More Stooge blathering -
1. ASR vs AR: The reason I envisioned needing a mode switch is that for AR,
I think you'd want the attack phase to always complete fully before release
starts, so it works correctly with very short triggers and long attack
times. But with ASR, you want release to start immediately when the gate
goes low. Hence, a switch tells the EG how to behave, but at the expense of
panel real estate. I personally don't like half click input jacks, because
now you are hiding functionality and you can't just glance at the panel in a
dense patch and see how it's set (sorry to disagree, Chris! ;>)
2. 1U vs 2U, simple versus complex, flexible versus affordable: we really
have 2 conversations going, one about a simple VC AR, maybe chainable or
retriggerable, and the other about a super whizbang multistage VC DADSR or
level/time based EG. These are incompatible goals, so we should realize we
are talking about at least 2 different modules. I like the idea of 1U for
the simple case because if I want to chain 3 or 4 together, I don't want to
burn 8U of space. The interesting thing about the complex module being
talked about is that it will end up being 4U wide or more to get enough
knobs on it, or you'll have to have a processor to multiplex them. By this
time, you have the makings of a minisequencer, or JH's interpolating
scanner. If you are devoting this much expense and panel space, your module
may as well be able to do other things, too.
Matter of fact, I think the interpolating scanner is an incredible module,
and Paul should offer it in a MOTM module (fortunately, JH already designs
for MOTM!) It will already do something very close to the multiple break
point EG functions, and will also allow VC crossfading of audio. For a
description, see:
http://www.synthfool.com/diy/jh_ipscan.html3. Back to the simple design. The idea of the END signal needs ironing out.
First, if you plan on retriggering the EG as an oscillator, you have to have
either a switch to sum the output pulse back to the input, or a second gate
input jack. If you are to use it for chaining, however, the logic gets a
little complicated as you propogate these signals down several modules. I'm
not sure how it should work if you have a module somewhere in the middle set
for ASR mode - then the END signal of the previous stage has to terminate at
some point for the envelope to move on to other stages. I'll have to think
about this some more. Maybe the answer is TWO separate 1U simple AR modules,
one with VC delay, another with the mode switch.
Blah blah over and out,
Moe