4ms Shaped Dual EnvVCA User Manual Download Page 10

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Patch: Waveshaping

Modulating Waveshape

A unique feature of the

Shaped Dual EnvVCA

is its ability to modulate the envelope waveshape

without changing the timing. To demonstrate this, we’ll create a simple patch that makes notes with

Channel A and uses Channel B to modulate the waveshape of Channel A. Patch a sound source, such

as the

Ensemble Oscillator

, into

Audio In A

. Patch

Audio Out A

to your mixer. Set Channel A’s

Rise/

Fall

sliders to taste. You should be hearing notes. If you have an oscilloscope, view the waveform on

ENV A

(adjust

Level

and

Offset

as needed). Move Channel A’s

Shape

slider all the way to the left and

listen to the exponential waveshape. Slowly move the slider to the right and listen how the sound

changes. When you’re done experimenting, set the slider all the way to the left.

Set Channel B’s switches to

Slow

and

Rise/Fall

sliders to center. Turn on Channel B’s

Cycle

button.

Make sure Channel B is going at least 10 times as slow as Channel A. Now patch Channel B’s

Lin 5V

jack to Channel A’s

Shape

jack. Turn Channel A’s

Shape

attenuator knob all the way up. You should

now be hearing the waveshape slowly change from exponential, to linear, to logarithmic, and back.

Optionally, you can patch one of the

Env

outputs to modulate Twist or Warp on the Ensemble

Oscillator. Using the

output jack is particularly interesting in this case since different channels will

be responsible for the modulation at different times. If you want to use a stereo signal, you can patch

Channel A’s

ENV A

jack to Channel B’s

VCA CV

jack and adjust Channel A’s

Level

and

Offset

knobs

until the two channels sound balanced.

Page of

Sliders in middle

(adjust to taste)

Shape

knob

fully CW

Shape

slider set left

Cycle

ASR

Cycle

ASR

Rise

Fall

Shaped Dual EnvVCA

Time

Follow

VCA CV

Audio B

Audio A

Out

Lin 5V

Shape

Rise

Fall

Slow

Fast

Med

Slow

Fast

Trig

Cycle

Offset

Level

EOF

Fall

Rise

Shape

Follow

ENV A

ENV B

Shape

Fall

Rise

Slow

Fast

Med

Slow

Fast

Trig

Cycle

Offset

Level

EOR

To mixer/output

amp

From sound source

(e.g. a VCO)

Cycles

Channel A

switches to

Med

Rise/Fall

near the

center (adjust to

taste)

Channel B

switches to

Slow

Summary of Contents for Shaped Dual EnvVCA

Page 1: ...le buttons for looping envelopes LFO Trigger input jack and switch for toggling between AR ASR and Cycle modes of triggering EOR F End of Rise Fall gate outputs can be used to chain and sequence events Env Level and Offset knobs scale and shift ENV output without changing VCA volume Audio In and Out jacks for passing audio or CV through the VCA VCA CV inputs to use VCAs independently from the enve...

Page 2: ...quency Modulation FM 15 Chaotic FM 15 Utility Patches 15 Attenuator 15 Trigger Delay with Pulse Width control 15 Inverted Trigger Delay With Pulse Width Control 15 DC generator Manual CV 15 Creating Envelopes with Trig Jack and Switch Cycle Button and Follow Jack 16 Triggering with switch set to AR 16 Triggering with switch set to ASR 16 Triggering with RETRIG Jumper Off Factory Default 16 Trigger...

Page 3: ...e light that indicates the current stage and output level of the envelope When the envelope is in the rise stage the Rise slider light will increase in brightness until the envelope hits its maximum Once the peak is reached the Rise light will turn off and the Fall light will turn on decreasing in brightness as the envelope falls The Rise Fall switches select the overall range of the sliders Each ...

Page 4: ...nge the envelope shape When the Shape knob is to the right of center positive voltage on the jack will cause the shape to become more logarithmic while negative voltage will cause the shape to become more exponential If the knob is to the left of center the relationship is inverse The farther from center the knob is positioned the more effect incoming CV will have When the knob is centered CV on t...

Page 5: ...nection between envelope and VCA allowing for independent use of the VCA The VCA CV input has a range of 0 to 5V which translates to nearly silent to unity gain The VCA has a linear response to the VCA CV meaning that the voltage on the VCA CV jack directly sets the attenuation amount e g 2 5V is about 50 attenuation Trig Jacks and Switches Cycle AR ASR The Trig input jack and switch can be used w...

Page 6: ...ange whenever the output is high The EOF End of Fall jack is specific to Channel B It outputs a gate that goes high when the fall stage ends and remains high until the envelope begins rising Said another way the gate at the EOF jack only goes low during the rise stage The EOF light will shine orange when the EOF output is high Rise and Fall Time Ranges Note that the switch positions have little ef...

Page 7: ... Oscillator try patching it to the Warp jack For other VCOs try a PWM or wave shaper input Adjust the Level and Offset knobs to control the amount of modulation When both knobs are centered you should hear no modulation Tip If you want to use the Shape slider to control the waveshape of the modulation without changing the VCA patch Lin 5V to VCA CV in order to bypass the internal connection betwee...

Page 8: ...can create motion in the stereo field The effect is best if you use your mixer to pan the two Audio Outs to the left and right You might also want to unpatch the Audio In B jack so that the same mono signal is used on both channels Now play with the Rise Fall and Shape sliders Try increasing Channel A s Rise time by setting the slider just a little bit higher than Channel B This gives Channel A a ...

Page 9: ...o want to control the pitch of the notes with the keyboard patch the keyboard CV output to the pitch CV 1V oct input on the VCO Notice that when you fire a gate Channel B will play first and then Channel A If you want them both to start at the same time you could unpatch the cable from EOF to Channel A s Trig jack and instead use a splitter or mult to patch the keyboard s gate output into both Cha...

