Befaco VCMC voltage controlled MIDI controller

[Voltcontrol]

I love that they say "essentially we control the DAW with analog gear" when essentially they are controlling the DAW with digital gear, by sending the DAW a digital signal, and since the chromaphone is just sending gates, even that signal could just as easily be digital instead of analog. Still cool, but why the analog fetish?

The succulent squad prefers it is my best guess.

[Sweetfiltersweep]

I love that they say "essentially we control the DAW with analog gear" when essentially they are controlling the DAW with digital gear, by sending the DAW a digital signal, and since the chromaphone is just sending gates, even that signal could just as easily be digital instead of analog. Still cool, but why the analog fetish?

You are right. Analog or digital is now a secondary question, al least for me. In fact, every trigger or gate in the analog gear “is” a digital signal (on-off).
I should have said what matters: today we can control the DAW from the modular system.
Btw, Chromaphone is receiving gates and modulations messages.

[Paranormal Patroler]

You are right. Analog or digital is now a secondary question, al least for me. In fact, every trigger or gate in the analog gear “is” a digital signal (on-off).
I should have said what matters: today we can control the DAW from the modular system.
Btw, Chromaphone is receiving gates and modulations messages.

Yeah, I didn't mean to sound negative, I really enjoyed the video, it just struck me as a weird thing to say. Essentially there's a ton of conversion happening all around (I even go as far as reconvert to analog a signal which I intentionally converted to digital in the first place !) , no point in making that distinction these days, especially in this context. But I digress, I do think the Chromaphone is one of those designs that really really works nicely with modules like the VCMC as it brings really cool sequencing into MIDI devices that could really make the most of it.

[Sweetfiltersweep]

[/quote]

Yeah, I didn't mean to sound negative, I really enjoyed the video, it just struck me as a weird thing to say. Essentially there's a ton of conversion happening all around (I even go as far as reconvert to analog a signal which I intentionally converted to digital in the first place !) , no point in making that distinction these days, especially in this context. But I digress, I do think the Chromaphone is one of those designs that really really works nicely with modules like the VCMC as it brings really cool sequencing into MIDI devices that could really make the most of it.
[/quote]

I insist: you are 200% right and I’m happy to stand corrected for the sake of accuracy.

In fact, Flux is a digital trigger sequencer. The big thing with VCMC is the possibility of using you beloved modular gear to control the DAW.

Let’s say you made a record from Rings into Rainmaker: unless you use a fully analog sequencer, you are converting your digitally generated trigger and notes to analog voltages, which are sent into Rings. Rings has to convert those analog signals to digital ones in order to produce a sound. That sound is converted to analog at Rings’ outputs. Then that sound goes to Rainmaker, which converts the analog signal into a digital one to be processed. Then the digital processed sound is converted again to analog at Rainmaker’s outputs. That processed analog sound go to your DAW-interface, which converts it once again into a digital signal. That signal would be most possibly processed/altered within your DAW if you apply any effect or dynamic control. Then the “ready-to-be-heard” sound get converted to analog again so that it can reach your ears.

That’s how it works often for me today. :-)

[Sweetfiltersweep]

A different mood with a different plugin:

[Thedoge]

fixed

[Sweetfiltersweep]

Flux + VCMC = Jazz?

[Sweetfiltersweep]

Some ambient with Rhizomatic Plasmonic:

[cloudswim]

Does anyone else have an extremely hard time calibrating this module? I'm trying to get it to calibrate correctly to pitch data from my intellijel scales and it doesnt come close to tracking properly regardless of what I do. This is not a problem with any other module that I use in conjunction with scales. for some reason I cant get these to play nice. just to test, I'll set scales to only output a c note, and when I read the VCMC screen its sending out all kinds of random notes, even though it should just be reading/sending C's at different octaves. Is my board busted or is this the case everywhere? Once again, I've tried every possible calibration technique I can think to try. Am I missing something, or does this module just not work with this quantizer?

Yeh this unit does not track CV properly it’s way off... I don’t think it’s designed to be used as a pitch tracking CV - MIDI device even though it was advertised this way. Pretty pissed ....

