Official Binary Zone tips thread

Kwote · Post by **Kwote** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 11:14 am

well i got lucky last week and snagged a Binary Zone on ebay!!!

anyway, it's super pimp but i know i haven't explored much in the one session i've had with it so i figure we should have an official BZ tips thread.

calling all BZ owners.. ahem.. plord.. cough.. ahem

plord · Post by **plord** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 11:47 am

First, set all the knobs to the 0 point (9 o'clock per Blacet Style). Feed it to an Oscillator's v/oct input and make sure your 0 is really a 0 (I'm not home so I can't look, but I believe there is a trimmer for each knob). You should get a smooth tone with no wobbles from the VCO.

Next, to get a feel for the range of the knobs, set the internal clock to a medium tempo (or feed it 16ths from a known clock source or something). Set the range switch to 1. Turn the top knob up, and your Osc should start to wobble in pitch. Sweep this pot all the way up and down and you'll get a sense of the pot range effect on pitch (and therefore, on voltage), you should see an octave swing on this setting, with the pitch moving every beat. For the purposes of our testing, we want no lag, so now is a good time to cycle through the lag button's 4 positions to hear the effect there. it just goes through the 4 modes in order, stop when it's all stuttery with no portamento.

Next, switch to the 2.5V and 5V settings. 2.5 and 5 octaves, right?

Ok, now back to the 1 octave range, zero out the top divider knob, and hit the second. Notice how the pitch only shifts every TWO clocks now. flip the range switch to the two other settings, etc. The rest of the divider pots work the same way, except they halve the frequency. So the /8 pot swings every 4 clocks, the /16 swings every 8 clocks, etc. The bottom pot, all by itself, swings every 32 beats; two bars up, two bars down if you clock it with 16ths.

Ok, that's the basic one-pot-per function, should make sense. Now start stacking pots. The voltages will...hm, I want to say they will sum but I'm not sure how the range switch may limit that. So lets find out, set to 1 octave range, turn the /2 pot all the way up, and the /4 pot all the way down. Hear what it's doing? Now turn both the /2 and /4 pots all the way up. Hear that? You should have something that is a high tone for 6 beats then a low tone for 2, right?

Ok, pause a second. We've been driving pitch, but it's just a voltage. So, take the voltage out of the BZ and move it from the Oscilaltor to the GATE input on your Hex Zone, and drive the osc with the Hex Zone. I think the Hex will run when it receives a gate signal above some low threshold. So turn up the /4 pot and the Hex Zone should drive the osc for two note, then rest for two notes, then run, etc. BUT: I may be confusing the range switch effect on the BZ, and it is possible that the Hex will run continuously; If it does, then use the next pot *down* on the BZ to add in a little negative voltage and you should be able to get a pattern going.

Pop Quiz: using the knowledge gained so far, adjust the BZ knobs to create Hex Zone patterns that go 1) 4 beats on, 4 beats rest, and 2) 6 beats on, 2 beats rest.

Ok, take the Hex Zone out, and run the BZ through your Scale Quantizer to the osc. Set the BZ for 5 octave range to give the Scale Quant more to chew on. NOW you can add some lag

Staircase mania!

One final tip for now: you can take the inverted out from the BZ, attenuate it a bit with a VCA or passive atten, and use it to alter filter cutoff on a patch where the BZ is controlling osc pitch. Higher pitch, lower cutoff; then as the pitch drops the filter will open and reveal all that harmonic goodness you were hiding from the high notes.

That ought to keep you busy

parasitk · Post by **parasitk** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 11:52 am

Stick your VCO square wave into the clock input, and start twisting the BZs knobs for sub-sub-sub octaves!

I love the BZ.

Kwote · Post by **Kwote** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 11:55 am

nice. keep em comin. the more busy the better!

