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slow-hand
Joined: Jun 16, 2009
Posts: 4
Location: Israel
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 Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 4:12 pm Post subject:
A few questions about sequencers in general |
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Hello,
I'm looking into building my first digital project (I have some experience with analog electronics) and since I'm not that familier with syths in general I have some questions regarding some common "standards" used in sequencers:
Output voltage - I understood that usually people use Moog's 1V per octave standard. Two questions: How many octaves are considered a "normal rage"?
What is gate output? 
And last thing... I know that on analog sequencers the voltage of each step is controlled via a potentiometer that is setup for 0v at one extreme and maximal voltage output as defined at the other extreme. Since whole notes are seperated by 1/12V aparts (half tones) it would be rather difficult to dial in an exact pitch without a DMM or a tuner. Is there any popular way to include presets? One way I can think about is have a bunch of trimmer pots inside and a 12 position rotary switch and a way to multiply the voltage via a switch to raise the octave or something like that. Any input on this?
Thanks! |
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EdisonRex
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Joined: Mar 07, 2007
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| Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 12:30 am Post subject:
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Output voltage - I understood that usually people use Moog's 1V per octave standard. Two questions: How many octaves are considered a "normal rage"?
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5V standard = 5 octaves, but that's only one standard. Many here have designed VCOs with far greater accurate range. Notice that I say "accurate", many VCOs can track 10 octaves, although not necessarily very accurately.
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What is gate output?
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Gate can be described as the control voltage representing the time duration of a note. In Boolean terms, it is two state, ie on or off, and on represents a note playing. Gate's brother is Trigger, which can be described as a start signal.
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And last thing... I know that on analog sequencers the voltage of each step is controlled via a potentiometer that is setup for 0v at one extreme and maximal voltage output as defined at the other extreme. Since whole notes are seperated by 1/12V aparts (half tones) it would be rather difficult to dial in an exact pitch without a DMM or a tuner. Is there any popular way to include presets? One way I can think about is have a bunch of trimmer pots inside and a 12 position rotary switch and a way to multiply the voltage via a switch to raise the octave or something like that. Any input on this?
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Much easier to just run your control voltage through a quantizer, if you want "tempered" tuning. Part of the fun of analogue synthesis is that you don't necessarily have to adhere to such rules. In addition, plenty of things can be sequenced that do not require such precision. Synthesized percussion, for example.
 by the way.
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fonik
Joined: Jun 07, 2006
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Location: Germany
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| Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 1:52 am Post subject:
Re: A few questions about sequencers in general |
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| slow-hand wrote: | | And last thing... I know that on analog sequencers the voltage of each step is controlled via a potentiometer that is setup for 0v at one extreme and maximal voltage output as defined at the other extreme. Since whole notes are seperated by 1/12V aparts (half tones) it would be rather difficult to dial in an exact pitch without a DMM or a tuner. Is there any popular way to include presets? One way I can think about is have a bunch of trimmer pots inside and a 12 position rotary switch and a way to multiply the voltage via a switch to raise the octave or something like that. Any input on this? |
since you posted in the klee subforum i wanted to answer this question regarding the klee sequencer.
the klee provides a range switch to set the max range of a single step. this range switch has 'presets': there is a trimmer for each position to set it it to a certain voltage. considering the 1V/oct rule this could mean semi, whole, 3rd, 4th 5th, or whatever (refer to klee documentation).
it is a speciality of the klee that by using multiple bits the voltages of active steps get added. in short: by setting the CVs of the single steps to 0 or full only (voltage depending on range switch) you already will have a quantized output.
clear as mud!? 
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