PlayFader is a colourful two-channel CV and gate performance looper

PlayFader, a new two-channel CV performance looper built by Play All Day, was unveiled for the first time on Saturday at Machina Bristonica 2023, a popular synth exhibition in Bristol.

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Set to start shipping “before next year”, says the brand’s founder, Andrew Hadjiantoni, PlayFader is a portable looper designed for real-time manipulation and looping of CV signals. It’s the first product set to be launched by the brand, which usually specialises in providing social music tech events, holidays and ‘sound walks’.

It’s “a hands-on and expressive controller for CV that can be used in the studio to generate ideas, taken out live as a performance tool and also great for just taking round to a jam session where you can plug it into anything that accepts control voltage.” Further explains Hadjiantoni. “It’s great for synthesizers and keyboards, we’ve also set optimal CV ranges to play perfectly with every guitar effect pedal that has an expression input. With full CV and Midi sync capability, it also ties your set-up together with the sync needs.”

PlayFader’s colourful interface features eight colour-coded buttons and two sliders for a stripped-back, simplified operation. Each channel comes equipped with CV and Gate outputs, manipulated using the accompanying faders and buttons. The looper enables synchronised signal looping, accommodating unquantised gates and synced ratchets. It also offers a latch function for dynamic CV adjustments alongside ongoing gate patterns.

The PlayFader offers customisation through user scales, including voltage ranges of 2, 3, 5, and 8 volts, with potential accelerometer integration in the future, says the brand. PlayFader boasts an array of connectivity options, such as CV/Gate outs and clock in/out via CV and MIDI.

The Latch feature lets you override the recorded CV in the buffer and generate a CV value based on the live Fader position while the gate pattern continues. This enables dynamic manipulation of CV signals, opening up cool creative options. Users can easily switch between the live Fader-generated CV and the previously recorded pattern by toggling Latch on and off.

The ability to loop sounds on the fly has always been a beneficial feature for performers of an electronic ilk. More tools today are providing more experimental features for loopers, however. Recently, musician and developer Jonatan Krogh launched Cantor, a free software tool described as a “complete self-contained Looping, Sampling and Sound design software”. It’s for musicians who “don’t like computers”, says Krogh.

Play All Day’s PlayFader is available for pre-order for $420/£345/€399, with shipping beginning in early 2024. Find out more at goplayallday.com.

Sadly, Machina Bristronica has come to an end. However, keep an eye on machinabris.wpengine.com to find out information about next year’s edition.