Plumbutter 2 quick start

[Mr. Sound Boy King]

Quick start guide to Plumbutter 2.

BLACK - ground

BROWN - pulse out & clock / trig in

GREEN - clock / trig in

BLUE - cv in

PURPLE - fm in

WHITE - audio out

RED - pulse out

ORANGE - cv out

GREY - random out

YELLOW - ultrasound out

SWITCH UP - gonz

SWITCH MIDDLE - bypass

SWITCH DOWN - trad

RED BUTTON - bit on

WHITE BUTTON - bit off

[batchas]

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I do not understand what the RED and WHITE buttons do.

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I do not understand what the GONZ / TRAD switches do.

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I do not understand the auxiliary inputs.

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It's all in the manual: http://ciat-lonbarde.net/plumbutter/

(all written in parenthesis are my comments)

GONZ VERSUS TRAD
As I said, start out in TRAD and then move on. This switch strictly affects the audio portion of the onboard synth in each module.

For AVDog, TRAD means FM input makes the oscillator vary in frequency, as a triangle wave, and GONZ means FM input makes the oscillator vary in duty cycle, in a gradient between triangle and saw wave.

For Gongue, TRAD means FM input makes the resonance vary in frequency, as a damped sine wave, and GONZ means FM input makes the resonator vary in timbre, as its phonemes sweep together and apart.

Deerhorn also has a switch which has the same feel of GONZ versus TRAD but without the label. All switches have an off position, which is important for AUXILIARY INPUTS.


AUXILIARY INPUTS
(you can affect each synth - AVDog, Deerhorn, Gongue - plugging an external source in the AUX IN)
on the 3 major modules, each switch has three positions: up, down, and off (middle). you can put it in the middle to turn the module off conveniently, like a mute button. also, in AVDog and Deerhorn, which take program input, putting this switch off allows the program input to have complete throughput with no onboard synthesizer. Gongue needs to be set at gonz or trad, because its auxiliary input goes straight through the audio filter.

RED BUTTON (add a bit in the sequencer) / WHITE BUTTON (remove it)
To input data with your thumb, press the (red) button(s) on the front. (press white to delete/remove). One is called "andoff" and the other is "oron", meaning clear and set bits respectively. This module is very intuitive and if you just use it you will get it, you can see the bits moving up the smokestack.

use the man with red steam sequencer as a pulse divider - if you want to trigger events at a slower rate than the slowest rollz, patch from a 4-roll into the clock input of the man with red steam, then set it to loop using one of the orange jacks. Turn on a bit using the red button and you will only get the trigger every 5-8 pulses of the rollz oscillator.

[batchas]

Quick start guide to Plumbutter 2.

Plug brown jacks into other brown jacks.

Plug brown jacks into green jacks.

Plug orange jacks into blue jacks.

Plug orange jacks into purple jacks.

Plug red jacks into brown jacks.

Plug grey jacks into brown jacks.

White jacks = audio out.

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THE MAN WITH RED STEAM QUICK NOTES

Plug orange jacks into the purple jack.

Red = pulse out.

Blue = CV input.

Purple = FM input.

Plug brown jacks into green jacks.

You can plug any OUT in any IN. I think this is where to start. Cause with all the colour combi you write here you gonna be lost pretty fast and most of all will never understand what they exactly do. I think.

I'd recommend read the manual, a few time if needed, for each part.
You don't need to read it if you understand what colour means what.

Know where are TRIG OUT, TRIG IN. FM IN etc. To get a feeling like on every modular of what is doing what. Cause IMO the PB is extremely intuitive once you know what is a IN and what is a OUT, which is easy to remember with the color code and for which each function is described in detail in the manual.

Do you know what I mean?
To keep it simple:
IN: blue, violet, and green. Easy to remember, these are the cool colors present on the PB.
OUT: orange, red, and yellow. The hot colors.

AUDIO OUT: white.

GROUND (to ground to other gear): black banana jack.

And the grey output: "Grey has a special meaning, as noise or another kind of off-beat or rebellious signal".

