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PolyDAC 

(X) 

Manual        

 

Elby Designs – Laurie Biddulph 

Kariong, NSW 2250, Australia 

[email protected]

      

www.elby-designs.com 

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Introduction 

 
The PolyDAC(X) is a powerful and flexible 4-note polyphonic MIDI to CV converter that 
was originally designed by Paul Maddox with assistance from Tony Allgood who also 
initially marketed the product. 
 
The PolyDAC (X) has the following outputs:- 

 

 

4 off GATE outputs, factory adjustable from 5V to 15V, 

 

4 off NOTE outputs, calibrated to 1V/Octave, and 

 

4 off VELOCITY outputs, scaled over the range 0V to 10V 

 

1 off PITCHBEND, -1V to +1V 

 

1 off MODULATION WHEEL, 0V through to 10V 

 

1 off AFTERTOUCH, 0V through to 10V 

 

1 off SUSTAIN, switches from 0V to 10V 

 

4 off CV outputs, 0V through to 10V. 

 
Two control knobs are also provided:- 
 

 

TUNE, a global tuning control for all NOTE outputs 

 

BEND, controls how far the PITCHBEND will go. 

 
Finally, 4 switches provide the following functionality:- 

  RETRIGGER -  when set to ON, if a new note comes in whilst an old one is held, 

then the GATE will `dip’ briefly resulting in a new `trigger’ signal 

  MODE – selects one of three modes of operation for the PolyDAC(X):- 

o

  POLY, this gives you MIDI to CV conversion for 4 voices, each with its own 

Note CV, Velocity CV and Gate. Also generated are CVs that correspond to 
PitchWheel, ModWheel, AfterTouch, Sustain and four user-definable MIDI 
CCs.  

o

  MONO 1, This mode gives you a monophonic MIDI to CV converter. The 

four 

voices

 all play the same note/gate allowing for some monster stacking of 

oscillators. It also has a choice of Retrigger mode and features a 16 note 
deep note stack. It has CV outputs for PitchWheel, ModWheel, AfterTouch, 
Sustain, as well as four user-definable MIDI CCs.  

o

  MONO 2, This mode gives you four channels of monophonic MIDI to CV 

conversion. The 4 channels all being consecutive (eg, 4, 5, 6 and 7). In this 
mode the PitchWheel, ModWheel, AfterTouch, Sustain and four user 
definable MIDI CCs are controlled by the MIDI channel assigned to 

voice 1

 

only. Retrigger sets retrigger on or off for all four channels. Each channel has 
its own 16 note deep note stack. 

 

IGNORE/STEAL - A choice within POLY mode allows 

note steal

 or 

note ignore

 for 

new notes once all 4 voices are in use. With 

note steal

 mode on you can also turn 

Retrigger on or off, which will retrigger the gate for the new note.

 

 

ASSIGN – this allows you to assign MIDI CC’s to the 4 CV outputs

 

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