Xaoc Batumi: Yes? No?

[studio460]

I got Batumi but I also have Doepfer quad lfo which I use more often as straightforward option for modulation

Tell me more! I mean, in this modern landscape of excellent and reasonably priced quad devices offered by Xaoc and Intellijel (e.g., Batumi, Zadar, Quadrax, Quad VCA), it's often easy for us beginners to ignore any alternatives (for whatever reason).

https://www.modulargrid.net/e/doepfer-a-145-4
(or https://www.modulargrid.net/e/doepfer-a-145-4v)

it's cheap, it's small, it's quad, each channel has triangle and square outputs. if that's all you need then it's pretty hard to beat. i actually just ordered one of these to replace my batumi because i never use any of its fancy features.

Dang! That is cheap! I would've totally reconsidered my Batumi purchase has I read your post a bit earlier! It's great to hear about these "plain-vanilla" Doepfer modules that still do the trick from you guys!

[Dan S]

I got Batumi but I also have Doepfer quad lfo which I use more often as straightforward option for modulation

Tell me more! I mean, in this modern landscape of excellent and reasonably priced quad devices offered by Xaoc and Intellijel (e.g., Batumi, Zadar, Quadrax, Quad VCA), it's often easy for us beginners to ignore any alternatives (for whatever reason).

https://www.modulargrid.net/e/doepfer-a-145-4
(or https://www.modulargrid.net/e/doepfer-a-145-4v)

it's cheap, it's small, it's quad, each channel has triangle and square outputs. if that's all you need then it's pretty hard to beat. i actually just ordered one of these to replace my batumi because i never use any of its fancy features.

Keep in mind that the A-145-4 goes up only to 50 Hz, therefore not an option if you need audio rate.

[yhf]

I got Batumi but I also have Doepfer quad lfo which I use more often as straightforward option for modulation

Tell me more! I mean, in this modern landscape of excellent and reasonably priced quad devices offered by Xaoc and Intellijel (e.g., Batumi, Zadar, Quadrax, Quad VCA), it's often easy for us beginners to ignore any alternatives (for whatever reason).

https://www.modulargrid.net/e/doepfer-a-145-4
(or https://www.modulargrid.net/e/doepfer-a-145-4v)

it's cheap, it's small, it's quad, each channel has triangle and square outputs. if that's all you need then it's pretty hard to beat. i actually just ordered one of these to replace my batumi because i never use any of its fancy features.

I agree, it's a great module. I was considering the Batumi but got the A-145-4 instead as it does everything I need it to do.

[zer0trill]

love the discussion and being new to muffwiggler, i must show my respect to khyber for disagreeing to an overwhelmingly unanimous opinion of the batumi. i may be a few years later, however i love the looks of the batumi. i am still quite new to the modular world and am just getting my rack going. i have been enjoying the looks of the clep diaz, so i have a question for anyone with an answer; how do the batumi and clep diaz compare with each other?

If it’s mainly for LFOs then Batumi is much more powerful. It’s a quad LFO, you get a choice of different shapes and can manage the relationship between them all: phase, amplitude etc. + CV control the sliders. The extra functionality more than makes up for the increased size.

CD has a CV sequencer though so if that’s something you want then this is a great choice. Especially for a small system.

thank you Raindeer

[muleskinner]

Sold mine. Didn't like it.

- Couldn't go slow enough for me without CV
- Sync seemed to sync rate, not rate and phase, which was a problem for me
- Various 'expert' settings seemed to lose their state when the module was restarted
- Generally I found the secondary settings and zoom operation too unintuitive
- Didn't like the fact that you had to choose one alternate wave shape for all channels.

Bought a second o_c instead. Don't miss it. Shame as I loved the build quality and aesthetics.

[adaris]

Sold mine. Didn't like it.

- Couldn't go slow enough for me without CV

Funny, one of the main reasons I bought Batumi was because it will go very slow. In Div mode channels 2-4 can go as slow as one cycle every 53 minutes w/o CV. And if for some reason you need all 4 channels to go very slow you can feed it a constant CV. But to each their own.

[Del]

Early impressions: I'm not overly thrilled with it. Quadrax, on the other hand — I'm smitten.

[studio460]

Finally getting to RTFM on my Batumi (Quadrax manual is next, I swear). The more I learn it, the more I like it. I just got a Poti, but now I want a Samara II also. Batumi + Samara II seems like it''ll be one helluva LFO!

[megarat]

[mixxalot]

I really like my Batumi especially now that I have the Poti expander but my favorite modulators now are Kermit MK3 and Acid Rain Technology Maestro. I did recently get the XAOC Devices Praga which is a fun mixer and one day want a full row of XAOC Device modules like Odessa, Belgrad, Radar and so forth as the design and coolness factor is there plus they sound amazing.