Of course you can also say I don't want to know, I stay with my color combinations. That's an option, I'm only giving an advice which works great for me.

And also very important IMHO is the GREEN input which is TRIG IN or CLOCK IN. So you don't only take only the BROWN signals to go into the GREEN, but also the other outputs, the ORANGE for instance (mainly in my case) which will trig the GREEN.
Like said, any OUT to any IN, knowing what they do, so you can tame it pretty quickly.

[Mr. Sound Boy King]

Thank you for the awesome replies.

I guess I'm hoping to put together something like the Tetrax cheat sheet from another thread which has helped me 1,000x.

(

So, essentially a handy guide to what colors do what, as suggested by you folks. Does this work?

BLACK - ground

BROWN - pulse out & clock / trig in

GREEN - clock / trig in

BLUE - cv in

PURPLE - fm in

WHITE - audio out

RED - pulse out

ORANGE - cv out

GREY - random out

YELLOW - ultrasound out

SWITCH UP - gonz

SWITCH MIDDLE - bypass

SWITCH DOWN - trad

RED BUTTON - bit on

WHITE BUTTON - bit off

Does this look correct?

I'm stilling missing the following points:

I do not understand this vocabulary for yellow: "a pure ultrasound square wave that is the reference for the Nyquist resampler."

I also do not understand what a "bit" means in this context. Is "bit on" the same as saying "sequencer step on?"

If The Man With Red Steam is an 8-step sequencer, why does it only have the four RED pulse outs?

TMWRS drives me nuts -

Thanks again for any advice.

[thebends9]

Subscribing as I know Ill need to reference this in the future

[cmcavoy]

The manual language about the brown jacks is offputting, "Here it should be said that brown bananas deal in negative pulse spikes which are not compatible with control voltage circuitry. Thus, like in the ideas developed by Serge and Buchla, there are really two types of signal: pulse and control, plus audio signals as well."

I've had the PB2 for a few months now and I only go brown-brown out of the worry that line has created. Can I safely plug brown into _whatever I want in the PB_?

[sensanalog]

Peter designed all his instruments where anything can be plugged in anywhere. He mentioned it to me in an email awhile back. You can plug in the brown nodes anywhere. You can double stack inputs too. Literally go crazy! It’s one reason the pb remains at the top for endless patching possibilities.

[rmro]

I'm just looking for some clarity as this thread is 'for idiots'

Is the image classed as one PB roll, or one 3 roll and one 4 roll?

When I patch the Brown nodes into a Gongue the top 2 are faster than the bottom three. So I presume the top 2 are 4 rollz and the bottom 3 rolls (this is an assumption btw)??

Also 'connecting Brown nodes' — Does this mean stacking Bananas or just patching one into another.

Last one the Blue bananas — I presume the top two relate to the top (in my assumption a 4 roll) and the bottom two the (in my assumption a 3 roll)??

So a PB2 has 2 '4 Rollz' and 2 '3 Rollz'

Am I getting close? Apologies if this is a bit of a brain dump

[knows]

One three (top) and one four (bottom). The knob controls the speed of each independently. The browns are both in and out, the orange is just out. The blues either speed up or slow down the roll, verso/inverso.

[pugix]

One way to remember: 3-Rollz have 2 brown jacks; 4-Rollz have 3 brown jacks and the LED.

[timeforest]

RED BUTTON (add a bit in the sequencer) / WHITE BUTTON (remove it)
To input data with your thumb, press the (red) button(s) on the front. (press white to delete/remove). One is called "andoff" and the other is "oron", meaning clear and set bits respectively. This module is very intuitive and if you just use it you will get it, you can see the bits moving up the smokestack.

use the man with red steam sequencer as a pulse divider - if you want to trigger events at a slower rate than the slowest rollz, patch from a 4-roll into the clock input of the man with red steam, then set it to loop using one of the orange jacks. Turn on a bit using the red button and you will only get the trigger every 5-8 pulses of the rollz oscillator.

