Lo-Pass Gates (LPG) | From the Buchla 292 to Mutable Streams

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"I've been using a lot of LPG models, including a few that don't use vactrols. However, I use the Buchla 292 as a reference because it represents the original design. If it doesn't (at least) sound like a 292, it's not a LPG in the classic sense. But it can still be something better or cooler. Manufacturers have the freedom and creativity to build on it, and make it their own, like the QMMG, Streams and the Steady State Gate.

The MakeNoise modules are strongly represented, because it's cool to see all the subtle (and not so subtle) differences between modules. They're all unique signs of the times.

I wish I could include the Rabid Elephant Natural Gate because it may be the most natural gate around, and seriously missing in this collection. It is advertised to be 'strike speed aware', and it also knows that a high note rings shorter. I managed to find a reasonably priced one in Germany and it's on its way to the Lab. It also seems the Rabid Elephant website came back to life, so hopefully they're producing again.

It's funny, but I got Mutable Streams about six years ago and couldn't position it next to the Veils VCA. I remember buying it for the compressor. At the time I had no idea what a LPG was. The manual talked about Buchla, but what the hell did I know. I remember watching DivKid's video, but at the time it sounded like Russian poetry.

Now I know what an LPG is, but my encounter with Streams is about 24 hours young. I remembered a little vactrol symbol on Streams (I am blessed with photographic memory), so I looked it up in my box of forgotten modules, read the manual and was surprised to read it's a dedicated LPG module. All modes have something to do with a low pass gate. I patched it up and was blown away by the possibilities you probably already know about. But I need to learn too, especially stuff I have lying around unused for many years.

00:00 Introduction
00:21 Plaits 2 OP FM as a source and the built in LPG.
01:27 Buchla/TTA 292T - The Reference
03:32 MN Optomix LPG
04:26 MN Dynamix VCFA
05:46 MN LxD
07:29 MN DXG
08:51 MN QMMG
10:18 SSF Steady State Gate
12:39 Noise Engineering Sinc Bucina
13:28 Endorphines Sqwk Dirty
14:14 Mutable Instruments Streams"