can span up to five octaves (10V peak to peak) and be uni or bipolar.
For LFOs there are five uni or bipolar shapes (triangle, ramp, saw, pulse, and random) to choose from covering pretty much everything you need, and you can set the frequency with the Rate knob, which can go up to audio rate. The shapes change depending on whether you opt for smooth or stepped output, and it stretches those five shapes to more like ten, which is how you get a sine wave from the triangle setting, or smooth randomization.
For envelope mode, there are four shapes (Decay, Variable, Attack, and Pulse) with the Rate knob controlling the overall duration of the shape, affecting both the attack and decay, though which is more affected depends on the chosen shape. You can further affect the operation—adding slew, turning on/off retriggering—to add more variation, but for an easy source of envelopes without taking up a bunch of space, I’d say you can get what you’re looking for in most normal modulation circumstances here. Even though there isn’t a control for each stage of an envelope, you can still customize quite a bit, and the onboard shapes are what I use probably 90-95% of the time in a typical patch, anyway.
You can also sync to an external clock, bypassing Neo Trinity’s internal one, as well as divisions within that clock, and patch in a gate to reset your modulation, which can lead to some really interesting modulation when everything is synced together. Adding a delayed, synced trigger to the reset can get some really cool stuttery triggering—perfect for designing unsatisfying rhythms, something I love. Give the crowd the easy dance track they want? I say no! Tease, annoy, frustrate…
Channels E and F have their own assignable inputs with seven different modes for this, so you have two independently configurable modulation sources not tied to the Meta input, which itself is very configurable, with the same seven modes that can be synced to any or all of the channels. All channels can easily be muted as well, so you can turn on or off modulation, one of those things that is often overlooked (if considered at all), but I find vital in some circumstances, like in my frustrating rhythm campaign.
Bastl also has included some pre-defined trigger patterns—kick, snare, and hat, for example—that worked well for fast patching rhythms. Too well perhaps, as during my testing, my partner commented that what I was doing sounded really good, that she was digging the rhythmic drum pattern (Bastl’s, really!) that I had going on. I mean…I did physically patch it up, so I do need to take some credit, but it was nice having those trigger patterns as starting points. There are some other patterns (a divider, random pattern generator, and a Euclidean pattern generator) that I also found useful. I almost always have a clocked smooth random LFO modulating something in a given patch, and I almost always keep one channel of Neo Trinity for this use.
Neo Trinity offers eleven banks of preset storage, so you have plenty of saved modulation programs for different situations. There’s no screen, so you’ll have to write down or remember which bank is for what scenario, if need be. I have a system where anything like this always has presets numbered as (1) vocal/melody use, (2) bass, (3) percussion, (4) random. Anything beyond that and I might lose my marbles.
Neo Trinity is nothing short of amazing. I have all sorts of LFOs, envelopes, and other modulation sources in my rig, but having six channels in such a small package—with recordability and recall—is no joke. Neo Trinity can easily take the place of three modules more than double its size (do the math!)—most likely with those not being able to record and play back modulation changes, or even having so much possible customization.
One thing that was sometimes interesting in terms of the timing, and yielded surprising results, was recording modulation in one length and switching to another for playback. A lot on Neo Trinity is surprising. Patching a sawtooth LFO that I recorded some automation into (fast knob twist to fully CW) with a short record time (four steps) and then turning the Rate fully CW into audio rate, I modulated the Fold CV in on the Zlob Foldiplier and I got a really nasty, short, partially melodic sequence of sorts. Shortening and lengthening the loop time was a cool way to get more out of it as well, while keeping everything in sync. You can even switch modes to random and go back to the sequence to warp things up, and there is much warping to be had here.
I only have one critique, and that is with the fixed record lengths. Six options are nice, they cover a lot, but there were times it took a little guesswork—a few stabs at the rates—to get the right length for what I was looking for. I would have loved to be able to start looping the automation right when I was done recording it, by letting go of the Record button, instead of (sometimes) needing to wait until the fixed step time ran out, if the time selected was longer than I’d recorded for. Conversely, if I chose a time that wasn’t long enough, my tweaking would be cut off before I was finished and I’d have to start over and choose another length. Also, as with any module this size that has no screen, sometimes it was hard to remember the various button presses for how to do everything: quantize, scale, rate, clock divisions, Meta modes, etc…there’s a lot on hand here. And while I found the most basic functions, the most-often used ones (channel select, shape, recording, etc.) easy to remember, I still had to reach for the manual from time to time for the deeper operations. Overall though, learning the ropes on Neo Trinity was not too much of a challenge, especially considering what’s packed in here, and navigation was easy to recall, a joy, actually, and I felt somewhat proud of myself for how quickly I was able to use Neo Trinity in the ways I wanted.
I don’t want to use the word “genius” here, but Neo Trinity is one of the best automation modules (again, in only 8HP) I’ve come across; hands-on, recordable, set-and-forgettable…I’ll always want a few envelopes with controls for each stage in my rig—I’m not giving those up—but in the same breath, I’ll always make room for Neo Trinity in whatever case, for whatever situation I find myself in. Bastl, they’ve done it again.

Price: $320

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