The Befaco ARK is a Eurorack groovebox developed jointly by Befaco and Tesseract Modular. It is designed as the central hub of a modular setup, combining a sequencer with drum and synth engines, samplers, CV generators and a digital mixer. It can also drive external modules, analog synths and MIDI instruments. It comes as one system in two parts: the 18 HP ARK-Core, which handles all DSP and signal routing, and the 22 HP ARK-Controller for note entry and step editing.
-
16-track canvas: each track holds a CV generator, drum voice, synth voice or sampler, with one device plus one effect per track depending on CPU load
-
Wide engine set: kick, snare, cymbal, tom and FM percussion, acid, FM bells, additive, ladder and supersaw voices, East and West Coast oscillators, Karplus-Strong and modal physical models
-
Sampling: RAM sampler, SD sampler, loop slicer and granular player, with 8 banks of 128 samples
-
Harmony tools: chord progressions and scales shape generated melodies, and the CV generators follow the internal harmony so external voices stay in key
-
Modular I/O: 8 CV/audio outputs, 8 gate outputs, 6 routable CV inputs, plus TRS, USB-A and USB-C MIDI
The sequencer offers probability and randomness, chance and conditions per step or per pattern, slides, rolls, divisions and triplets that can be forced on or off while playing. There is also an advanced note repeater. Devices, effects and the mixer are all linked to the sequencer, so you can record gestures in real time and set parameter locks on individual steps. To change a value across several steps, hold those steps and turn the encoder. Any parameter can be routed to one of 16 internal modulation sources or arpeggiators in two moves.
For arrangement, ARK stores 255 projects with 64 patterns each. Song Mode chains patterns across 16 parts, and 16 scenes give instant sound recall. Incoming audio, MIDI and CV can be turned into melodies and sequences that follow the current scale and progression. ARK can also generate and record MIDI and play back MIDI files. A 16 × 2 × 2 stereo mixer with reverb, delay and dynamics sits at the end of the chain.
The Controller uses hot-swappable mechanical keyboard buttons. It can be mounted in a different row from the Core, or placed in a 3D-printed external enclosure connected by a single USB cable that carries power and data. The Core's front-panel USB port also accepts USB drives for backups and sample import.