Muff's Modules & More

andrewF · Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 2:25 am Post subject:

I doubt the Dreamboat is copied off Ian. Before it came out I sent Dan (of Snazzy FX) dozens of chaos circuits pulled from academic databases and he built and tested a lot of them. I would expect the dreamboat is some sort of mix from the circuits Dan experimented with. Judging by the number of emails & messages he sent me when he was working on chaos circuits he worked very hard to develop his own module. There was no need for him to copy Ian and he doesn't seem like the kind of guy to do that.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of other chaos circuits out there, many can be modded to use in synths and can be a lot of fun or at least interesting.
IMHO Ian's circuits are simply the best chaos modules for synth use as they were designed from scratch up for that purpose and Ian knows what he is doing.

btw i have built the Jerkster, two simple chaos modules (early CHAQUO) and the Chaotica. Most of my gigs end up with me sitting down and tweaking the Jerkster, that thing is capable of producing the most sublime voltages ever eek!

thetwlo · Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 2:31 am Post subject:

thanks Andrew!
that helps quite a bit! The Dreamboat is nice--and very compact! But I think I need to build a Jerkster or wait for Chaotica. To me the Jerkster looked more interesting...
thanks!

andrewF · Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 2:35 am Post subject:

no worries
ooh! build the Jerkster! thumbs up

Mongo1 · Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 8:01 am Post subject:

thermionicjunky · Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 8:38 am Post subject:

andrewF · Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 10:46 am Post subject:

[quote="Mongo1"]

daverj · Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 11:23 am Post subject:

That looks like an electron microscope photo of a duck billed platypus mite. hihi

russma · Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 11:32 am Post subject:

Indeed. Awesome visualization.

Is anyone working on a 5U/MU version of Chaotica?

frijitz · Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 11:33 am Post subject:

frijitz · Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 12:15 pm Post subject:

Chua's circuit was the first significant circuit implementation of dynamic chaos. It's a classic prototype, and has been studied extensively. It's main drawbacks are that it uses an inductor, and that it is virtually impossible to tune in frequency.

My circuits are based on the ideas of JC Sprott, who showed how to implement chaos in inductorless circuits using opamp integrators and simple semiconductor nonlinearities. It is quite easy to add voltage control to this kind of circuit, basically using circuit block akin to those in VCFs and VCAs. Details are in the chaos section of my website.

Ian

frijitz · Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 12:58 pm Post subject:

frijitz · Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 1:11 pm Post subject:

bouzoukijoe1 · Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 4:46 pm Post subject:

I'm really fascinated by the Chaotica and want to get one, but baffled by how it works. is it sort of the equivalent of a three dimensional control where the third dimension is a vector instead of a scalar value?

I'm trying to figure out if the main use I might have for a Chaotica (apart from audio generation) is maybe simultaneous low frequency control of a set of three parameters to create a sound, instead of fiddling with one knob at a time, or two at a time in the case of a joystick.

I'm drastically simplifying, but is it somewhat like a autonomous three-dimensional joystick with a touch of random?

any reading links would be appreciated. sorry, I'm not very scientifically/mathematically inclined.

Mongo1 · Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 4:53 pm Post subject:

There's a great book called "Chaos" by James Gleick - It's a must-read IMO

Gary

bouzoukijoe1 · Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 5:07 pm Post subject:

thanks Mongo1. do you know if the book explains what third-order chaos is? I'm still tying to wrap my head around even Double Well as it relates to synthesis but all the text I've been finding is too general and I don't see how fits in synthesis yet.

and to be honest, those phase plane plots are neat but confuse me about how to musically use a chaos circuit.

frijitz · Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 6:06 pm Post subject:

bouzoukijoe1 · Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 7:01 pm Post subject:

yes definitely, but I'm a little confused by the phase plots. I can only understand things linearly in terms of x/y sort of values. how does the circular stuff translate rhythmically if you have to sync to 4/4 music for instance? sorry if I'm a little dense.

also the two eye plots, still not sure how that converts to standard parameters like pitch etc.

andrewF · Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 8:52 pm Post subject:

Most 'scope images for chaotic circuits compare 2 outputs to obtain the classic images - butterfly wings, multiple wells, etc. It looks good but doesn't really tell you what the individual outputs are doing.

If it helps this vid shows a Jerk circuit, you can see the three outputs (channels 1-3) respond to a variety of input signals from a LFO (channel 4) and a bit of knob-tweaking. This circuit is very crude compared to Ian's elegant designs but is still quite useful as a CV source.

thetwlo · Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 8:57 pm Post subject:

loving the Chaotica! had to give up the Chaquo. At first was disappointed, 10 mins later, love it! still miss the chaQuo a bit, but don't have room for both.
For me it's an essential module.

bouzoukijoe1 · Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 9:00 pm Post subject:

I think I'm just going to re-read it a few more times and maybe it will just sink in eventually.

oops, posted this on an old tab before seeing andrewF's post. thanks that's awesome. I think it's a little easier to make sense of the patterns that way. I think the Chaotica is just a more powerful version of the Jerk right?