SergeModular

I've been wishing that there was an LED assigned to each vertical grouping so I could tell which step it was on.

I don't use the vertical part of the sequencer that much. My thinking is that the purposes it was intended for were mainly to extend the sequencer length (to as much as 64 notes), or to allow a four note arpeggio at each stage.

For example, one might want to use such a feature in the following way.

1) Don't use the horizontal clock at all.

2) Turn the key select switch on (so the touch pads select which stage you want).

3) Put a relatively fast clock into the vertical clock input.

4) Take the ABCD out to your VCO and VCF as normal.

5) Tune which ever stages you want to use (if you want to use all 16 stages you will have to tune all 64 pots of the sequencer -- hours of fun!).

A patch like this can yield some interesting results. It can give you a pseudo Baba O'Riley kind of effect (though I think Townshend used Lowery organ and played back the tape at a higher speed for the sound on that tune). I also believe an approach like this was used on at least a few early Subotnick pieces (like Touch and possibly The Wild Bull iirc).

One thing that's been really bugging me lately is a a click as the TKB proceeds to each step. I'm clocking it using the sq wave generated via the cycle on my DTG. Is this clicking normal? I don't recall it ever happening before.

jc

First, trivially, I think you mean pulse out and not square out. I often confuse pulse and square; it's easy to do.

A square wave is a pulse wave with a 50% duty cycle (ie, it's "up" for the same length it is "down"). A pulse wave can really have any length of duty cycle (beyond of course zero). I think the pulse out of the DSG/DTG is rather short, but I'm under the impression that the important thing about it being a pulse wave is the rise time of the pulse. I remember Serge T. telling/writing this to me a couple of times when I was asking about pulse length (meaning in his ever polite way, that I was asking the wrong question).

I don't know the DTG that well, so you may not be able to use it like I do DSG, but I generally don't experience that clicking problem too much (or at all?). I often use just one half of a DSG to generate *both* the sequencer clock and the envelope slopes (for my VCAs and VCFs). This is possible since the pulse output only goes high (as a brief pulse) at the END of the cycle; ie, after the slope voltage has returned to zero volts, therefore, your VCAs and VCFs are "closed" or off.

To get a nice "sounding" envelope, I often take the output from that half of the DSG and run it back in to one of the CV inputs. This will change the slope output to be a curve and not merely a straight line. Since everything is modulating everything else, it will take very slight movements of any given knob to adjust the slope. And any adjustment might make a change to some other part of the sound, so you may find your effective operating area of your pots being rather small, and once in that area, very small movements will make pretty dramatic changes. So it is as subtle as tuning any other instrument (like a guitar or a violin). But then again, that's part of the fun!

Hope some of that helps,

JB