MOTM

Hi, I just placed a few kit orders. My first modular, I'm excited. :) I 
wonder how far I'll go, 2 racks? 2 cabinets? We shall see.

Anyhow, I have a few newbie questions while I'm waiting for parts. 
First, what does the PWM Depth do? There's an initial width and PWM 
amount, I get that. But depth I can't figure out.

Also, how do you do a long release time on a modular synth? When I let 
go of the key, the oscillator stops, right? Do I feed the CV signal 
through something to extend it? An envelope generator? I can't get my 
head around this quite yet.

Thanks for your help, -jl

An oscillator never stops making sound. You shape it by putting it
through a voltage controlled amplifier which has an audio input and a
control input. The voltage at the control input sets how much of the
audio input makes it to the output. That control input is where you
plug the envelope generator to control attack and decay.

Moe

--- In motm@yahoogroups.com, Jeff Laity <synthetic@e...> wrote:

> Hi, I just placed a few kit orders. My first modular, I'm excited. :) I 
> wonder how far I'll go, 2 racks? 2 cabinets? We shall see.
> 
> Anyhow, I have a few newbie questions while I'm waiting for parts. 
> First, what does the PWM Depth do? There's an initial width and PWM 
> amount, I get that. But depth I can't figure out.
> 
> Also, how do you do a long release time on a modular synth? When I let 
> go of the key, the oscillator stops, right? Do I feed the CV signal 
> through something to extend it? An envelope generator? I can't get my 
> head around this quite yet.
> 
> Thanks for your help, -jl

PWM depth means how much incoming PWM control voltage is allowed to 
modulate the width.  If you set the depth to 0, no matter what is plugged 
into the PWM CV jack, nothing will change.  Set it to 10, and you get the 
most change for small variation of the CV.

  And, oscillators never 'turn off', unless you power them off.  To make 
the tone build up and die away, you use an amplifier (VCA) and control it 
to increase/decrease the volume of the tone plugged into it from the 
oscillator.  You control the VCA with, well, anything, but an envelope 
generator is a good place to start.

Crow
/**/

On Fri, 20 Aug 2004, Jeff Laity wrote:

> Anyhow, I have a few newbie questions while I'm waiting for parts. 
> First, what does the PWM Depth do? There's an initial width and PWM 
> amount, I get that. But depth I can't figure out.
> 
> Also, how do you do a long release time on a modular synth? When I let 
> go of the key, the oscillator stops, right? Do I feed the CV signal 
> through something to extend it? An envelope generator? I can't get my 
> head around this quite yet.
> 
> Thanks for your help, -jl

>Hi, I just placed a few kit orders. My first modular, I'm excited. :) I
>wonder how far I'll go, 2 racks? 2 cabinets? We shall see.

Plan to buy a bigger house.

>
>Anyhow, I have a few newbie questions while I'm waiting for parts.
>First, what does the PWM Depth do? There's an initial width and PWM
>amount, I get that. But depth I can't figure out.

Which module has PWM Depth? I don't see it on any of mine.

>
>Also, how do you do a long release time on a modular synth? When I let
>go of the key, the oscillator stops, right? Do I feed the CV signal
>through something to extend it? An envelope generator? I can't get my
>head around this quite yet.

Actually, quite the opposite. An oscillator never stops producing a 
signal. Typically, you feed an oscillator (or other audio signal) 
into a VCA's audio input and feed an envelope generator into the 
VCA's control voltage input to change the amplitude of the audio 
signal. For infinite sustain, add a DC bias to the VCA's control 
voltage input. To get a long slow release time, set the envelope 
generator's RELEASE time to maximum.

On Aug 20, 2004, at 1:56 PM, mate_stubb wrote:
> An oscillator never stops making sound. You shape it by putting it
>  through a voltage controlled amplifier which has an audio input and a
>  control input.

Aha, that was my next guess.

On Aug 20, 2004, at 2:06 PM, Scott Juskiw wrote:
> Which module has PWM Depth? I don't see it on any of mine.

The MOTM 300 Oscillator.

>>Which module has PWM Depth? I don't see it on any of mine.
>
>The MOTM 300 Oscillator.

Paul is messing with our minds. The mockups of the MOTM-300 (on 
website and in the catalogue) have a DEPTH knob, but on the real 
article that knob is labelled FM1. So I'd have to say that DEPTH, in 
this case, is actually the amount of FM DEPTH, not PWM DEPTH. But 
what Crow said about PWM DEPTH is also correct, but on the MOTM-300 
that knob is labelled PWM.