Schlappi Engineering100 Grit Touch-Controlled Distortion

Schlappi Engineering 100 Grit

100 Grit from Schlappi Engineering is a filter, VCA, and distortion unit for Eurorack synthesizers—but beneath the surface, it is also a wailing behemoth of sonic destruction. Following in the footsteps of Schlappi's previous Interstellar Radio and Angle Grinder, the 100 Grit is an ingenious and singular noise tool that further demonstrates how Schlappi gear easily stands out in a sea of Eurorack gear.

In its simplest form, 100 Grit is a 24dB/Oct resonant lowpass filter, and OTA-based VCA, and distortion—all inspired by classic synthesizers' output sections. And you can use it in just that way, providing CV to all the typical patch points (filter FM, resonance, gain, etc.), creating a lovely-sounding synth voice. Or—and this seems a bit more likely—you can crank things up and embrace chaos.

Both Audio inputs and filter FM input 1 are normalled to internal feedback paths, allowing instantaneous access to a wide variety of destructive tones. And of course, the eight brass balls toward the top of the module act as resistive momentary patch points: just apply fingers, scrubbing brushes, or any conductive material and listen to the resulting fleeting screeches and howls.

Need to add a healthy dose of chaos to your Eurorack rig? Schlappi has just provided another excellent way to do it.

100 Grit Features

• Distortion circuit based on a vintage headphone amplifier driven into instability
• OTA VCA with soft saturation
• Three-position x100 gain switch with off, on, and momentary-on settings
• Eight brass touchpoints for interactivity
• Separate outputs for the VCA and distortion
• Voltag control inputs for frequency, resonance, and gain
• Transistor core low pass filter
• Six feedback paths
• All analog