[Befacosynth]

Yeh this unit does not track CV properly it’s way off... I don’t think it’s designed to be used as a pitch tracking CV - MIDI device even though it was advertised this way. Pretty pissed ....

Yes it does.It might get tricky, but doable!
If your unit does not manage to track properly, get in contact with support@befaco.org. Maybe you need a repalcement.

[cloudswim]

Yeh this unit does not track CV properly it’s way off... I don’t think it’s designed to be used as a pitch tracking CV - MIDI device even though it was advertised this way. Pretty pissed ....

Yes it does.It might get tricky, but doable!
If your unit does not manage to track properly, get in contact with support@befaco.org. Maybe you need a repalcement.

I’ve tried everything. I’ve compared the same sequence with a different unit and it tracks fine. I’ve emailed support the guy handed me a user manual and basically told me go read it again.

[morgulbee]

I just got a VCMC today. First impressions: mine is tracking CV note pitch well. It's important to match voltage/octave ranges so that your CV source is not sending voltage out of range of what VCMC expects. I configured Sinfonion to generate various 4-note chords, and the polysynth connected to VCMC played them correctly. I have not yet explored how well it tracks at the extremes, but initial play is accurate.

For note tracking, It's important that the gate is triggered after the note CV value has settled. When I tried playing Keystep pitch and gate directly into VCMC, tracking was terrible until I configured CV delay in VCMC. The amount of delay will likely be different for different CV/gate sources.

[cloudswim]

I just got a VCMC today. First impressions: mine is tracking CV note pitch well. It's important to match voltage/octave ranges so that your CV source is not sending voltage out of range of what VCMC expects. I configured Sinfonion to generate various 4-note chords, and the polysynth connected to VCMC played them correctly. I have not yet explored how well it tracks at the extremes, but initial play is accurate.

For note tracking, It's important that the gate is triggered after the note CV value has settled. When I tried playing Keystep pitch and gate directly into VCMC, tracking was terrible until I configured CV delay in VCMC. The amount of delay will likely be different for different CV/gate sources.

Can you share your settings for the VCMC?

Try playing melody that constantly changes pitch with 3 more than 1 octave and a fast paced tempo. That is when the pitch tracking error problem occurs.

[morgulbee]

Can you share your settings for the VCMC?

Try playing melody that constantly changes pitch with 3 more than 1 octave and a fast paced tempo. That is when the pitch tracking error problem occurs.

Day 2 with VCMC. I gave it more of a workout today, and went from happy to sad and back to happy. I struggled a lot with inconsistent behavior that turned out mostly to be finnicky gate timing sent to VCMC, not VCMC itself. Once I got that sorted, VCMC tracked notes perfectly with extremely fast sequences. I haven't done anything with velocities or CC's yet, just notes.

Currently I have VCMC configured for "V/Oct to Note" with a CV Delay of 4ms, which is working with all the sequencers I played with today except one. Vector, O-Ctrl (with Sinfonion quantizing the pitches) and Ansible Kria are all happy sending pitches and gates to VCMC. Keystep needs a longer delay, 9ms works.

Kria gave me a lot of trouble that made me think VCMC was at fault. Kria was sending very short gates. At faster tempos Kria would skip some gates (confirmed on a scope). Can't blame VCMC for missing notes that Kria isn't even sending! Once I set Kria to send longer gates, problem solved!

Vector gave me some trouble too. When I was editing a sequence in Vector, I set long note durations just short of being ties. That was too long, and the following note would randomly be skipped. I didn't investigate to see if it was Vector tieing to the next note and not sending a gate, or if VCMC didn't respond to the second gate. I just backed off on the length of the note just a tiny bit, and it worked.

The sequence I played in Vector has some 2 octave jumps, up and down. VCMC tracks that perfectly at very fast tempo. I also did a bunch of octave jumps with Kria.

With O-Ctrl, VCMC worked well with O-Ctrl's gates, not so well with its triggers. I don't recall what the specific issue was.

I also played with Keystep's arpeggiator. 4ms delay isn't long enough for Keystep, causing VCMC to play incorrect pitches. 9ms worked. I didn't spend the time to figure out the shortest delay that works for Keystep.