rather than create a new thread i’m bumping this quoted bit to try to figure out if the mwrs on my new pb is functioning right and make sense of it. can anyone walk me through what the expected behavior is when inputting data with the buttons? also how can you set the mwrs to loop? trying to wrap my head around this module

[jimmie]

mwrs is a trigger/gate sequencer. take an orange of 4roll and input it to the green (clock). connect one of oranges to the green for looping. now press the red button. once it's working, it's very simple. (after you get how it basically works and got bored, time for idiosyncratic (sort of) behavior via crazy patching )

[timeforest]

mwrs is a trigger/gate sequencer. take an orange of 4roll and input it to the green (clock). connect one of oranges to the green for looping. now press the red button. once it's working, it's very simple. (after you get how it basically works and got bored, time for idiosyncratic (sort of) behavior via crazy patching )

not understanding the looping. if i plug an orange gate output into the green clock it doesn’t loop. the light stays lit by the orange banana it’s plugged into

[timeforest]

i’m not totally convinced my red/white buttons are working actually. can anyone walk me through making a basic sequence, what the lights should be, how to actually set up a looping sequence. mostly just want to make sure the mwrs is functioning

[jimmie]

mwrs is a trigger/gate sequencer. take an orange of 4roll and input it to the green (clock). connect one of oranges to the green for looping. now press the red button. once it's working, it's very simple. (after you get how it basically works and got bored, time for idiosyncratic (sort of) behavior via crazy patching )

not understanding the looping. if i plug an orange gate output into the green clock it doesn’t loop. the light stays lit by the orange banana it’s plugged into

sorry! one of orange to PURPLE for looping

[mrbloor]

Take orange rollz into green 'clock', rollz knob determines the rate pulses run up the stack.

Take last orange of mwrs into purple to loop (you can use any orange from mwrs, it will loop at that point.

press red button to input pulses into mwrs

Add more pulses using red button, white button will cancel a pulse & stop it cycling up but will only cancel it if held (it cancels by stopping it re entering the stack). This is also true of red button, just hold it down until a pulse enters (it's all dependant on the rate of the pulses set by the rate of your orange rollz connected to green).

you can also send orange rollz into mwrs using the banana sockets to bypass the need to press red button

As with the rollz, it gets more interesting the more you patch it, eg reds from mwrs into blue inverso/verso, reds from mwrs into brown rollz, patching into the browns on the rollz that is used to clock mwrs, patching grey dust from snare into browns or blues, red or white outs from deerhorn into blues............it is endless.

Hope this helps.

[timeforest]

thanks so much - this is super useful! im really in love with this instrument (and coco) already

[mrbloor]

thanks so much - this is super useful! im really in love with this instrument (and coco) already

They're an itch that needs scratching & when you do it feels great.

[timeforest]

me again i’m a bit confused about all the blue bananas to the left of mwrs. what are these useful for?

[rmro]

There's a pair for each intstrument.
One Blue makes it go louder, the other quieter.
Orange out into Blue.

[timeforest]

thanks! still a bit confused though how would i use those blues with say one of the avdogs modules being clocked from a brown rollz

[timeforest]

also - whats the process for routing external audio? i cant find that mention anywhere yet but i have seen people talking about using gongues for filters etc. how would i connect up an external audio signal?

[electricanada]

also - whats the process for routing external audio? i cant find that mention anywhere yet but i have seen people talking about using gongues for filters etc. how would i connect up an external audio signal?

The jacks on the front edge of the pb are the external ins. On mine there is a stereo jack that feeds both gongs.

[timeforest]

also - whats the process for routing external audio? i cant find that mention anywhere yet but i have seen people talking about using gongues for filters etc. how would i connect up an external audio signal?

The jacks on the front edge of the pb are the external ins. On mine there is a stereo jack that feeds both gongs.

right- so no patching needed to hear external audio through the gongs?

[timeforest]

starting to dive into crosspatching PB and CQ- ive got the grounds connected. im a bit nevrous lol - i can really patch anything up? nothings gonna blow up anything right?