Muff's Modules & More

jjr · Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 5:38 pm Post subject: video synth with CV audio filters

hello friends,
so I bought a monorocket 9b case to power and house my LZX synth. Mostly I want to fill it with LZX gear - but I do want to put a few audio modules inside of it.

I was thinking a doepfer quad-lfo, (and maybe one VCO not sure from who --or if I should )
and then maybe 3 awesome / strange / filters

got any advice as to what would be good audio filters/modules to get in here ? or any thoughts on best bang for the buck in terms of space and sound ?

side question -- instead of a VCO should I be trying to - process or divide the lzx signal down into a range that can be filtered?

( I also own a frac rack synth - 2vcos, 2 lfo, ffilter, adsr, vca, wavetable ossilator, digital noise gen )

johnnywoods

nickciontea · Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:01 am Post subject:

personally i haven't found anything that syncs as well as the hertz donut. syncs straight and hard right off the vsg. and you get 2 oscillators.. one with wavefolding(beautiful). i have 2 hertz donuts in my rig and always using. when bored use the cross modulation and tracking controls

the other modules most helpful out of euro imo would be an envelope follower and quadrature lfo. both of these are pretty inexpensive game changers from doepfer. although i agree with johnny about the dr. octature.

i don't have much for audio processing in my video rig. just envelopes, sequencer, and oscillator

lizlarsen · Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 12:45 pm Post subject:

As far as processors, I know MrDys has had some fun with various waveshapers like the Doepfer distortion...

As far as other envelopes and modulation sources, MATHS and the Doepfer A143-9 Quadrature VCLFO see the most use in my rig right now.

jjr · Posted: Mon May 07, 2012 7:22 pm Post subject: on maths

what are some of the more interesting ways maths can be used with the LZX? Lars what do you like to use it for? How about the Quadrature VCLFO - how is it used differently in relation to a standard LFO?
thanks
jjr

lizlarsen · Posted: Mon May 07, 2012 7:32 pm Post subject:

I use Maths most often as a convenient Dual LFO and Audio-Rate scrolling modulation source, sometimes cross-modulating the two channels. It has attenuators on the outputs, so I can scale it down to an approximate 1V range. The Exp/Log/Lin control is really useful for shaping the character of the animation. My second-most often use is as an envelope follower, for processing external audio signals before then passing them on to modulate something in the video patch.

For the Quadrature VCLFO, you can use the different outputs to modulate RGB at the same time! It works great if you feed the different outputs to different things in the same patch -- because the outputs will be all the same frequency, but at different phase relationships to each other. Good for generating synchronous animatinos.

Arturo00 · Posted: Mon May 07, 2012 7:44 pm Post subject:

Matos · Posted: Mon May 07, 2012 9:43 pm Post subject:

The WMD syncrodyne is amazing. Lovely filter that makes video look awesome. Syncs to verticals and horizontal. Wave folding, responds to 1v per octave. It's a beast. Intellejel Spock does some cool stuff to video via its logic magic. Borg filter is pretty for smearing out video. I use the WMD gamma as a fm modulator all the time. Really nice patterns come from it.

bitSmasher · Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 6:46 am Post subject:

jjr · Posted: Thu May 10, 2012 10:55 pm Post subject:

cool
I just bought the Dr. Octature it seems like a pretty interesting unity and something that will fit nicely into my video synth. So far besides LZX gear the modules I have in my eurorack synth ( not that it matters but whatever) are the

4ms rotate clock divider
doepfer sequential switch
Dr. Octature
doepfer sample and hold

it seems like that Marble Physic unity from addac might be pretty intresting with video ?

also recently I realized that my Morphing Terrarium solid synch from the LZX ( I guess cause its digital) and makes some really interesting kind of fog /melt patterns _ i guess the hertz donut is the same - does anyone know if the Piston Honda is also this way ?

jjr · Posted: Thu May 10, 2012 11:01 pm Post subject:

oh ok - another question -- If my goal is to buy another 2 seq switches
is there a different unit that I should look at this is like a bank of switches that might give me more bang for the buck ? - obviously the goal here is to use with video

lizlarsen · Posted: Thu May 10, 2012 11:27 pm Post subject:

I really want to pick up a Morphing Terrarium.
I don't know if there's anything more straightforward and bang-for-your-buck than the Doepfer SEQ switches right now.

johnnywoods · Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 8:49 am Post subject:

also keep in mind that the doepfer seq switches will not pass full-bandwidth video.
if toppobrillo's video-bandwidth mixiplexer becomes a reality, that would be a nice alternative!

jjr · Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 5:04 pm Post subject:

johnny - so with the sequential switches your saying that the image is degraded some when run through them? I've never noticed that before but I havent been looking for it.

lizlarsen · Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 11:23 am Post subject:

The Doepfer seq switch isn't optimized for video use, but if you can run video through it and not see a noticeable blurriness, that's really good!! It probably just uses an analog switch directly, rather than any input/output buffering, and in this case that probably works to your advantage.

jjr · Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 10:09 pm Post subject:

ok so I got my dr. octature - its a pretty cool lfo
but there is something I wish it could do - that I probably need a utility module for but I dont know what that would be

I would like to be able to make the LFO sweeps go from 0 -5 positive
vs. its current -5 to -5 swing ( or whatever its output is)
so that I could have like one video Waveform move then the other - vs. both always moving
is there a good utility module for this ?

lizlarsen · Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 10:40 pm Post subject:

What you're asking about is called half-wave rectification. Voltage Interface I is good for this. It will clip anything below 0V. So if you feed in your +/-5V source, but leave the bias set at 0 (CCW), everything below 0 and above 1 gets cut off.

jjr · Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 11:24 pm Post subject:

lars
this is great info. so I would adjust the bias all the way to 1 and then attenuate the level control until neither light turns red?

jjr · Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 11:26 pm Post subject:

I would actually looooveee to see a demo of the voltage interface 1 -
I've always felt like I didn't fully understand the module or that I was under using it.

lizlarsen · Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 11:26 pm Post subject:

Well say you have a +/-5V CV going in and you want to cut off the negative portion entirely, and then scale the remainder to 0-to-1V you would:

1) Set Bias to 0 (fully CCW.)
2) Adjust gain knob until the top LED just turns off.
3) Bottom LED will be RED, that means the negative portion is getting removed. That's what you want.

Make sense?