Page 10: ...in 5V jack to Channel A s Shape jack Turn Channel A s Shape attenuator knob all the way up You should now be hearing the waveshape slowly change from exponential to linear to logarithmic and back Optionally you can patch one of the Env outputs to modulate Twist or Warp on the Ensemble Oscillator Using the OR output jack is particularly interesting in this case since different channels will be resp...

Page 11: ... can be set for rise and fall by first using Channel A s Shape slider to set the rise shape and then using Channel A s Shape knob to set the fall shape For instance to create an exponential rise and logarithmic fall simply reverse the settings by turning the Shape CV knob fully clockwise and moving the slider all the way left Channel B can also generate different waveshapes on the rise and fall by...

Page 12: ...V knobs control how rapid the bursts are Try adjusting these parameters slightly to hear the effect Ratcheting The previous patch alternates between two speeds normal and rapid A ratcheting effect is when the speed gradually increases To create this effect unpatch the cable from EOF to Time CV and instead patch Time CV to ENV B Turn off Channel B s Cycle button and patch a slow trigger source LFO ...

Page 13: ...dulate Adjusting the Level knob on Channel B will change the amount the pitch rises typically for a classic analog kick sound the knob should be around 1 or 2 o clock The Rise and Fall sliders of Channel B will adjust the attack and decay A typical drum will have a sharp attack and slower decay so start with the Rise slider and switch at Fast and the Fall slider and switch in the middle positions ...

Page 14: ... to the drum sound you can patch an external oscillator into Audio In A Then move the patch cable going from ENV A to Audio In B so that it goes from Audio Out A to Audio In B The external oscillator will be amplitude modulated AM with the synth drum sound and this resulting sound will be VCA ed with Channel B s envelope Play with Channel A s sliders and Rise Fall CV knobs to hear the range of pos...

Page 15: ... a trigger into Channel A s Trig jack and flip the Trig switch to AR Take the output from EOR Adjust the Rise slider and switch to set the trigger delay time rising edge of incoming trigger to rising edge of outgoing trigger Set the Fall slider and switch to control the width of the outgoing trigger If you flip the Trig switch to ASR the trigger output will be delayed from the falling edge of the ...

Page 16: ...ws how the RETRIG jumper changes the behavior With the jumper installed a trigger will always reset the envelope to zero and begin rising regardless the stage of the envelope This sharp transition to 0V can cause a click when used with audio so the jumper is not installed by default Cycle Button and Triggering With Switch Set To Cycle The Cycle button is a simple way to initiate an envelope When t...

Page 17: ...rates how the Follow jack can be utilized to create complex envelope shapes using only a sequence of gates The Follow jack can be used with more than gates see the next section for a detailed discussion Fundamentals of the Follow Jack The Follow jack causes an envelope to rise or fall in order to follow the signal on the jack Sending a high voltage 5V into the Follow jack will cause the envelope t...

Page 18: ...ng some unique harmonics Waveshaper By limiting the slew wave shapes with sharper transitions can be altered to have smoother transitions For instance feeding a square wave into the Follow jack will produce a trapezoidal or triangular wave on the ENV output jack Adjust the Rise Fall sliders and switches to get a maximum amplitude output waveform while still performing the desired amount of wavesha...

Page 19: ...le ducking Using Non Linear Shapes With Follow When you feed a signal into the Follow jack the ENV output jack produces different waveforms depending on the Shape settings Figure 8 illustrates variation between the outputs with the Shape slider in different positions The blue trace is an audio recording of three drum hits which is fed into the Follow jack The magenta trace shows the output when Sh...

Page 20: ...annel A s Rise will control the attack time set it to Fast to start Set Channel B s Rise to match Channel A s in order to produce a true ADSR envelope both Rise sliders must always be set the same Channel A s Fall will control the release time start with it a few marks above Fast Channel B s Fall will control the decay time start with it around the center position Page of 20 24 Figure 9 ADSR Ch B ...

Page 21: ...of different pulse widths Play with the sliders to adjust the segment times Remember to keep both Rise sliders at the same position or else you ll get an envelope with extra segments Play with Channel B s Level knob to change the sustain level Remember to keep it between 12 00 and 2 30 or else you ll get a simple AR or ASR envelope The way this patch works is illustrated in Figure 10 The blue trac...

Page 22: ...CV on Channel A The Shape slider sets the rise curve and the Shape knob sets the fall curve Page of 22 24 Shape Shape Shape Shape Shape Figure 11 Waveshapes and colors produced at various Shape slider positions Shape Shape Shape Shape Shape Shape Shape Shape Shape Shape Shape Shape Shape Shape Shape Shape Shape Shape Figure 12 Waveshapes with different rise and fall shapes produced by patching EOR...

Page 23: ...pe will rest at a negative voltage When Offset is fully counter clockwise it will rest at 10V Going the other way if Offset is turned to the right of center the envelope will rest at a positive voltage with 10V being the maximum The ENV output jacks clip at about 10V and 10V Using Level and Offset at their extremes you can easily cause clipping which results in a steady 10V or 10V output and is no...

Page 24: ... CV VCA unity gain 4 4V CV Frequency Response DC to 20kHz 0 1dB Envelope Times Minimum rise or fall time 200µs per segment Maximum rise or fall time 15 minutes typically 30 minutes per segment Jacks Env jack Min 10 2V Max 10 1V Envelope Max amplitude 9 3Vpp Trigger jack rising edge threshold 1 25V Follow jack active range 0V to 5V EO jacks EOR channel A 80mV low to 4 50V high gate output EOF chann...

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