VCA or Passive Attenuator for taming loud module output?

*In my grand plan I have a Mutable Blinds on my shopping list for the 4 VCAs. (But....)

There have been a massive amount of great points covered in my other thread so thanks all :)

Specifically here I'm thinking of the output from the 2hp Pluck, its loud, and by the time it reaches the Intellijel MixUp its really easy to take into a crackle of overdrive. So I assume something like a Passive Attenuator (maybe the AT-AT-AT DIY as a first project) or something similar would be good inline to to tame the output before it goes onto the Mixup.

And where would the best place to attenuate be? Straight after the 2hp Pluck or after its been through the Reverb? (I assume straight after just to trim it back a touch)

Cheers

Both.

A VCA will work well as long as it has a manual bias knob. Using a VCA also means you can modulate the volume later if you choose. An ever so subtle amount of modulation can really bring some movement to a patch.

A simple attenuator can be very inexpensive and passive (requires no power). Koma makes patch cables with passive attenuators built-in. This may be a good solution if you don't want to commit rack-space to a passive attenuator.

Next up... units that offer attenuation and attenuverting. Sometimes you may want to attenuate a signal and even invert the phase of it. The Intellijel Quadratt is a nice set of four attenuverters that can offer some flexible control, mixing, and even static CV output (if nothing is plugged into the input).

Befaco makes a dual attenuverter that also features an offset control. A good example would be taking an LFO that goes from -2V to 2V and shifting it to 0V to 4V... then inverting and attenuating it to -2V to 0V.

These kind of boring modules can really make all the difference in your patches so I'd research your options and needs.

EDITED Sep 5th 2019, 20:44

Thanks for all that... Both!!
So maybe something like this https://www.thonk.co.uk/shop/cascade/ ?

Not a bad choice if you're short on space. However, have a look at Erogenous Tones' LEVIT8, which offers eight attenuators, with four invertable, plus DC offset, 2x gain, and it can also be configured as a 8-1 or dual 4-1 mixers, all in 10 hp. Super-flexible, very capable of being a central attenuator control and/or mixer for several paths at the same time. Something like that, where you have a lot of the same functionality in a single module, also helps to "future-proof" things a bit since it's enough of a module that expanding the build wouldn't pose as much of a problem for it as it might for the Cascade.

That looks quite a thing, cheers :)

You can build a floating passive atten with two jacks and a knob. Cost about $2 if you've got a soldering iron already. See the original instructions over there http://www.doepfer.de/DIY/a100_diy.htm . of course it assumes some electrical know-how, and mine looks like a ball of duct tape. Still super handy to have a one-off inline 0HP solution for things that CAN be passive like attenuation or low-pass filtering.

I built an AT AT AT from Thonk, got two channels for Audio and one for tweaking pitch CV.