I did all my testing with a DIN cable from VCMC to a Korg opsix. I have other MIDI synths, but haven't tried them yet. The opsix is what I expect to use most.

Here's a short video of a short sequence with some 2 octave note jumps. Vector to VCMC to opsix, starting slow then going very fast.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/4fWQbC3iTBjxKNvM8

I plan to keep stressing VCMC over the next few days to find the limits so I know what I can and cannot do with it. I think this is a module that needs to be tweaked separately for each CV source. There probably is not one configuration that will work for all modules that feed it CV and gates.

[cloudswim]

Can you share your settings for the VCMC?

Try playing melody that constantly changes pitch with 3 more than 1 octave and a fast paced tempo. That is when the pitch tracking error problem occurs.

Day 2 with VCMC. I gave it more of a workout today, and went from happy to sad and back to happy. I struggled a lot with inconsistent behavior that turned out mostly to be finnicky gate timing sent to VCMC, not VCMC itself. Once I got that sorted, VCMC tracked notes perfectly with extremely fast sequences. I haven't done anything with velocities or CC's yet, just notes.

Currently I have VCMC configured for "V/Oct to Note" with a CV Delay of 4ms, which is working with all the sequencers I played with today except one. Vector, O-Ctrl (with Sinfonion quantizing the pitches) and Ansible Kria are all happy sending pitches and gates to VCMC. Keystep needs a longer delay, 9ms works.

Kria gave me a lot of trouble that made me think VCMC was at fault. Kria was sending very short gates. At faster tempos Kria would skip some gates (confirmed on a scope). Can't blame VCMC for missing notes that Kria isn't even sending! Once I set Kria to send longer gates, problem solved!

Vector gave me some trouble too. When I was editing a sequence in Vector, I set long note durations just short of being ties. That was too long, and the following note would randomly be skipped. I didn't investigate to see if it was Vector tieing to the next note and not sending a gate, or if VCMC didn't respond to the second gate. I just backed off on the length of the note just a tiny bit, and it worked.

The sequence I played in Vector has some 2 octave jumps, up and down. VCMC tracks that perfectly at very fast tempo. I also did a bunch of octave jumps with Kria.

With O-Ctrl, VCMC worked well with O-Ctrl's gates, not so well with its triggers. I don't recall what the specific issue was.

I also played with Keystep's arpeggiator. 4ms delay isn't long enough for Keystep, causing VCMC to play incorrect pitches. 9ms worked. I didn't spend the time to figure out the shortest delay that works for Keystep.

I did all my testing with a DIN cable from VCMC to a Korg opsix. I have other MIDI synths, but haven't tried them yet. The opsix is what I expect to use most.

Here's a short video of a short sequence with some 2 octave note jumps. Vector to VCMC to opsix, starting slow then going very fast.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/4fWQbC3iTBjxKNvM8

I plan to keep stressing VCMC over the next few days to find the limits so I know what I can and cannot do with it. I think this is a module that needs to be tweaked separately for each CV source. There probably is not one configuration that will work for all modules that feed it CV and gates.

Thanks for sharing , so did you only make setting changes to to CV channel. What about the fader and gate ? For my unit the gate has to be set to “trigger” and the fader has to be set to “Volts / Oct to Note” as well otherwise the pitch will be very low for some reason. I’m also sequencing via Kira and WMD Voltera as gates through the sinfonion. The Sinfonion has the tuning function and I tune all channels to the same pitch. There is something bery strange going on with my unit. Even very simple sequences will go out of tune.

[morgulbee]

Thanks for sharing , so did you only make setting changes to to CV channel. What about the fader and gate ? For my unit the gate has to be set to “trigger” and the fader has to be set to “Volts / Oct to Note” as well otherwise the pitch will be very low for some reason. I’m also sequencing via Kira and WMD Voltera as gates through the sinfonion. The Sinfonion has the tuning function and I tune all channels to the same pitch. There is something bery strange going on with my unit. Even very simple sequences will go out of tune.

