ALM / Busy Circuits has given its do-everything pattern, clock, melody, and rhythm maker a next-gen overhaul with new features. It’s a nice way to celebrate ten years. Meet Pamela’s PRO Workout.
Way back in 2012, Pamela’s Workout launched the sleeper cult-hit module that … originally was justgoing to be a clock and function generator. 2016 brought Pamela’s NEW Workout, and a series of updates added loads of features. I’ll let them summarize: it was then “a groove box capable of creating Euclidean & randomised rhythms, a generative music maker turning random control voltages into looped quantised melodies or endless generative melodic sequences.” (Basically, Eurorack users to modules are as Alton Brown is to food gadgets – multifunction devices win over unitaskers.)
Well, now meet the PRO version. It’s still in the form factor that made the other Workouts popular, but with new features:
- Dual core processing: at the heart of this, an upgraded core, with increased timing and output precision to match
- A bigger, high-res display (with color options, even) – essential to seeing clearly all those multiple functions
- New wave shapes: ratchet, trapezoid, parabola, 2 new envelopes
- Cross output modulation: link together outputs to expand CV out possibilities
- Flex operations: micro-timings, bouncing ball and accel./deccel, etc.
- Up to 4 CV inputs
Okay, that cross output modulation is the one that’s maybe not entirely clear when you first read it. Basically, you get a whole set of Cross Operations – your selected output can be influenced by the value of either another output or a CV input. That means the module doubles as mixer, logic operator, sample and hold, or parameter reset. Here are all the functions:
- Mix
- Mask (source output of zero makes the active output zero)
- Mult (think ring mod)
- Hold (source greater than 0 freezes the active output)
- S&H
- Add
- Sub
- OR
- XOR
- AND
- NOT(source output greater than 0 sets active output to 0 – so the inverse of Mask)
- SEED a rising trigger resets random seeds on the active output
FLEX is also a set of new operators – HUMAN timing, swing, ramps and humps, invert and quantize. You can save custom timing scales, too.
It’s a devilishly clever module, and honestly, even software makers might do well to look at some of the ideas here. That puts Pamela again up with modules like Ornament & Crime for multi-function operation. Now, I’m sure some folks will unload their current module but… I mean, it’s not hard to justify having more than one.
There’s also an argument against this kind of encapsulated design – they’re not as legible as more traditional modules. But for software lovers and people who like cramming functionality into small amounts of rack space, those factors win handily.
Here’s the demo for you:
