Alchemical Audio Touch Controller

Published on Dec 14, 2018 synthrotek

"The Alchemical Audio Touch Controller is a 60HP Eurorack or standalone touch keyboard interface with portamento and pitch bend controls.

If you're looking for something to add to your Moog Mother 32, look no further! At 60HP (12 inches) wide, it's the same size as a Mother 32 or DFAM, and will fit into Moog's tiered rack case. It will also fit into Synthrotek's 6U or 9U Cheeks of Steel. If you want to use it as a tabletop unit, it looks great in our Bus Cheeks.

Touch Controls:
The keyboard pads are shaped and positioned so that a "finger drumming" technique can be developed that is very fast compared to the traditional keyboard, which requires a series of mechanical events to trigger the circuit, string, tine or whatever. Notes are triggered instantly when a fluctuation of capacitance is received. Why 25 notes? It just seemed conventional, and it fit perfectly into a 60HP Eurorack row.
The arrows shift the pitch an octave up or down at each touch.
The four squiggly lines found above the keyboard "bend" the pitch up or down by a semitone or a full octave.

Portamento:
The portamento/slew/lag glides the pitch smoothly from one note to the next. The LAG AMT knob changes the amount of time it takes to get from note A to note B. When switched to "ON" mode, portamento is always present on a note change. If the knob is turned fully counter-clockwise, the effect is turned off.
The LAG GATE IN jack allows a gate to turn the portamento function on and off. Used with a sequencer, LFO or other voltage source, you can make soulful bass lines and melody variations with ease! The slewing function will only happen when an incoming gate is high, externally controlling when "slides" can happen. If the gate goes back to low in the middle of a glide, the pitch will jump to the last note played.

Monophonic or Polyphonic:
The CV OUT jack covers 8 octaves and is monophonic, great for lead lines or bass lines and easy to integrate with your synths. When one note isn't enough, the MIDI OUT has a huge 10-octave range and is polyphonic, allowing you to play all 25 keyboard pads at the same time if you wish.
MIDI: MIDI data transmits on channel 1. The portamento function is tied to the CV output and will not work with the MIDI out. The pitch bend will work with MIDI so long as the unit receiving the MIDI signal has a pitch bend function.

Features:
25-note touch-capacitive keyboard
Monophonic V/O CV output that tracks 8 octaves
Polyphonic MIDI output that tracks 10 octaves
Pitch bend controls: semitone up/down and octave up/down
Portamento control with external gate on/off jack
Gate and Trigger outputs
Specifications:
Width: 60HP (12 x 5.25 inches)
Depth: 17mm
Requires Eurorack power -OR- 12V center POSITIVE wall wart (2.1mm x 5.5mm barrel)
Power consumption:
+12V: 35mA
-12V: 0mA
+5V: 0mA
Includes 2.5mm and 3mm module screws and 10-16 pin Eurorack power cable"