I only made changes to the CV. I didn't touch fader or gate. Set CV function to V/Oct to Note. Set CV Delay to 4 or 9 or whatever works for that particular input (if Delay is too short, some notes will likely be out of tune). I fixed the low pitches by setting the CV Out Range. Set the MIDI Range Min to 60 or 48 or 36 to transpose to whichever octave sounds right. The CV In Range also might need to be changed from the default 0-10V depending on what voltage range is being sent (Sinfonion is -2V to +8V).

I've played with the Fader channel to send CC messages, but I haven't tried linking the fader with the CV yet. I'm sure that will be interesting. If you're doing that, I'm guessing the fader would modify the pitch CV and possibly put it out of tune. Just a thought but I haven't tried it.

[cloudswim]

Thanks for sharing , so did you only make setting changes to to CV channel. What about the fader and gate ? For my unit the gate has to be set to “trigger” and the fader has to be set to “Volts / Oct to Note” as well otherwise the pitch will be very low for some reason. I’m also sequencing via Kira and WMD Voltera as gates through the sinfonion. The Sinfonion has the tuning function and I tune all channels to the same pitch. There is something bery strange going on with my unit. Even very simple sequences will go out of tune.

I only made changes to the CV. I didn't touch fader or gate. Set CV function to V/Oct to Note. Set CV Delay to 4 or 9 or whatever works for that particular input (if Delay is too short, some notes will likely be out of tune). I fixed the low pitches by setting the CV Out Range. Set the MIDI Range Min to 60 or 48 or 36 to transpose to whichever octave sounds right. The CV In Range also might need to be changed from the default 0-10V depending on what voltage range is being sent (Sinfonion is -2V to +8V).

I've played with the Fader channel to send CC messages, but I haven't tried linking the fader with the CV yet. I'm sure that will be interesting. If you're doing that, I'm guessing the fader would modify the pitch CV and possibly put it out of tune. Just a thought but I haven't tried it.

I will try that and get back thanks

[Befacosynth]

Day 2 with VCMC. I gave it more of a workout today, and went from happy to sad and back to happy. I struggled a lot with inconsistent behavior that turned out mostly to be finnicky gate timing sent to VCMC, not VCMC itself. Once I got that sorted, VCMC tracked notes perfectly with extremely fast sequences. I haven't done anything with velocities or CC's yet, just notes.

Tanks a lot for such a detailed testing and feedbak. This is really helpful!!
Definetly CV Delay parameter is the key for these kind of issues and should be stressed out more clearly in our user manual!

With O-Ctrl, VCMC worked well with O-Ctrl's gates, not so well with its triggers. I don't recall what the specific issue was.

It would be intersting to know trigger lengths and amplitudes. CV Delay could be set to lower values than 1ms. In fact it could go down to 500us. Would it be interesting to have this option, in your opinion?
Also, if O-Ctrl is sending gates below 5v. amplitude, then VCMC will struggle to detect them as HIGH values.

Vector gave me some trouble too. When I was editing a sequence in Vector, I set long note durations just short of being ties. That was too long, and the following note would randomly be skipped. I didn't investigate to see if it was Vector tieing to the next note and not sending a gate, or if VCMC didn't respond to the second gate. I just backed off on the length of the note just a tiny bit, and it worked.

If notes are tied and the gate is not set to low between them, then VCMC will not detect the second note!
also, if gate is set to low a shorter time than the CV delay then VCMC will not recognize that note either. A Random behaviour might come from being just in the limit
Really curious to know more about this!

I also played with Keystep's arpeggiator. 4ms delay isn't long enough for Keystep, causing VCMC to play incorrect pitches. 9ms worked. I didn't spend the time to figure out the shortest delay that works for Keystep.

Interesting drawback on such high cv delays.....

I plan to keep stressing VCMC over the next few days to find the limits so I know what I can and cannot do with it. I think this is a module that needs to be tweaked separately for each CV source. There probably is not one configuration that will work for all modules that feed it CV and gates.

Unfortunately, the answer is yes: Each sequencer have their own delay to send the CV after the gate is set to high . This feature was implemented with René in mind (as we detected this issue early in the development) but day after day we discover that the issue is more general than we initially suspected....

[Paranormal Patroler]

Which is reasonable as modular sequencers prioritize gates over cv, whereas VCMC needs the CV value before the gate os fired. I haven't found a sequencer that hasn't worked successfuly with VCMC, with some implementation of Delay.

