Four knobs, four steps, six HP. On paper Tirana II is the simplest sequencer you could put in a rack, and in practice it is one of the most quietly capable small modules Xaoc ever made, because almost everything about how those four steps play back can be pushed around from outside.

Each step has a knob for its voltage and a button. Hold a button and you can set that step to repeat, staying put for a chosen number of clocks, or to ratchet, firing several gates inside a single clock. Four steps with repeats gets you up to sixteen, which is the difference between a fixed four-note loop and something that actually breathes. Any step's gate can be muted while its voltage still plays, so you can build rests without losing the melody underneath.

The three CV inputs are where it stops being a toy. Direction is voltage controlled, so the sequence can run forwards, backwards or be flipped mid-phrase by a modulation source. Transposition is voltage controlled, so you can shift the whole pattern up or down by patching in another CV. Reset is voltage controlled too, with a built-in clock divider on the clock input so the sequence can run at a fraction of your master clock. Patch a slow LFO into direction and transposition and a four-step pattern stops repeating in any obvious way.

The rear board carries a jumper block for the output range: unipolar or bipolar, and small range or full range. That is what makes this useful as a general modulation source and voltage bank rather than only a pitch sequencer, because bipolar into a filter cutoff or a VCA behaves very differently from the same knobs driving an oscillator.

Finally, the chaining. Multiple Tirana units daisy-chain over the IN and OUT headers on the back to form one longer sequencer, with the master unit taking the clock, reset, transpose and direction patches for the whole chain. Two units is eight steps, three is twelve, and with repeats on top the arithmetic gets interesting quickly.

One thing to know before buying: there is no display and no pattern memory. You set voltages by turning knobs and you tune them by ear; nothing is saved when you power down. Programming repeats and ratchets is a button-hold gesture rather than a menu, so the manual is worth ten minutes of your time before you decide the module is confusing. And there is one CV output, so a melody plus a separate modulation line means a second unit. This is a utility module that rewards patching, not a workstation.

This is the second revision, with the updated circuit and more powerful firmware over the 2014 original. The rear board is marked REV. 05-2017.

I have a second Tirana II available. If you want both, message me before buying: chained together they make an eight-step sequencer, which is what the chaining headers exist for, and I would rather they go to someone who will use them that way. Priced better as a pair than as two singles.

Condition: very good. The panel is clean with no rack rash and the legending is fully intact. A few of the knob caps show light surface marks from handling, visible in the photos; nothing structural, and the knobs turn smoothly with all four buttons clicking positively. The rear board is clean, with the chaining headers and range jumpers as they left the factory.

Included: the original Xaoc box, a ribbon cable, two mounting screws and the Xaoc sticker.

Specs: 6HP wide, 40 mm deep. Current draw 30 mA on both +12V and -12V. Clock, reset, direction and transposition inputs, gate out and CV out, all 3.5 mm. Unipolar/bipolar and small/full range jumpers on the rear board. Chaining headers (IN and OUT) on the rear. Made in the European Union by Xaoc Devices.

Shipping from the Netherlands, tracked. Offers welcome.