BananaPlug · Post by **BananaPlug** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 12:15 pm

I like the BZ a lot. As a pattern source it's a third alternative to sequences and noise/S&H. Has other handy utilitarian uses too.

viewtopic.php?p=35943&highlight=binary#35943
viewtopic.php?p=25744&highlight=binary#25744
viewtopic.php?p=21406&highlight=binary#21406
viewtopic.php?p=21103&highlight=binary#21103

Gloworm · Post by **Gloworm** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 7:28 am

I 'tame' it with a Burst Generator by patching Binary Zones clock out into trigger on the BG and duration out of the BG into gate RST on the BZ. By speeding up the BGs clock and adjusting Pulses numbers you can get a more controlled looped, less random sequence which is sometimes useful for me because I dont have any other sequencers like the Hex.

DGTom · Post by **DGTom** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 11:12 am

Awesome thread!!!

Kwote · Post by **Kwote** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:32 pm

plord wrote:Ok, pause a second. We've been driving pitch, but it's just a voltage. So, take the voltage out of the BZ and move it from the Oscilaltor to the GATE input on your Hex Zone, and drive the osc with the Hex Zone. I think the Hex will run when it receives a gate signal above some low threshold. So turn up the /4 pot and the Hex Zone should drive the osc for two note, then rest for two notes, then run, etc. BUT: I may be confusing the range switch effect on the BZ, and it is possible that the Hex will run continuously; If it does, then use the next pot *down* on the BZ to add in a little negative voltage and you should be able to get a pattern going.

this is my favorite use of the BZ thus far. it didn't quite work how you described but i got some good shit going. what i'd really love now is to have another BZ so i could mix the voltages together and get even more trippy patterns. to sorta satisfy this i mixed the BZ with the Noisering and it came out kinda cool. i also mixed the BZ & NR into the MW for quantized pitch and had some fun with that.

my only gripe is i can't seem to get happy sounding melodies out of the BZ. that's not a bad thing it just means i have to lean more on the Hexzone for proper sequencing. which is fine. oddly enough the first night i used the BZ i ended up programming some good major pentatonic stuff on the Hex. it completely didn't go well with the BZ that was driving another Osc at the same time but on it's own it's lovely. i'm finally feeling inspired with the modular again.

parasitk · Post by **parasitk** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:34 pm

BZ into MW with the Scale Quantizer will get you all kinds of melodies, happy or otherwise (I usually aim for "otherwise"

)

Kwote · Post by **Kwote** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:36 pm

parasitk wrote:BZ into MW with the Scale Quantizer will get you all kinds of melodies, happy or otherwise (I usually aim for "otherwise" )

yeah but that's what i'm saying though. all i'm getting with that patch is otherwise

it don't matter though. time and place. like i said i'm going to get heavy on gate patterns. the BZ eats that shit right up.

parasitk · Post by **parasitk** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:56 pm

Maybe you're channeling your darkest soul or some crap.

cavage · Post by **cavage** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 3:27 pm

very usefull thread !!!

are they other "tutorial" threads alike on other modules ???

cant seem to find them as clearly mentionned

could be a wonderfull add to the forum to propose threads like that per modules !

love it !

i am learning from sctrach and this is exactly what i was looking for at forums on modulars in the begining !

thx !

parasitk · Post by **parasitk** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 3:55 pm

cavage wrote:very usefull thread !!!
are they other "tutorial" threads alike on other modules ???

cant seem to find them as clearly mentionned

Here's one:

EG1 - http://muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=212

Also: http://www.wikihost.org/w/blacet/start

Kwote · Post by **Kwote** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 6:07 pm

cavage wrote:very usefull thread !!!
are they other "tutorial" threads alike on other modules ???

cant seem to find them as clearly mentionned

could be a wonderfull add to the forum to propose threads like that per modules !

love it !

i am learning from sctrach and this is exactly what i was looking for at forums on modulars in the begining !

thx !

the best thing you can do is what i did. ask for help

Cat-A-Tonic · Post by **Cat-A-Tonic** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 7:01 pm

The Binary Zone is great when you want to mush a pattern around
and mold it into something you like. (most of the time)
In that regard it is of a similar philosophy to the Klee,
but with entirely different implementation.
The Hex Zone, on the other hand, is much better when you want to carefully compose a song structure that can be saved and recalled by memory.

