MATRIXSYNTH: EML Electrocomp 101 Mods and Sample


Thursday, November 09, 2006

EML Electrocomp 101 Mods and Sample

This one in via cornutt:

"The modifications include adding a patch point to the sample-and-hold signal input (which comes from the factory hard-wired to VCO 4), and jacks to break out the individual lowpass, bandpass, and highpass signals from the multimode filter.

Also, in an earlier thread, someone asked me for a sample of the 101's sample and hold in action. Here is a link to a rather long sample (about 6 minutes).

This patch uses all four VCOs. The S&H is sampling VCO 1, in low range; as the piece proceeds I gradually advance the rates of both VCO 1 and the S&H's trigger oscillator. VCO 2 and 3 are generating the sound, and VCO 4 is being used as the carrier for the ring modulator. The output is fed into a Lexicon MPX 500, set to some rather extreme large-hall settings."

Thanks cornutt!

7 comments:

  1. thanks! what a crazy, wonderful exploration of that unique S&H!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I breathe in with the good air, out with the bad.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's me. For email, de-munge this: cornutt *at* hiwaay *dot* net

    Briefly: The EML uses non-standard CV scaling, 1.2 V/octave. Some MIDI-to-CV converters won't scale up this high. Not sure about the Kenton; I use a JKJ CV-5 (now out of production, sadly).

    The other thing is that EML for some reason put an extra resistor divider network into the external CV input jacks for the oscillator mixer. That changes the scaling for those inputs to something ridiculous, like 2.5 V/octave. Apparently not all 101's have this "feature", but mine did. I hacked in a jack that bypasses that extra resistor network so I can put in a 1.2 V/octave signal and it works.

    BTW, don't even think about trying to hack into the keyboard input. I've tried that, and it's crazy. I sorta kinda got it to work once; it scaled properly, but -- the keyboard tracked backwards!

    ReplyDelete
  4. > I use a JKJ CV-5 (now out of production, sadly).

    I still run the website, although I haven't been able to get in touch with Kyle:

    http://www.jkjelectronics.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. 1.2 V/octave is the Buchla way, n'est pas?

    ReplyDelete
  6. I posted a reasonable amount of material on AH back in the late 90s.

    The 2 Kentons I had (pro-solo and Pro 4) topped off well below 1.2v oct. You can however use a CV mixer to pump it up by splitting the CV to mixer inputs. The first one at 100% and the second one at about 20%. Obviously the 1.2v was chosen so each semitone could be 0.1 volt difference, but obviously it put it self at odds with other synths.

    Okay, now connecting it. The patch panel input is clearly meant for modulation, so the person posting is correct. I just would avoid it. Don't bother messing with Hz/v on an EML, it's a red herring. Also the Envelope input without a mod just triggers one EG, not both in unison. Weird choices, but I'll confirm they are features not bugs.

    How I connected was quite common sense. I tapped into the keyboard connector. Your gate there will trigger both EGs and CV will be 1.2v ... but you still have that extra notes per octave that confuses things.

    When scaling while tapping into the Keyboard connector I found that there is some sort of track and hold when the gate is on, So I was adjusting my scaling with a key depressed and not hearing any change. You have to send a new gate to hear any CV change. So that also means if you are a fan of sending CV portamento or pitch bends then you are out of luck without some mods.

    As for mods. I've been meaning to rewire one of the multiples to provide "proper" CV and gate in jacks. I could definitely see adding a switch to disable the notes per octave knob.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I posted a reasonable amount of material on AH back in the late 90s.

    The 2 Kentons I had (pro-solo and Pro 4) topped off well below 1.2v oct. You can however use a CV mixer to pump it up by splitting the CV to mixer inputs. The first one at 100% and the second one at about 20%. Obviously the 1.2v was chosen so each semitone could be 0.1 volt difference, but obviously it put it self at odds with other synths.

    Okay, now connecting it. The patch panel input is clearly meant for modulation, so the person posting is correct. I just would avoid it. Don't bother messing with Hz/v on an EML, it's a red herring. Also the Envelope input without a mod just triggers one EG, not both in unison. Weird choices, but I'll confirm they are features not bugs.

    How I connected was quite common sense. I tapped into the keyboard connector. Your gate there will trigger both EGs and CV will be 1.2v ... but you still have that extra notes per octave that confuses things.

    When scaling while tapping into the Keyboard connector I found that there is some sort of track and hold when the gate is on, So I was adjusting my scaling with a key depressed and not hearing any change. You have to send a new gate to hear any CV change. So that also means if you are a fan of sending CV portamento or pitch bends then you are out of luck without some mods.

    As for mods. I've been meaning to rewire one of the multiples to provide "proper" CV and gate in jacks. I could definitely see adding a switch to disable the notes per octave knob.

    ReplyDelete

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