Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: MOTM

Obvious features would include rudimentary preamp, signal input, input gain,
gate output, gate threshold control, response time control, envelope out and
envelope level.

Some addl. potential features might be:
mic vs line level input
separate attack and decay response settings
trigger out
gate led
clip led
preamp out
FWR out
peak-correction circuitry (to enhance performance for even-harmonic signals)
multiple FWR/peak-correction AC-coupled stages

Any thoughts out there?

I've got some out there thoughts all right!

This is one of the least "standardized" modules around. In the ARP 2600, there is an input section (left-hand side) which has three modules:

1) Preamp -- with two level controls (a knob and a switch for "X 10 -- X 100 -- X 1000").

2) Envelope Follower -- one level control.

3) Ring Modulator -- two level controls (one for each input) and a switch for AC/DC coupling of the inputs -- not really part of the Preamp/Envelope Follower scheme.

Other useful modules are the Lag Processor and the Inverter (located in the lower Voltage Processors section).

So note that there is no way to generate a trigger or gate signal (and therefore, no way to use the EGs) from an external device (actually I think if you use the RM as a DC coupled VCA you might be able to get a gate out, but I haven't tried it yet and it's a poor use of a lot of good hardware for something so simple). But it does provide you with a few useful features.

Contrast that with the Serge Preamp Detector module:
1) Preamp section -- HI Z and LO Z inputs and one level knob and an output.

2) Detector section -- Input, LED (indicating level) and an output. Also, a coupler switch so that the detector input comes from the preamp output.

If you want to process the CV output of the detector (and you will!) you run that into one half of a Dual Slope Generator (for limited VC Lag control). If you want to generate a gate to fire an EG, you run it through a comparator (remember, the ARP has no comparator available).


I have ordered a Preamp module from Tony A. but I can't remember what features his has, though I seem to recall it as being a good selection of controls.

I bring up these examples (since they are the ones I've had the most experience with) to show that there are different ways to look at these input modules. Do you have the full featured external input module with a hundred knobs, or have a hundred micro sized modules each with one input one output and one knob. I would choose some middle ground -- I can imagine a single input module which would have the following features:

1) Preamp -- multi level capable (mic, guitar, line level) with some sort of level indicators to indicate 90% to 100% and over 100% levels (maybe one of those three color LEDs), and a gain control, and an output.

2) Gate (and maybe Trigger) extractor -- I'd prefer this to be a simple one knob (comparator) affair, but I recall some discussion about having differing on and off levels. I think that would be confusing to the user and not terribly useful. Maybe a gate LED would be fun.

3) Envelope Follower -- have a single voltage which follows the envelope generated from the preamp output. Maybe it would have a single level control. But also have a second processed output which would take that output run it through a lag processor with separate up and down lag controls (if only so you could get simple backwards envelope sounds). Maybe an output LED on this second output would be fun as well.

So that would be one or two inputs, five outputs, maybe five knobs, maybe three LEDs -- seems like it could all fit on a 2U panel.

As far as your last three things on you list, George, I don't know what they are. If they FWR is used for fuzzbox like timbres, I would prefer to see a separate module for half and full wave rectification. If it is part of the EF output, I'm not sure what you mean to do there. I have the same thoughts about the other things you mention (like peak detection) -- isn't that why you are taking the input, so you can processes it through inverters and VCAs etc?


And after I wrote all that, I decided to look here:

http://www.oakleysound.com/follower.htm


And John Blacet has a nice input module too, though I can only get his tech notes page at the moment. http://www.blacet.com/


JB