I received lots of good advice from John and Chris (and the list) on
putting my second panel together, thanks again on this occasion! Some
words where this advice might lead…
I started with a used Animal, as I could not afford anything more
expensive, and I wanted to get the [TKB] Touch Activated Keyboard
Sequencer somewhere in the future.
6 months later I was able to afford a new one. Even if you don't want
a sequencer as this "play-some-notes-in-cycle-method" is not your
style, the TKB is also a wonderful keyboard. Its keyboard consist of
16 pads (sensing not the pressure you apply, but the size of the
surface of your finger's tip in contact with the sensor's surface),
allowing quite articulated and "acoustic" playing, although it takes
some practice to get predictable results. Take the 4 knobs per pad,
and you can give each note its own pitch (a tuneable keyboard is a
blessing!), filter frequency, resonance, waveshape…or whatever
parameters you want to control! Highly recommended.
Around the same time as I got the TKB, thoughts formed on getting a
second panel. Of course I was curious and wanted to get certain
modules just because I wanted to know how they sound (for example the
Resonant Equaliser [RES]), but a lot of it was motivated by pure
necessity. For example...
...some inputs on the Wave Multipliers [VCM] don't have attenuators,
so I need a Scaling Processor [SCPR],
...the Animal doesn't have means to mix control voltages, that's
another reason for the [SCPR], and there is no means to do a voltage-
controlled crossfade between control voltages (get an Active
Processor [ACPR]),
...I needed more LFO/Envelope Generator control voltage sources, so I
wanted a Dual Slope Generator [DSG],
...one module that I wanted to have on my second panel (Variable
Bandpass Filter [VCF2]) dictated the addition of another modules
(Audio Mixer [AMX]) in order to make the best use of it,
...I wanted to establish some "self-awareness" in my Serge, so it
should be able to listen to itself and use this information as a
modulation source, so I need the Envelope Follower of the Preamp
Detector [PRNV],
...I am interested in pulse division, not only for suboctaves, but
also for subharmonics, there goes a Pulse Divider [PDIV],
...but also for advanced sequencer triggering (I want to be able to
control the length of each sequencer step, and I want to express this
length as number of trigger pulses this step will last, so I needed a
pulse divider with a voltage controlable pulse division (Divide by N-
comparator [NCOM]).
…and as I am able to generate 2 independent voices with my Animal
(they might be simplistic, but I like it...sometimes), and might be
able to generate a third voice with the aid of the second panel, I
need more output mixing&panning, so I had to get a Dual Channel
Stereo Mixer [DCSM] to complement the Animal's Universal Audio
Processor [UAP].
So I ordered and got a lead time of around a year (a very big system
was ordered just days before).
Well, I didn't mind, time enough to get the money together, and after
all, I had the Animal and the TKB to play with, right?
Wrong.
For some reason I always wanted to have a Ring Modulator [RING]. And
now that I get the [DCSM] in the second panel, do I really need the
Animal's [UAP]? No, it could go away and make room for the [RING],
and the remaining one panel space could be filled with an audio
crossfader (my favorite function of the the [UAP]) that also contains
an additional VCA. So this modified Animal could still serve as a
synthesizer voice in one stand-alone panel (so it woulld work even if
I were forced to sell the second panel).
So I sold my Animal, ordered a modified one, and am now eagerly
awaiting that Rex tells me noth panels are ready and will ship to me
(he said it will happen in some weeks). I am absolutely sure it will
be worth all the wait.
Best,
Jan-Hinnerk
putting my second panel together, thanks again on this occasion! Some
words where this advice might lead…
I started with a used Animal, as I could not afford anything more
expensive, and I wanted to get the [TKB] Touch Activated Keyboard
Sequencer somewhere in the future.
6 months later I was able to afford a new one. Even if you don't want
a sequencer as this "play-some-notes-in-cycle-method" is not your
style, the TKB is also a wonderful keyboard. Its keyboard consist of
16 pads (sensing not the pressure you apply, but the size of the
surface of your finger's tip in contact with the sensor's surface),
allowing quite articulated and "acoustic" playing, although it takes
some practice to get predictable results. Take the 4 knobs per pad,
and you can give each note its own pitch (a tuneable keyboard is a
blessing!), filter frequency, resonance, waveshape…or whatever
parameters you want to control! Highly recommended.
Around the same time as I got the TKB, thoughts formed on getting a
second panel. Of course I was curious and wanted to get certain
modules just because I wanted to know how they sound (for example the
Resonant Equaliser [RES]), but a lot of it was motivated by pure
necessity. For example...
...some inputs on the Wave Multipliers [VCM] don't have attenuators,
so I need a Scaling Processor [SCPR],
...the Animal doesn't have means to mix control voltages, that's
another reason for the [SCPR], and there is no means to do a voltage-
controlled crossfade between control voltages (get an Active
Processor [ACPR]),
...I needed more LFO/Envelope Generator control voltage sources, so I
wanted a Dual Slope Generator [DSG],
...one module that I wanted to have on my second panel (Variable
Bandpass Filter [VCF2]) dictated the addition of another modules
(Audio Mixer [AMX]) in order to make the best use of it,
...I wanted to establish some "self-awareness" in my Serge, so it
should be able to listen to itself and use this information as a
modulation source, so I need the Envelope Follower of the Preamp
Detector [PRNV],
...I am interested in pulse division, not only for suboctaves, but
also for subharmonics, there goes a Pulse Divider [PDIV],
...but also for advanced sequencer triggering (I want to be able to
control the length of each sequencer step, and I want to express this
length as number of trigger pulses this step will last, so I needed a
pulse divider with a voltage controlable pulse division (Divide by N-
comparator [NCOM]).
…and as I am able to generate 2 independent voices with my Animal
(they might be simplistic, but I like it...sometimes), and might be
able to generate a third voice with the aid of the second panel, I
need more output mixing&panning, so I had to get a Dual Channel
Stereo Mixer [DCSM] to complement the Animal's Universal Audio
Processor [UAP].
So I ordered and got a lead time of around a year (a very big system
was ordered just days before).
Well, I didn't mind, time enough to get the money together, and after
all, I had the Animal and the TKB to play with, right?
Wrong.
For some reason I always wanted to have a Ring Modulator [RING]. And
now that I get the [DCSM] in the second panel, do I really need the
Animal's [UAP]? No, it could go away and make room for the [RING],
and the remaining one panel space could be filled with an audio
crossfader (my favorite function of the the [UAP]) that also contains
an additional VCA. So this modified Animal could still serve as a
synthesizer voice in one stand-alone panel (so it woulld work even if
I were forced to sell the second panel).
So I sold my Animal, ordered a modified one, and am now eagerly
awaiting that Rex tells me noth panels are ready and will ship to me
(he said it will happen in some weeks). I am absolutely sure it will
be worth all the wait.
Best,
Jan-Hinnerk