modular etc etc

[steevio]

@ Steevio & oblio How many VCA's do you have in your setups?

if you count dual VCAs as two, and quad VCAs as 4, and also filters with built in VCAs as VCAs, i have 10 moduar VCAs, but i also have the sherman filterbank and Moog Voyager as part of my rig, so i have 12 VCAs altogether.
so i have 12 individual amplifiable pathways, but in reality thats only normally 10 because i use two of the channels on my QMMG as Low pass Gates.

so ive got 10 sounds basically, apart from the kickdrum.

[oblioblioblio]

I have 4 crossfading VCAs which pans 1 signal from one side to the other, whilst simultaneously panning another signal in the opposite direction. Can use it for mixing/crossfading of audio signals in typical fashion, but really ultra fun to use for mixing CVs, say to make a weird kick drum patch, or super ultra weird rain percussion, or for mixing between waveshapes.

Also 3 other similar but slightly different crossfading VCAs.

I have 2 other ordinary VCAs which are often used for dynamic depth linear FM (like typical digital FM).

I also have a big batch of LPGs which are kind of filters and kind of VCAs. They are what I use as audio VCAs, for dynamics and tone shaping. The other ones are more for CV processing.

That's just for my system though and maybe your system and modules work differently. Be ready to use buy/sell/trade on muffs as your vision develops.

[tone-def]

I read somewhere that you can never have enough VCA, so wanted to see how much truth there was in it.

I'm not planning too far ahead. I want to see how thing develop for me naturally and i'm expecting quite a turnover of modules.

[steevio]

I read somewhere that you can never have enough VCA, so wanted to see how much truth there was in it.

haha yes that was some guy on Muffwiggler's signature,

the way i look at it, maybe a better signature would be 'you cant have enough Voltage Control'

it really depends on what you are trying to acheive, a VCA is not really an amplifier, its a voltage controlled attenuator, and just as important are just straight manual attenuators /polarizers.
you need more attenuators than VCAs really, because you find quite early on that CVs need to be the right level to do stuff and being able to vary them manually adds to your control and creativity.
ive got loads of attenuators, when i started i didnt have any.

[oblioblioblio]

maybe out of people's budget but Hinton Instruments Switchmix plus Trimmer inputs is a full scale musical revolution for mixing and attenuation of CVs. The man is not treading the path that many are... very innovative designer.

[Randomseed]

I think the fact that most newer VCA designs tend to have bias control is changing all that.
Most VCA can be stand alone attenuators on their own now, not all but a lot of them.
The Linix from intellijel has taken over my VCA situation (along with an optomix for extra LPG useage), its quite a dandy 6X VCA module and the summing out is waiting for me to devise new and interesting ideas with.

By the Way Steevio, its indirectly your fault I ever got into this. Between My friends Skepts interactions with you and the fact you where the first person to actually put out all modular sounds the fit in exactly with the type of music I love. I didn't think it was really possible until I saw you doing it in your videos.
Been all down/up hill since then.....18U later here we are!

I read somewhere that you can never have enough VCA, so wanted to see how much truth there was in it.

haha yes that was some guy on Muffwiggler's signature,

the way i look at it, maybe a better signature would be 'you cant have enough Voltage Control'

it really depends on what you are trying to acheive, a VCA is not really an amplifier, its a voltage controlled attenuator, and just as important are just straight manual attenuators /polarizers.
you need more attenuators than VCAs really, because you find quite early on that CVs need to be the right level to do stuff and being able to vary them manually adds to your control and creativity.
ive got loads of attenuators, when i started i didnt have any.

[Randomseed]

Its just a digital patchbay? Not sure whats exactly so innovative about it...other then nobody else seems that interested in making one...not sure why.

maybe out of people's budget but Hinton Instruments Switchmix plus Trimmer inputs is a full scale musical revolution for mixing and attenuation of CVs. The man is not treading the path that many are... very innovative designer.

[oblioblioblio]

nope it's a high precision mixer. some older synths like the EMS Synthi used this style of matrix mixing, but they are like you say, just passive connections, which means you have no control. The SwitchMix is proper mixing, same guts as SSL consoles in fact.

With the SwitchMix and Trimmers you can add, subtract any quantity of any CV.

When you get it right on a single voice where all the interactions are good (e.g. using a mix for VCA, mix for filter cutoff, mode, resonance), mix for harmonic content, mix for linear FM depth etc etc etc) it's no different from the level of intimacy you can have with an acoustic instrument, and the degree of control is simply breathtaking.