[Rafaelxyz]

I pair batumi with blinds, it makes a lot of sense. Samaras mix of functions seems useful but not needed for my rack.

[studio460]

Hmmm . . . I just bought a Blinds the other day. Only just screwed it in. The Samara just seems so . . . sexy.

[oilpanic]

I would add the expander to the quadra before Batumi.

[muleskinner]

Sold mine. Didn't like it.

- Couldn't go slow enough for me without CV

Funny, one of the main reasons I bought Batumi was because it will go very slow. In Div mode channels 2-4 can go as slow as one cycle every 53 minutes w/o CV. And if for some reason you need all 4 channels to go very slow you can feed it a constant CV. But to each their own.

You need the CV offset to get just one channel to go slow in 'free' mode, and probably in other modes other than 'divide'.

I originally bought a first-gen Samara to pair with my Batumi as they were marketed as 'perfect partners'. The Samara can't even do a negative CV offset without using two of its channels. This meant that if I wanted two slow, free-running LFOs, I had to use every channel of the Samara plus the CV inputs on the Batumi (so additional freq CV would require yet more mixers of some sort). This was... ridiculous.

uO_C running Piqued does it all and much more in 8hp at the expense of some light menu diving, but at least it saves state when turned off!

Other things that annoyed me about it (other than those I've already mentioned) include the fact that there was no way to get a triangle and saw at the same time (from any combination of outputs) and the clunky 'zoom' UI which meant that the frequency sliders often wouldn't end up positioned on their actual frequency making tweaking a pain. I have come to the conclusion that I personally hate UIs like this and have the same issue with some of the Mutable Instruments stuff. Give me one knob per function or give me a screen.

I'm not trying to slate the module, I'm just saying that it's not the LFO 'magic bullet' that a lot of people expect, particularly for slower modulations.

I did like the fact that it can double as a decent, grubby oscillator, and it's much more immediate than the O_C for simple LFO duties but tbh I'd rather just buy a simple 'one knob per function' LFO for that, or use the looping envelopes in my Quadra or Maths.

[Rafaelxyz]

I also dislike when it's not 'one knob per function', fortunately I pretty much never use zoom so I view Batumi as such a module.

[Stice]

Batumi doesn’t save state after power cycle?

[adaris]

Batumi doesn’t save state after power cycle?

Mine does. From a previous thread on the subject:

"Batumi does save the operating mode and recalls it during startup. If it doesn't happen in your system it may be caused by a bad PSU, a poor distribution system (a FBB instead of a proper bus board), or a strong EM interference inside your case."

[loorenz]

Batumi doesn’t save state after power cycle?

I used to have the same issue and Xaoc send me a firmware to fix that, If you want, I can send you the file.

Here is the explanation from Xaoc:
"The problem with Batumi randomly switching modes at startup may be also caused by the power supply voltages coming up too slowly, so any soft start thingy may not help at all. If you use your Batumi mostly in the factory firmware I can offer you a new version of the code that features a small fix for the boot problem. The fix ignores first 500ms of signals which makes it robust against unstable voltage."

[modeleus]

It has a lot of rhythmic possibilities when synced to a clock. I can even be a "quad clock divider" by itself if you like.

The quadrature mode with the sliders becoming attenuators is neat and efficient.

As it been said is a perfect match for Samara 2 or Blinds.

[Ebotronix]

can someone explain the jumper pic on the PCB or manual?
upper jumper is Sync ?
second jumper is saw up or saw down?
third jumper is triangle or tarpezoid?

[xaoc_tech]

Upper two pins define sync mode. Jumper present = tap tempo, no jumper = reset.
Waveform selection is made by a _combination_ of lower two pairs of pins, not a single jumper. Eg, both jumpers on = triangle.

[Ebotronix]

Upper two pins define sync mode. Jumper present = tap tempo, no jumper = reset.
Waveform selection is made by a _combination_ of lower two pairs of pins, not a single jumper. Eg, both jumpers on = triangle.

what is the jumper setting to get triangle and saw up or saw down?

[xaoc_tech]

Upper jumper only: saw up
Lower jumper only: saw down
No jumpers: trapezoid

It is all written on the pcb

[Ebotronix]

Upper jumper only: saw up
Lower jumper only: saw down
No jumpers: trapezoid

It is all written on the pcb

what happened with the saw ( no up, no down?) when no jumpers installed?

[xaoc_tech]

I'm sorry, but this is unclear. What is a "saw ( no up, no down?)" ?

With both ASGN jumpers off (i.e. NOT installed) Batumi makes a trapezoid waveform on the ASGN outputs. It always did, nothing happened to it.