[morgulbee]

With O-Ctrl, VCMC worked well with O-Ctrl's gates, not so well with its triggers. I don't recall what the specific issue was.

It would be intersting to know trigger lengths and amplitudes. CV Delay could be set to lower values than 1ms. In fact it could go down to 500us. Would it be interesting to have this option, in your opinion?
Also, if O-Ctrl is sending gates below 5v. amplitude, then VCMC will struggle to detect them as HIGH values.

Disregard my comment about "triggers" with O-Ctrl. I was referring to the Dynamic Envelope Output (the panel label looks like a trigger to me). The rise time and amplitude of the envelope varies based on other controls. I watched it on Mordax Data and it can be as high as 10V or lower than 5V. It's definitely an envelope, not a gate or trigger, so I would expect VCMC might not work with it.

The gate from O-Ctrl, which does work well with VCMC, starts pretty consistently about 750 usec after the pitch CV. Now that I've learned how to measure times on the Mordax, I'll be checking all my sequencers.

[cloudswim]

Day 2 with VCMC. I gave it more of a workout today, and went from happy to sad and back to happy. I struggled a lot with inconsistent behavior that turned out mostly to be finnicky gate timing sent to VCMC, not VCMC itself. Once I got that sorted, VCMC tracked notes perfectly with extremely fast sequences. I haven't done anything with velocities or CC's yet, just notes.

Tanks a lot for such a detailed testing and feedbak. This is really helpful!!
Definetly CV Delay parameter is the key for these kind of issues and should be stressed out more clearly in our user manual!

With O-Ctrl, VCMC worked well with O-Ctrl's gates, not so well with its triggers. I don't recall what the specific issue was.

It would be intersting to know trigger lengths and amplitudes. CV Delay could be set to lower values than 1ms. In fact it could go down to 500us. Would it be interesting to have this option, in your opinion?
Also, if O-Ctrl is sending gates below 5v. amplitude, then VCMC will struggle to detect them as HIGH values.

Vector gave me some trouble too. When I was editing a sequence in Vector, I set long note durations just short of being ties. That was too long, and the following note would randomly be skipped. I didn't investigate to see if it was Vector tieing to the next note and not sending a gate, or if VCMC didn't respond to the second gate. I just backed off on the length of the note just a tiny bit, and it worked.

If notes are tied and the gate is not set to low between them, then VCMC will not detect the second note!
also, if gate is set to low a shorter time than the CV delay then VCMC will not recognize that note either. A Random behaviour might come from being just in the limit
Really curious to know more about this!

I also played with Keystep's arpeggiator. 4ms delay isn't long enough for Keystep, causing VCMC to play incorrect pitches. 9ms worked. I didn't spend the time to figure out the shortest delay that works for Keystep.

Interesting drawback on such high cv delays.....

Unfortunately, the answer is yes: Each sequencer have their own delay to send the CV after the gate is set to high . This feature was implemented with René in mind (as we detected this issue early in the development) but day after day we discover that the issue is more general than we initially suspected....

Hi im actually having trouble with Rene tracking pitch correctly. What delay values do you suggest ?

Thanks

[Phitar]

The gate from O-Ctrl, which does work well with VCMC, starts pretty consistently about 750 usec after the pitch CV. Now that I've learned how to measure times on the Mordax, I'll be checking all my sequencers.

Nice to know info! Maybe we should compile a list of delays that seem to work best with various sequencers.

[Thedoge]

@Befacosynth are there some plans for a i2c support? I'm planning about getting an ER-301 and having that on the vcmc would be massive

[sempervirent]

Flux + VCMC = Jazz?

Very nice, reminiscent of Squarepusher IMO

[Befacosynth]

@Befacosynth are there some plans for a i2c support? I'm planning about getting an ER-301 and having that on the vcmc would be massive

We are working on it! On this branch we have the work in progress:

https://github.com/Befaco/VCMC/tree/Test

So far we tested with Just friends and it worked fine. ER301 is the next target, but the new firmware (that will release VERY SOON) got our developer swamped and left i2c on hold. Stay tunned