Have you ever dreamt about a powerful bass guitar effect combined with a super massive bass synthesizer? You've got it. Here.
Our Future Impact I. is probably
the most revolutionary bass gear that was ever designed on the planet.
It performs a huge amount of effect processing blocks (see the algorithm block diagrams at the bottom of this page), and an extensive set of synthesizer blocks: oscillators, filters and envelope generators that sounds like the classic Mini-type monophonic synthesizers with its characteristic huge bass sound.
But you will find much more than that inside; Future Impact contains signal processing blocks that are more traditional for shaping the sound of an instrument like harmoniser blocks, a distortion and formant filters. Effect processing and synthesizing architectures complement each other in a very flexible way.
Future Impact I. is able to reproduce all the nine original sounds of the highly reputed Deep Impact pedal from the 1990s which is not available on the market any more and valued as gold on the second hand market.
But hardware and the software of the FI I. does not have a slight relationship to the hardware and software of the Deep Impact which was really a precursor for us during the design process. While Deep Impact was based on 20th century technology, the Future Impact I. incorporates a state-of-the-art processing unit that
performs operations more than a hundred times faster than its predecessor.
In spite of the huge processing power the device takes only 70 milliamperes from a Roland/Boss type 9V stabilized supply.
While Deep Impact had nine preset sounds that are not programmable (just the major parameters could be edited on stage), Future Impact I. has 99 program slots that are fully programmable with a desktop PC editor. But we keep legacy so we kept all the major parameters editable on stage as well.
Let's see the differences between DI and FI:
The DI has 4 sawtooth oscillators, running at 32 kHz (very distorted, greasy sound in higher pitch range); the FI I. has 4 multi-waveform oscillators running at 512 kHz, thus generating extremely clean signal. The oscillators have saw, triangle, and square wave signals that can be mixed arbitrarily for each oscillator individually. The square wave signal has adjustable pulse width. There is a separate LFO for each oscillator to modulate the pulsewidth, generating a warm, lively sound. The saw oscillators have a decay envelope each so each oscillator can produce an individually changing dynamic waveform. On top of that, a unique feature of FI I., foldover distortion can be applied on each oscillator separately that can produce sounds with incredibly rich overtones.
The filter can be 12 dB/oct or 24 dB/oct and emulates the classic Mini-type filter.
An effect section is included with time modulation effects.
Future Impact has a built-in tuner from firmware version 2.03.
While distortion effect of Deep Impact runs at 32 kHz sampling rate, it is 128 kHz on the FI I., giving much cleaner distortion, free of any digital artifacts.
And Future Impact now equipped with MIDI IN and MIDI OUT as well.
- Any of the 90 user programs can be edited by the user on a desktop computer editor
(Windows and Mac OS X versions are available). Programs can be saved, loaded and
archived on the computer through the MIDI connectors. A free library software will be
downloadable from our web page, and a sound program sharing service for the user community.
- Software updates can be uploaded into the FI through MIDI IN. While the FI contains
all the basic features listed here at the time of the product launch, software updates
will be not only bugfixes, but new features will be implemented, partly on requests and
ideas of users. These updates will be free of charge for all registered FI owners.
- Since FI includes a full featured analog modelling synthesizer, it is possible to use it
as a monophonic synthesizer module, driving it from a keyboard controller or a computer
through MIDI IN.
