The Oakley VCO has a Oakley Buss input header on its socket board. Pin 1 of this header is
connected to the NC lug of the 1V/octave input socket. So any voltage on pin 1 of this header
is automatically connected to the module's 1V/octave input unless as jack is inserted into that
socket.
Normalising is frowned upon by some people, and loved by others. Most modulars do have
some form of normalising. The Roland System 100 probably has the highest degree of
normalising. You don’t even need a patch lead to get that one to sing. The MOTM has no
form of external normalising, although there are normalising routes within each module.
When I first started building my own modular system, I thought that normalisation was a bad
thing. Like preset memory patches I thought it would stifle creativity by making things a little
too easy. However, in practice I noticed that I was routing CV and gate to the same locations
in my modular for almost all my patches. So I decided to provide some form of limited
normalising. I chose to normalise just KCV and gate. No audio normalisation was allowed. It
was easy to do, and proved very effective.
The issue 2 Dizzy PCB, our main form distributing power around our larger modular systems,
includes a three way normalising buss which we call the Oakley Buss. This Oakley standard,
originally created with the Dizzy issue 1 PCB, gave us just two lines; the KCV and Gate
busses. These are accessed by the three way 0.1” headers. Pin 1 of each header is KCV and
pin 3 is Gate. Pin 2 was connected to ground on the first board, but some customers modified
the board to give a third CV bus. The current issue of the Dizzy board leaves it floating so you
can now use it to normalise a third CV line if you wish. There are more details about this in
the Dizzy User Manual and Builder's Guide.
Each module that you wish to connect to the normalisation buss needs to have a suitable
length of wire terminating in a 3-way 0.1” header. You’ll probably only need to use one pin
for each module, since very few synthesiser modules actually use KCV and gate together. The
wire end of the interconnect needs to be connected to the NC lug on the relevant socket, ie.
1V/octave or gate. Be sure that you remove any existing normalising on the socket that you
want to use. Note that some MOTM and Oakley modules have the NC lug connected to
ground.
The Oakley VCO, midiDAC and other modules already have the three pin headers on the main
or socket boards ready for easy direct connection to the Dizzy or VCO Controller module.
You may feel that adding little single, or double, wire tails to your MOTM modules is not a
good idea. It is a perhaps little untidy. But I certainly would recommend to try it out if you use
your modular for straightforward musical applications.
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