VCO's through a sequencer...

I am having some fun running several VCOs through my CVilization module...using mode 2 (Sequential Switch) and building up some cool sequences. Have a couple going through different filters and finding its really fun to tweak the filters while the sequences are running.

What I'm not understanding though is when I stop my master clock (Beatstep Pro), the VCOs continue to output sound (I get that's what they do) but how could I get sound to stop once I stop the clock? Is that what an envelope would be for? Would I need to run all the VCO outputs through an envelope before going to the CVilization to do this?

Envelopes and VCAs.

Envelopes and VCAs.
-- farkas

Thanks farkas!
I'm assuming VCO > EG > VCA > CVilization?

It sounds like you are using the CVilization as a sequential switch to alternate between waveforms into different filters. I'm not familiar with that module but I think what you would want to do is go VCO > CVilization > filters > VCAs with your Beatstep triggering an envelope that would go into the cv input of the VCA (and filter if desired).

A few options here:
— the VCA with CV envelope open/closing it can generally be last in the chain. That way you just have one lane of VCA managing all related needs
— you COULD if desires send a dummy/nul channel to your sequence selector, that way you are sequencing in rests on an affirmative/positive basis

BTW sounds like the setup you are running has a lot in common with the Verbos Sequence Selector. There’s a bunch of Verbos videos for that online, those would be helpful and inspiring for you to take that technique further.

Cheers, Nicholas

A few options here:
— the VCA with CV envelope open/closing it can generally be last in the chain. That way you just have one lane of VCA managing all related needs
— you COULD if desired send a dummy/nul channel to your sequence selector, that way you are sequencing in rests on an affirmative/positive basis

BTW sounds like the setup you are running has a lot in common with the Verbos Sequence Selector. There’s a bunch of Verbos videos for that online, those would be helpful and inspiring for you to take that technique further.

Cheers, Nicholas

EDITED Nov 13th 2021, 01:40

Hi JB and Farkas,

Yes, I would do what Farkas suggests. I got a bit carried away here in this one:

You can add as many VCOs as you want in the above example, hence VCO-n, where by n is for example 4 if you want to add up till four VCOs. But the number N can be anything, up to you. Same then for the EGs.

To make it a bit more spicy you could add for each VCO its own filter (filter-1 up till filter-n) and at the end of the CVilization another filter, or if that's a bit too much, just that last filter-n+1.

If your LFOs aren't clockable then don't worry, just leave out those patches then. Have fun and kind regards, Garfield.

Edit: Hmm that inline picture doesn't seem to work anymore... lots of troubleshooting, should work now...

EDITED Nov 13th 2021, 02:30

… GarfieldModular for the win!!

EDITED Nov 13th 2021, 02:54

Nickgreenberg: Ha, ha, thanks Nicolas ;-)

JB: I gave it another though my above suggestion, instead of that last "filter-n+1" you could use an effects module, might be more useful. Up to you of course.

Kind regards, Garfield.

Ah so helpful! I too am getting my head around how envelopes work with VCAs and filters.

Hi Sacguy71,

I am glad I could help :-)

Please keep in mind though that this is Eurorack, it is not a must to do it like this, this is just one of the zillion possibilities that are possible with Eurorack setups. For myself I usually use a bit more LFOs and a few less EGs but yes, the above figure shows a classic case, if one can call it that. Have fun with modular and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Garfield,

No worries, yes the beauty of modular and eurorack is million ways to do stuff and every type of music and sound possible. My first year was mostly weird ambient stuff but now I am making progress to create dance tracks and more. I like Radar as it has 8 EGs that can modulate and shape a lot of stuff. I like to pair up Maestro and Kermit with Radar/Blip combo for modulation madness.

Ah so helpful! I too am getting my head around how envelopes work with VCAs and filters.

-- sacguy71

I'm going to speak in general terms here... NOT the most accurate.

Your sequencer will output CV and gates. The CV can typically control the pitch of your oscillator. The gate needs some more modules to be effective. TYPICALLY, you'll run the oscillator output to the input of a VCA and then take the output of the VCA and plug it into somewhere you can listen to it. Your VCA can be used just like a volume knob. You'll hear the volume knob called your "bias" knob. You turn up the bias and the oscillator gets louder. You turn it all the way down and you hear nothing.

Now, you can plug the gate output directly into the CV INPUT of the VCA. Every time the VCA receives a gate, you hear the oscillator. But you might notice that the sound isn't very musical. Typical musical sounds have an ENVELOPE. They can be simple envelopes or more complex envelopes... but envelopes. So a typical patch will have an envelope generator being triggered by the sequencer's gate output and the output of the envelope connected to the CV IN of the VCA. Once adjusted, you'll notice that the Envelope Generator makes the audio output much more musical.

More modules might be involved in this, like a filter, effects, etc. I left those out for simplicity.

Audio Path:
Oscillator>VCA>AudioOutput

CV Path (pitch)
Sequencer CV Out>Oscillator 1v/Octave In
CV Path (gate)
Sequencer Gate Out>Envelope Generator>VCA CV In

Good explanation Ronin- you can also feed an LFO to the envelope and back to VCA cv inputs.
I use LFO more than sequencer gate to do this but can try some gates from sequencer into envelope.

And don't forget: sequencers can do MORE than just CV/g/t stuff. The great example is, of course, the ARP 2500's Mixsequencer, but there's others out there that can sequence through several audio sources; I know that EMW makes one, for instance.

This has got to be one of the most informative and helpful posts I've ever made and had replies too. Thanks everyone for all the insights, truly helpful and I have been definitely benefitting from all the comments.

One thing I had fun experimenting with is running the output of my Hydrasynth to one track in Ableton, then using the headphone output, I ran that through my Intellijel buffered mult...each output was an input into one of the four CVilization inputs and then each channel on the CVilization had two steps activated...so channel 1 had steps 1 and 5, channel 2 had 2 and 6, etc...each output runs to a different channel on my Cosmix....it created this really cool choppy/wavey sound that I sent to a separate track in Ableton....when I play the two together, it gave some really cool/interesting results. Further fun by switching on/off different channels on the Cosmix.

@farkas and @Garfield Modular - great tips, thank you very much, I'm getting a much better feel for using the envelopes with everything.