Berlin Modular (ancient thread)

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Hello guys,

And thanks Urs for giving me hope to be able to have my hands down on BM eventually this year ;-)

After a year of tweaking ACE, i started to make patches for Bazille which i think is a great synth for making crazy modular ever evolving sounds although i think it doesn't sound as warm and fat as ACE (i think i prefer VA osc over digital ones anyway)

Just wanted to ask a few questions about the modifiers section: i already know about S&H stuff but i'm not familiar with the others modulations... can someone explain to me what are:
- quantizer
- Lag generators
- rectifiers
- inverters

and how is the way to use it?

i've been experimenting with theses things but didn't seem to understand how they work...

Thanks!
Vinz
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^This is the little that I know (not definitive by any means):

The inverter inverts a signal's polarity so that +ve amplitude becomes -ve. A sawtooth, for example, will become a ramp (the teeth will face a different direction). If you mix a sawtooth with a ramp and detune them slightly you get a PWM effect.

Lag generators introduce 'inertia' to a signal, so that sudden changes in amplitude are smeared along the x axis - one classic use is to create pitch glide (portamento) between notes.

In electronics rectifiers change AC signals to DC - I'm not sure what specific uses they have in a modular synth, but I'm sure there are a few.

As for the quantizer - if you feed a sine into it and watch the results in the oscilloscope you can pretty much see what it does - it adds 'steppiness', eventually changing the signal to a square wave.
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Rectifiers are commonly used for octave up effects. They flip the negative portion of a wave back into the positive. A sine which normally looks like this...
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Looks like this when rectified...
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For more interesting wave shapes, mix DC offset or an LFO into the audio path before the rectifier.
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I use the rectifiers a lot for Buchla/Serge style wav shaping. This can have a very cool effect when used to shape an osc that is being used as an FM modulator.
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Check out this patch...
http://www.3amnoise.net/wreck-da-fied.zip

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Turn up the FM amount on Osc 2 to here how the rectified osc 1 modulates osc 2. Also turn down the volume on osc 2's mixer channel and turn up the volume on rectified osc 1's mixer channel to hear it by itself. You can also mess around with the amount of DC offset that is introduced to osc 1 to get different wave shapes.

About the quantizer. If the S&H can be though of as reducing the horizontal (or frequency) resolution, then the quantizer is reducing vertical (or amplitude) resolution. So if the S&H is like a sample rate reducer, the quantizer is like a bit depth reducer. This can be useful for audio signals or modulation when the goal is to reduce output signals to specific values. For example, send a lfo to a quantizer then to a modulation input. Set the modulation depth to 12 and the quantizer resolution to 12... now the modulation signal should only hit integer values (I think).
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justin3am wrote:Check out this patch...
http://www.3amnoise.net/wreck-da-fied.zip

Image

Turn up the FM amount on Osc 2 to here how the rectified osc 1 modulates osc 2. Also turn down the volume on osc 2's mixer channel and turn up the volume on rectified osc 1's mixer channel to hear it by itself. You can also mess around with the amount of DC offset that is introduced to osc 1 to get different wave shapes.

About the quantizer. If the S&H can be though of as reducing the horizontal (or frequency) resolution, then the quantizer is reducing vertical (or amplitude) resolution. So if the S&H is like a sample rate reducer, the quantizer is like a bit depth reducer. This can be useful for audio signals or modulation when the goal is to reduce output signals to specific values. For example, send a lfo to a quantizer then to a modulation input. Set the modulation depth to 12 and the quantizer resolution to 12... now the modulation signal should only hit integer values (I think).
Great patch Justin! I've made a very similar patch today. I haven't used the DC offset thought. Great idea!

Cheers
Dennis
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Bronto Scorpio wrote:Great patch Justin! I've made a very similar patch today. I haven't used the DC offset thought. Great idea!

Cheers
Dennis
Thanks, it's a fun patch. Using an LFO or sequencer as opposed to static DC is more fun, I think. Also try sending the rectified signal through a LPF, then back to it's own FM input. When you mess with the gain and the cutoff, the whole thing will go apeshit! I get some really super-dense Merzbow style noise that way. :)
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Hiho,

I've recently delved into "slew rate limiters" - is the "lag generator" the same or similar concept?

peace,
bootsy
follow me on Image
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bootsie wrote:I've recently delved into "slew rate limiters" - is the "lag generator" the same or similar concept?
Same thing, indeed.

;) Urs
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The sequencer on this thing is the best ever. Kudos for that. Is it to old school to wish for voltage outputs for midi controllers ? I know you can midi learn and all but that feels kinda wrong. CV is the new midi. A few couldn't possibly harm anyone ? At least no one innocent.
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jupiter8 wrote:The sequencer on this thing is the best ever. Kudos for that. Is it to old school to wish for voltage outputs for midi controllers ? I know you can midi learn and all but that feels kinda wrong. CV is the new midi. A few couldn't possibly harm anyone ? At least no one innocent.
I've been thinking of multi ins/outs for hardcore analogists. Then you can patch in and out from your analogue gear. If and how it works is another question, maybe expert sleepers have a solution...
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He does. There is an AC encoder/decoder plugin in silent way that helps get CV into the computer (I haven't run across any audio interfaces that have DC couple inputs) and passing DC between plug-ins like Reaktor hasn't been a problem for me so far. It'd be really cool to send modulation from plug-in to plug-in via audio channels. I could generate a sequence in my analogue modular, process it with Reaktor then use it to control Bazille- all on one channel. :D
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An then you just have to talk to Dieter Doepfer about a dedicated Bazille In/Out eurorack module and the fun can begin :D

Cheers
Dennis
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Urs wrote:If and how it works is another question, maybe expert sleepers have a solution...
They have. It's really simple,to avoid the DC blocking they send out an oscillating signal of various amplitudes instead of DC. Then they simply rectify it and smack a capacitor on it. The problem with that is that you would need to change the output "mode" from regular audio to a special one. Not the least complicated but could be confusing for people with no analog modular experience.
Could do some sort of expert mode with a warning label "If you don't understand what it does you do not need this feature".

Just so we're on the same page regarding my idea the point was to have a few extra voltage outputs next to the MW,PB,CB that is midi controller numbers.

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Roughly like so. No biggie,just a suggestion.There is some free space for it.
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Well, I guess the main thing would be having, say, 8 audio inputs and outputs that are freely patchable. The rest could be done in silent way...

The breakout box is a sample & hold array. It's the same in every analogue synth with digital preset control. The Juno 60 for instance has a single DAC and 16 sample & hold capacitors. Each parameter value is sent to the DAC one after the other resulting in teh parameters control voltage. A multiplexer then sends each control voltage to its dedicated capacitor for "storage". This happens a thousand+ times a second so the voltage behind the capacitor is constant.
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hehe i knew i should've looked into that modulation section before starting to build my preset bank.... even so here's

http://www.silocollective.dk/tempz/ctrl ... ets0.6.rar

i'm still a modular noob so these patches could probably be less clumsy but even so i've gotten some useable sounds in there. hope its useful to you guys too and if you like it and want to help me out buy my music :).

house:
http://www.rushhour.nl/distribution_det ... item=55728

techno:
http://boomkat.com/downloads/359585-nor ... imiliarity
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