Thank you for that review. I've been looking forward to ordering one of these
for a very long time but had it on the back burner until now. I had no idea
about the clock input and pulse output...what great features.
--- Richard Brewster <
pugix@...> wrote:
> I have used my Blacet Miniwaves mostly for quantizing, since I like to
> use scale tones in my aleatoric musings. I've looked around for a
> dedicated quantizer, but never found anything well suited to a standard
> MOTM setup until this. Not sure when it was added to the Modcan B
> lineup, but the Dual Quantizer 55B fills the bill. I've updated my
> website with some photos and a two minute MP3 demo.
>
> http://www.pugix.com/top-cabinet.htm#quantizer
>
> The Miniwave does well as a quantizer. Modcan offers a version of the
> Miniwave, too, with a built-in VCO. There's a quantizer bank in the
> standard Blacet ROM. The Davidson SCALE Quantizer ROM is excellent,
> too. I'll speak to the differences between the quantizing with the
> Miniwave and the Modcan 55B in a bit. First, about the physical Modcan
> 55B module.
>
> As you can see from the photos on my site, the 55B fits perfectly into
> my MOTM rack. Although it's a thinner panel, the 1/16-inch difference
> of height (shallower than the 1/8-inch MOTM panels) is barely
> noticeable. What ∗is∗ noticeable of course is the color. The panel
> design is nice and clean. The jack spacing and locations are different
> from MOTM. The switches are mini-toggles, not bat-handles. Alpha pots
> are used. I replaced the knobs, not just because of the look, but
> because Modcan knobs have a gap in the flute that the set screw goes
> through, and your finger catches on it. It's annoying. Otherwise,
> build quality is very good; it's clearly assembled with care. You'll
> notice that the hardware consists mainly of a large PIC
> microcontroller. The six trimpots are labelled, but there's no mention
> of them in the instruction manual, which is very short. It would be
> nice to have a calibration procedure.
>
> Lead time on this was two months from placing the order and payment and
> receipt of the module. I never ordered from Modcan before, but this
> seems about normal. When I placed the order, Bruce Duncan responded
> quickly and asked what power cable I required. He supplied a MOTM power
> cable adapter at no extra cost.
>
> The 55B features.
>
> There are two identical and separate quantizers. Each has an input for
> the CV to be quantized, an output, a clock input and a pulse output, and
> three control inputs. There are four parameters, three of which are
> under voltage control. You manually select one of three fixed scale
> banks. This isn't under VC like the Miniwave bank is. Each bank has 16
> scales, selected by the sum of a pot and a SCALE CV input. There is
> also a TRANSPOSE pot and CV input; the Miniwave has nothing like this.
> It is a key transposition, not just an offset. (I don't really
> understand the difference. Maybe one of you will explain it.) Finally,
> there is an INVERT input that responds to a gate. This simply inverts
> the output around ground. If your input is all positive, when inverted
> it is all negative. I didn't quite see the utility of this until I
> realized that negative inputs get quantized just fine, unlike the
> Miniwave, which needs a zero to +10V input in quantizing mode. So you
> can merrily quantize a MOTM-320 LFO, using any of its waveforms. You'll
> normally want to use an external attenuator on the input for overall
> scaling. None of the inputs has a pot for attenuation, due to lack of
> panel space.
>
> With nothing patched to the CLOCK input, quantizing happens when the
> input crosses a quantized boundary, just like with the Miniwave. On
> each transition you get a short pulse out of the PULSE output. It's
> something I have wished the Miniwave had. (I saw a schematic somewhere
> describing a pulse output Miniwave modification.) My demo MP3 shows
> this off by using it to trigger an envelope generator to make a new note
> on each transition. Now, I found that when quantizing the output of a
> sample and hold, the 55B works better if you clock it with the same
> clock used for the sample and hold. It's cleaner, because with large
> jumps without clocking there can be a zipper effect as multiple
> transitions are crossed. The 55B makes a nice sample and hold by itself,
> with a no-droop digitized output.
>
> I admit to general ignorance when it comes to scales. But I can say
> that the choice of scales in the three banks has a good variety. My
> favorite is the B bank, which includes Algerian, Altered, Aux
> Diminished, Balinese, Byzantine, Diatonic, Spanish, Double Harmonic,
> Hindu, Sixtone Symmetric, Nine Tone, Overtone Dominant, Pelog,
> Prometheus, Enigmatic, and Octatonic. (These are listed on the Modcan
> website as being in the C bank, but the downloaded manual puts them in
> bank B and to my ear this seems right.)
>
> Overall impression is of a very nice module that I will use a lot. Now
> maybe it needs a few Modcan siblings in my cabinet. The Clock 53B looks
> very interesting....
>
> -Richard Brewster
> http://www.pugix.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
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