One of my 'go to' patches is to send one of the Binary Zone voltage
outputs (inverted or regular) to the Window Comparator input.
This extracts gate, inverted gate, and trigger from the sequence.

Send the Binary Zone clock out to the Hex Zone clock in.
I much prefer using the Binary Zone as the main clock source
because it has the dedicated knob for fine tuning right in your face
instead of having to dig into the Hex Zone's clock with the rotary encoder.

Then you can mush your way into awesome drum patterns on the Binary Zone
that compliment your Hex Zone melodies and sequential switch action.

Add a MetalBox Divider & Logic and be in sequencing heaven.

Kwote · Post by **Kwote** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 11:04 pm

Cat-A-Tonic wrote:The Binary Zone is great when you want to mush a pattern around
and mold it into something you like. (most of the time)
In that regard it is of a similar philosophy to the Klee,
but with entirely different implementation.
The Hex Zone, on the other hand, is much better when you want to carefully compose a song structure that can be saved and recalled by memory.

One of my 'go to' patches is to send one of the Binary Zone voltage
outputs (inverted or regular) to the Window Comparator input.
This extracts gate, inverted gate, and trigger from the sequence.

Send the Binary Zone clock out to the Hex Zone clock in.
I much prefer using the Binary Zone as the main clock source
because it has the dedicated knob for fine tuning right in your face
instead of having to dig into the Hex Zone's clock with the rotary encoder.

Then you can mush your way into awesome drum patterns on the Binary Zone
that compliment your Hex Zone melodies and sequential switch action.

Add a MetalBox Divider & Logic and be in sequencing heaven.

dude that sounds sweet. it's funny but i knew as soon as i started jammin with the BZ that i'd have to get the WC next. probably next month.

cavage · Post by **cavage** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 12:04 pm

Kwote wrote:
cavage wrote:very usefull thread !!!
are they other "tutorial" threads alike on other modules ???

cant seem to find them as clearly mentionned

could be a wonderfull add to the forum to propose threads like that per modules !

love it !

i am learning from sctrach and this is exactly what i was looking for at forums on modulars in the begining !

thx !
the best thing you can do is what i did. ask for help

sure i will
but on other hand i love to get lost into some modules i dont really understand...then when i search for advice or help i suddenly understand things and ideas start to flow very fast

for sure the modular comunity on forums is one of the most helpfull and "quiet" i've had to surf !

love the BZ byu the way
a lot

for now i dont get it how to make it work with the hex ...
so i test, and come here to read, and test
all this is FUN anyway

DGTom · Post by **DGTom** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 9:40 pm

Just gotta thank you guys.

This thread made getting to grips with the BZ so much easier, only problem I've had is getting it to do as parasitk suggested with driving the clock from a Square wave, I'm just doin it wrong I bet.

Cat-A-Tonic; great tip re; the Window Comparator. I was feeding the inv. out & using the gate outs to trigger EGs from differant 'parts' of my sequence, great!

chachi · Post by **chachi** » Sun Nov 03, 2019 3:18 pm

the plord post in this thread is so fire.

inspired me to also try the Frequency Divider as a voltage source and that too is incredible but different.

old is gold.

Cat-A-Tonic · Post by **Cat-A-Tonic** » Tue Nov 05, 2019 11:47 pm

Speaking of Binary Zones
here is a dual format sequencing rack featuring 2 of them.

chachi · Post by **chachi** » Wed Nov 06, 2019 12:37 am

Cat-A-Tonic wrote:Speaking of Binary Zones
here is a dual format sequencing rack featuring 2 of them.

that looks hella fun.

MUFF WIGGLER

MUFF WIGGLER

Official Binary Zone tips thread

Official Binary Zone tips thread