ERICA SYNTHS Bassline DB-01

Riga-based Erica Synths’ enviable line of Eurorack modules encompasses everything from the petite Pico series, whose 3HP modules are designed to provide maximum potential but take up minimal space, to the all-analogue Fusion series, whose vacuum tubes are placed front and centre. Its recent output, however, has seen the Latvian pioneer peer beyond the Eurorack format and set its sights on the desktop.

The latest in its array of bedroom-friendly products is the Bassline DB-01, which packs Erica’s signature sound into a compact desktop synthesiser equipped with an analogue engine, a transistor-based sub-oscillator, a syncable LFO, a 64-step sequencer and more. To understand its place in the world, though, we must rewind the analogue clock a few decades.

Back in the early-1980s, Japanese innovator Roland had its crosshairs firmly fixed on Nippon’s burgeoning home karaoke market. Meanwhile, its