Doepfer

You know how, if you (think) you know everything about analog 
synthesis, that when you buy a certain module and having 
oodles of experience with it before, you don't even bother to 
download or read the manual?  And if it comes with one, it's one 
of those "how quaint, a manual for this thing I have 5 million 
flying hours with' kind of deal?

Well, I'm not even sure if this is in the Doepfer A-119 (envelope 
detector) manual, but I found something really really cool to do 
with it.

OK, the patch:

You'll need:  a Doe A-119, a joystick, a way of adding two control 
voltages together, possibly a way of offsetting those so that they 
do NOT go negative.

Set up some sort of repeating event patch - short, percussive in 
nature. A square wave driving a quick envelope gen tha's 
opening a VCA of some sound.  It ashould be a quick pattern 
however.

Configure the joystick so that one axis controls the pitch of the 
sound source.  Set up the other axis to control the frequency of 
the square wave driving the envelope gen.  So, if you move the 
joystick one way, the pitch rises.  Across the other axis, the 
speed of the percussive envelope increases.  

OK, now...also run both the X and Y outputs of the joystick 
through a voltage adder so that you will get some sort of 
combined single voltage out of the joystick in which both X and Y 
location have a say in the matter.  You may need to adjust the 
amplitude of that mixture in that they are, well...added now and 
things might run a bit hot.  Call this voltage Z

Route Z into a Doepfer A-119.  Adjust the Gain to taste (in my 
case this meant full up) and the threshold to about 3. Call this 
new signal Z2

Now, route the the square wave driving the envelope through a 
VCA, with Z2 as the control voltage and you will discover the 
most amazing thing.

What I was expecting was a dynamic output, a second shaping 
envelope if you will of the string and such that both x and y 
movement effected that amplitude. What I got however was an 
highly interactive control source that will turn on and off based on 
movement alone, on either axis..  If the joystick is moving, the 
activity begins.  When it stops, the string stop --> NO MATTER 
WHERE YOU REST THE JOYSTCK.

Very cool.

I still haven't looked at the A-119 manual.

- Peter