Afterlater NRings v/oct doesnt work with BSP

Hey everyone

I started in modular with a Moog Mother32, then recently got a Beatstep Pro to run longer sequences and also run my volca sample. All of that setup fairly easily and runs well, the cv out of the BSP sequences the M32 just fine.

So I decided to venture into modules, got a niftycase and an Afterlater nano rings. This is where it gets a bit odd. The same CV out that works perfectly on the M32 does not seem to work at all for the Nrings. After messing around a bit, I found I could get the ring to play notes if I use the KB out from M32, but the CV out from BSP into the v/oct gives me the same note on from multiple pads at best, and then a few times it would cause the rings to hold a tone that sounded a bit like a phone dial tone, def not the normal sound of the module. Once this happened the module didn’t respond to anything else.

Does this sound like a power source issue? Is the module damaged? When I first got it, I accidentally patched VCA out of the mother into the v/oct and played a sequence for maybe 10 seconds before I realized my error. Could I have damaged it?

Sorry for all the noob questions its just clear something is off here. I’ve done my beat to verify its not a wayward patch cable, and the beatstep pro still runs the mother32 perfectly.

Any insight would be great, thanks.

this sounds more like user error than anything else - please describe exactly how you are patching the bsp to the rings clone...

have you read the bsp manual? pitch is set by the knobs for the pitch sequencers - have you programmed a sequence into one of the pitch sequencers and played it? the pads generally work for triggers/gates... iirc

Well, the issue is that sending the same output to v/oct on the mother works to play notes. Doesnt matter if Im sending a sequence or playing notes with the pads(which can be used as a rudimentary keyboard). I’ve tried all the octaves.

Have you contacted After Later?

I havent reached out to them yet, tried here first just in case it was an easy fix or a known issue

Try recalibrating it

Doesn't the mother 32 have weird CV tracking or something like that? I googled "Moog mother 32 cv in issue" and there is quite a few people with mother 32 cv problems. It's why Erica Synths released that Pico MScale module, right? Does the Beatstep have different voltage settings for the CV out? Perhaps it's set to work with the mother 32 but not, uh, "normal" V/Oct?

I don't own any of that so I'm just guessing.

catwavez is 100% spot on. The M32 outputs BIdirectional CVs, where the vast majority of Eurorack uses UNIdirectional CV for control. This means that while the M32 is happy as a clam with negative CVs (ie: something like -1V is valid), Eurorack usually doesn't have the ability to make sense of negative CVs. So you either get fubar tunings when the M32's CV dips below 0V, or as in this case, the module simply won't respond to CVs below 0V at all. And yes, that's what the MScale is intended to correct.

Why does this exist? Simple...it's Moog. And don't EVEN get me started about their modulars' S-Trig idiocy, either!

The issue that you describe might have to with the M32' pitch/gate handling, as described by catwavez and Lugia above this post. However it can also be that you need to adjust rings a bit.

I understand that you've got this module cause it sounds amazing, BUT rings is known to be hard to tune in scale because both the frequency (input labeled as v/oct on the panel) and shape are both influencing the pitch. So let's say you've tuned your rings with the frequency knob and you are changing the shape, it could go out of tune again.
My suggestion would be to set up your rings as described in Lightbath's guide: https://lightbath.zone/tune-rings . This way, you have a clear 'starting point' from which you can work out what the issue is. Try to see if Rings sounds acceptable in this way by plugging and unplugging a cable in and out of the "strum" input, thus triggering the sound.

Check the Beatstep's CV/gate settings by hooking it up to your computer and opening the MIDI Control Center software (free download from the Arturia site). The BSP manual provides extra info for this in chapter 10.9.6. called "CV/Gate mode". For controlling Rings, the gate mode of the sequence you want to use (seq1 or seq2) needs to be set to V-trig I believe. Pitch mode needs to be set to v/oct and you can experiment with the seq's 0V midi note settings. Try to see what happens if you set this to C1, C2, C3 or C4.

If you want to keep controlling the Mother-32 with the BSP as well, I'd suggest to keep using the selected seq that it works with now, and change the settings of the other seq to match with Rings.

Good luck!

Hah...forgot the firmware change-ups there, probably because it was a long time ago when I set these parameters the way I need them (one's normal, the other has the screwy CV/gate settings for my MS-20 minis when I'm not using the SQ-1). Be careful about what firmware parameters you're messing with, also...you can't brick one as far as I know, but you CAN get it to behave "badly", which might also come in handy for certain "equipment abuse". Just be sure you know how to bring it back to the defaults.