ADDAC System 112S (2022–)

A handheld granular time machine with a five-minute memory and a mind of its own

Overview

It starts with a flicker on a tiny OLED screen—a waveform blinking into existence, then fracturing into a thousand shimmering fragments. You’re not just hearing sound; you’re watching it come apart at the seams. The ADDAC System 112S isn’t another Eurorack module you tuck into a case and forget. It’s a standalone granular processor that fits in your hands but thinks in galaxies, a portable version of the sprawling 45HP ADDAC112 designed for desktop experimentation, live improvisation, or slipping into a backpack for a train ride full of sonic alchemy. If the original 112 was a laboratory, the 112S is the field kit—stripped down, self-contained, and ready to turn ambient noise, voice memos, or synth drones into something alien and beautiful.

What makes the 112S special isn’t just that it does granular synthesis well—it’s that it makes the process feel immediate, almost physical. Most granular tools bury you in menus or demand a forest of patch cables to unlock their potential. The 112S, by contrast, puts nearly everything at your fingertips: record, overdub, scrub, pitch-shift, and disintegrate audio with a handful of knobs and a responsive screen that shows you exactly where the grains are dancing. You don’t need a full modular system to make it sing. Plug in a mic, a phone, a synth, or just let it eat its own output, and within seconds you’re knee-deep in evolving textures, glitchy stutters, or lush, shimmering pads that hang in the air like fog. The workflow is so intuitive it feels like cheating—until you realize how deep the rabbit hole goes.

This is not a toy, though it’s easy to pick up like one. It’s a serious tool for sound design, built around a 5-minute stereo buffer that dwarfs most standalone samplers in its class. That buffer feeds both a traditional looper and a full-featured granular engine, letting you record a phrase and then slice it into microscopic grains, each controllable in size, pitch, position, and randomness. You can freeze a moment and stretch it into infinity, or scatter fragments across the stereo field like shrapnel. The screen doesn’t just display data—it’s a performance surface, showing the waveform, playhead, and individual grains in real time, so you can see the chaos you’re conducting. It’s rare for a piece of gear to be equally useful to ambient composers, noise artists, and experimental beat-makers, but the 112S pulls it off by refusing to pick a side.

Specifications

Key Features

Granular Engine with Real-Time Visual Feedback

The heart of the 112S isn’t just its ability to generate grains—it’s how clearly it lets you see and shape them. Most granular processors operate like black boxes: you tweak parameters and hope for the best. The 112S breaks that mold with an OLED display that maps the entire audio buffer, showing the waveform, playhead, and individual grains as pulsing dots. Turn the grain position knob and you watch the playhead crawl; increase grain density and the screen fills with flickering points of light. This visual feedback transforms granular synthesis from a guessing game into a tactile, almost sculptural process. You’re not just hearing the effect of randomness—you’re watching it bloom across the buffer, and that changes how you interact with it. The secondary deviation knobs for each parameter (grain size, pitch, position) let you dial in controlled chaos, adding subtle wobble or full-on stochastic mayhem with a twist.

Standalone Flexibility Without Compromise

While the 112S is derived from the Eurorack 112, it doesn’t feel like a watered-down version. It retains the full 5-minute buffer, the same granular engine, and nearly all the CV control options—just repackaged into a self-contained unit. You don’t need a case, a power supply, or even a computer to use it. Plug in a pair of headphones and a microphone, and you’re off. The dual audio inputs (1/4" and 3.5mm) make it easy to connect anything from synths to smartphones, and the headphone output is clean and powerful enough for late-night exploration. The inclusion of CV and trigger inputs means it can still integrate into a modular setup, but it’s equally at home on a desk, a café table, or a festival stage. The SD card slot isn’t just for saving presets—it’s a way to preload samples, swap banks mid-performance, or back up your creations. It’s rare for a standalone unit to offer this level of integration between portability and deep functionality.

Looper as Creative Catalyst

The looper section is more than a convenience—it’s the foundation of the entire system. Unlike simple loop pedals that just record and play back, the 112S’s looper is designed to feed the granular engine. You can record a phrase, pitch-shift it, overdub layers, and then immediately start granulating it, all without stopping. The loop can be triggered manually or via CV, and multiple loops can be stored in the buffer and selected on the fly. This makes it a powerful tool for live performance, where you might build a drone, freeze it, and then spend the next few minutes tearing it apart with granular processing. The ability to scrub through the loop manually, or have it advance via external clock, gives you precise control over timing and texture. And because you can mix the dry input, the loop, and the granular output independently, you can create rich, evolving soundscapes that blend source material with its fragmented echoes.

Historical Context

The 112S arrived in 2022 at a moment when modular synthesis had already embraced granular processing, but mostly through complex, menu-heavy modules like Mutable Instruments’ Beads or Qu-Bit’s Nebulae. These were powerful, but often intimidating—tools that rewarded deep study over immediate play. ADDAC System, a Portuguese company known for its bold designs and experimental ethos, saw an opening: what if granular synthesis could be as intuitive as turning a knob? The original 112, released in 2021, was their answer—a dual-module Eurorack powerhouse that prioritized hands-on control and visual feedback. The 112S took that concept and made it accessible to a wider audience, removing the barrier of needing a full modular system. It arrived alongside a growing interest in standalone, portable sound design tools—from Teenage Engineering’s OP-Z to Critter & Guitari’s ETC—but stood apart by focusing not on sequencing or synthesis, but on the manipulation of recorded audio in real time. In a landscape increasingly dominated by software, the 112S offered a refreshingly tactile alternative: a hardware instrument that didn’t try to do everything, but did one thing exceptionally well.

Collectibility & Value

The 112S isn’t a vintage piece yet—production began in 2022—but it’s already carving out a niche among experimental musicians and sound designers who value its unique blend of immediacy and depth. On the used market, prices hover around $550–$650 depending on condition, with units in mint shape and including the original box and power supply commanding closer to the high end. It’s not a flipping item like some rare synths, but it’s also not losing value—its utility keeps demand steady. The most common issues reported are firmware-related: occasional crashes, glitches during SD card access, or instability when using certain CV combinations. These were noted in early firmware versions (pre-1.5), and many have been addressed in updates, but buyers should verify the unit is running the latest firmware before purchasing. The OLED screen is durable, but physical damage to the casing or input jacks is the most frequent repair need, especially for units used heavily in live settings. Maintenance is relatively straightforward—no tubes to replace or belts to change—but keeping the firmware updated is essential. For those wary of software-dependent hardware, the 112S is a reminder that even the most powerful digital tools can have quirks. That said, when it works, it works beautifully—and the creative payoff justifies the occasional hiccup.

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