MOTM

Lesson relearned: Vactrols sound good!

Mike

On Thursday 12 June 2003 04:10, Mike Marsh wrote:
> Lesson relearned: Vactrols sound good!

Mike, I'm playing the mp3s right now, they sound great, but 
could you explain please what exactly the LPG does to the 
sound? I have a hard time to combine the concepts of a gate 
and a LPF in a single unit...

- Robert

Hi Robert -

Yeah, I had trouble with this, too.  So here's the basic patch:

  * An LFO (a 320 in this case) SQR OUT to a MULT
  * MULT to GATE of a UEG and CV IN of the LPG
  * OUT of the UEG to 1v/OCT of a 300
  * SAW OUT of the 300 to IN of LPG
  * OUT of LPG to the console for recording

The patch is a UEG-driven 300 SAW into the LPG and NOTHING MORE.  
The LPG acts like a Low Pass filter with a built-in envelope.  Since 
the low pass-ness is created with a Vactrol, you get a spongy-boingy 
sound that's very characteristic. 

You can use other wave forms into the CV: SIN sounds cool and ramp 
(or SAW) is really trippy.  Also, if you have the vactrol CV going 
at a different rate from the UEG gate, more trippiness ensues.

Hope that helps.  It's really a cool-sounding tool!

Mike


--- In motm@yahoogroups.com, Robert van der Kamp <robnet@w...> wrote:

> On Thursday 12 June 2003 04:10, Mike Marsh wrote:
> > Lesson relearned: Vactrols sound good!
> 
> Mike, I'm playing the mp3s right now, they sound great, but 
> could you explain please what exactly the LPG does to the 
> sound? I have a hard time to combine the concepts of a gate 
> and a LPF in a single unit...
> 
> - Robert

There's also some good examples on the Cyndustries page, and decent
explanations of exactly what it's doing:

http://www.cyndustries.com/modules_quadgate.cfm

Yes, these show off more of the features of the module.  I only have 
one gate hooked up at the moment and rumor has it by having more 
gates and hooking them in serial you can get some more good stuff...

Mike

--- In motm@yahoogroups.com, "Les Mizzell" <lesmizz@s...> wrote:

> 
> There's also some good examples on the Cyndustries page, and decent
> explanations of exactly what it's doing:
> 
> http://www.cyndustries.com/modules_quadgate.cfm

:: rumor has it by having more gates and hooking them
:: in serial you can get some more good stuff...


Oh yea, I chain two or three of even four of them all the time. It gets moe
better the more you add, especially when you start modulating each of them
in a different fashion...

Cheers!

Les

AFAIK, it's a basic state variable. It has mixable LP, BP and HP 
outputs. I'd have to dig up the schemo to be sure.

Moe

> As I read this, it occurred to me that vactrols might be 
responsible for the 
> interesting Emu Resonant Filters -- I don't remember this module 
too well but 
> I remember it didn't seem to work in standard VCF ways but did a 
VERY 
> interesting tuned percussion sound. Moe???

On Thursday 12 June 2003 16:47, Mike Marsh wrote:
> Hi Robert -
>
> Yeah, I had trouble with this, too.  So here's the basic
> patch:
>
>   * An LFO (a 320 in this case) SQR OUT to a MULT
>   * MULT to GATE of a UEG and CV IN of the LPG
>   * OUT of the UEG to 1v/OCT of a 300
>   * SAW OUT of the 300 to IN of LPG
>   * OUT of LPG to the console for recording
>
> The patch is a UEG-driven 300 SAW into the LPG and
> NOTHING MORE. The LPG acts like a Low Pass filter with a
> built-in envelope.  Since the low pass-ness is created
> with a Vactrol, you get a spongy-boingy sound that's very
> characteristic.

Ah, I see. So the only signal opening the LPG is the 320's 
square wave. Nice! :)

>
> You can use other wave forms into the CV: SIN sounds cool
> and ramp (or SAW) is really trippy.  Also, if you have
> the vactrol CV going at a different rate from the UEG
> gate, more trippiness ensues.
>
> Hope that helps.  It's really a cool-sounding tool!

Yes, this helped. Thanks!
The LPG is on my list now. :)

- Robert

On Thursday 12 June 2003 17:14, Les Mizzell wrote:
> There's also some good examples on the Cyndustries page,
> and decent explanations of exactly what it's doing:
>
> http://www.cyndustries.com/modules_quadgate.cfm

That too helped, thanks.
Never knew that this vactrol stuff was photocell based.

- Robert