SergeModular

Any one have any idea how many Serge synths were made with 1/8 jacks? And
don't say none, because I know at least one was made in 1973.

Ken
_______________________________________________________________________
Ken Stone sasami@...
Modular Synth PCBs for sale <http://www.blaze.net.au/~sasami/synth/>
Australian Miniature Horses & Ponies <http://www.blaze.net.au/~sasami/>

After picking up one of these cheap last year in S.F. for $350 , I
took a risk on one of these after reading some fascinating stuff by
Dan Slater who uses one with his Buchla system (which also uses
banana jacks , keeping cross patching simple).

Initially the vaguely familiar look of the front panel sockets
combined with the strictly electronic speek front panel legend &
unfamiliar "modularity" of the unit has become less obscure & I can
report back on some of the easily patchable worthwhile functions for
anyone with a Serge or banana jack modular.

Straight up are 2 ring modulators & 2 inverters .

then there are basically 6 op-amp type units ,with summing
junctions and some incorporating electronic switching enabling the
following .(not all are patchable simultaneously , but a certain
amount of mix 'n' match is possible -some functions include a ring
modulator or inverter as a sub module of itself....but in theory you
can have :
6 x attenuator
2 x sample & hold
2 x track & hold
4 x electronic switch
4 x 4 into 1 summer junctions
2 x 3 into 1 summer junctions
4 x integrator/slew generators
2 x voltage dividers
2 x multipliers
2 x squarer
2 x square root
4 x differentiators
2 x 3 input mixers or 3 x 2 input or 1 x 4 & 1 x 2 inputmixers.
plus more that I've yet to suss.....
So , as you can dee -it is quite a host of auxillary house-keeping
modules & voltage processors & routers . As $350 doesnt buy even the
ring mods on a Serge (and as you dont always need all the excellent
features of the Serge version) you can see that this unit can be a
very handy extender . The front plate looks similar proportions
heightwise to serge panels , but looks like 20" or so in width .

By the way . Does anyone have any experience of using the Serge
boolean module as a ring mopdulator . I understand that an XOR gate
could be used in this way ?
regards
Sonic

--- In SergeModular@y..., "sonicsynthi" <sonic@s...> wrote:

--- In SergeModular@y..., "cg_synth" <sasami@h...> wrote:

>
>--- In SergeModular@y..., "cg_synth" <sasami@h...> wrote:
>>
>> EXOR gates can be used as ring modulators for square/rectangular
>> waves. The effect is the same as if you fed two identical level
>> square/rectangular waves to a regular ring mod. Once the levels or
>> shape of the incoming signals change from that described above,
>while
>> you may still get a sound, it is no longer true ring modulation. I
>> guess you could say EXOR ring modulation is a sub-set of true ring
>> modulation.

> Would it be true to say that any input wave with a "steep" onset
>like a ramp wave could be used , but the outputs , while retaining
>the same fundamentaly related ouputs as if a square wave were used ,
>but with a differant overtone modulation ?

Perhaps. It depends on how the EXOR interprets the incoming wave, or more
specifically, at what point it considers the waveform to be logic high or
logic low. A sine or triangle wave may well prove to generate the exact same
output, if the low to high detection pint is at 50% of the wave height.

> I guess the other boolean functions can similarly used to generate
>similar square wave based output modulations ?

Certainly. I am using a three input AND gate to generate some pretty decent
chime sounds. It is more of a 2 quadrant multiplier (unlike the ring
mod/EXOR which functions as a 4 quadrent multiplier). I am still getting
what sounds like sum and difference tones, but not as emphasized as an EXOR.

> the comparator certainly makes a great sorta fuzz box . especially
>when processing 2 variations of the same sound

A comparator can be considered to be an amplifier with MASSIVE gain, the
output of which clips near the voltage of the power rails. Quite a number of
fuzz boxes are done that way.

Ken
_______________________________________________________________________
Ken Stone sasami@...
Modular Synth PCBs for sale <http://www.blaze.net.au/~sasami/synth/>
Australian Miniature Horses & Ponies <http://www.blaze.net.au/~sasami/>