PLAN B analog blog

There's a possibility that the NON VC Stereo Mixer - what's 
currently known as the Model 18 -  will be released regardless of 
how the poll swings.  It's too useful not to.

As far as a VC add-on, that would be doubtful if the poll goes to 
the larger carnation.  To reason being:

The way it's been conceived,  the 18A Expander (the add-on 
which adds VC to each channel) basically replaces the mixing 
circuitry of the host unit and adds external voltage controllability.   
When the 18A is *in*, the Model 18 host becomes knobs and 
jacks only  - all mixing, panning and control features are 
transferred to the Expander at that point.

Going into a little more detail - Manual panning requires a linear 
pot and  a few resistors. There's also a op amp summer, in 
there,  but those would be required regardless of pan or not.   
For voltage controlled panning your options are to utilize a multi 
channel VCA IC or perform that functionally semi-discretely with  
two OTA amplifiers, a larger handful of resistors, two transistors, 
two  trim pots and three ops amps - one to phase-shift the 
control signal, and two others for converting the current outputs 
of the OTA amps to voltage.  And that's only 1 of the four panners.  
I find it foolish to keep all those dormant on the host unit if VC 
isn't required.  Breaking it into two units seemed to be the logical 
option.

- P

On 3/3/06 10:53 PM, "(i think you can figure that out)"
<peter@buzzclick-music.com> wrote:

> There's a possibility that the NON VC Stereo Mixer - what's
> currently known as the Model 18 -  will be released regardless of
> how the poll swings.  It's too useful not to.
> 
> As far as a VC add-on, that would be doubtful if the poll goes to
> the larger carnation.

I voted for separate modules, hence it's a modular, all in one seems like
quite the contradiction, you could just keep adding bits forever for your
uber module... but that's no longer a module, is it?  Currently eurorack
space ain't cheap(unless you DIY) so, add the cost of spaces in, when you
figure module cost.
I don't really need the balanced outs, may at one point and would be nice to
add them then, and to do that right don't you need a very pricey transformer
anyway? or  a cheap one... so right there you could offer maybe 3 versions
of the balanced outs... live and studio use are very different (or did I get
that wrong?) 
If I was to get this module, and that is "if" only due to financial reasons,
for some reason things that make wild noises get priority. Anyway, I would
want CV but not balanced...yet.  Probably would add later as needed.

Sorry to most that voted, I like it modular. So, why did you vote for all in
one?
best,
phil

> Sorry to most that voted, I like it modular. So, why did you vote
for all in
> one?

i voted for the all in one. looking at the differences between the 2
versions the thing that stood out to me was the cue feature. which is
really cool, very helpful for live performance and so a big selling
point for me. 

my 2 cents anyway.

best,
--david

Rragrding balanced outand and transformers:

There are several ways to create balanced separation,using a 
transofrmer being one of them - but yes, a costly one. I currently 
have a pair of Jensen Transformers inline to my synth outs and 
they're amazing.  Even though they're unbalanced, they totally 
killed non-signal related noise and hum while having no ill 
effects on amplitude or frequency range of the synth signals.  Try 
that with almost any other transformer and you're not going to 
have the same results, not even close.  It'll kill hum you my be 
experiencing, but your signal level will drop 30 dB and even more 
than that on the high end.  Jensen's are fairly small (cylindrical 
and about an inch in diameter), so they'd fit behind a eurorack 
format module, but... they're $70 each!  OUCH.

Conversely, while at M&K I became aware of some other 
methods which don't require transformers and are mere 
pennies by comparison , and the Output Processor is going to 
go this route.

- P