"Improvising on a Buchla Easel Command with Northern Light Modular cardTSNM and Eventide H90."
"Touch sensing plug-in keyboard for any 208 sound module
Modular Music at your fingertips Touch Sensing Note Memory is a performance oriented keyboard controller featuring 12 note plates (tunable over 6 octaves) and two transposition buttons (variable transposition distance from -36 to +36 semitones). Highly accurate pitch (V/oct) output is guaranteed by a precision 16-bit DAC. Pressure sensing capability of note plates gives maximum human control through the dedicated CV output. On-board arpeggiator, sequencer, quantiser (with user editable scales), Pressure CV recorder, envelope generator, random voltage generator, slew limiter, vibrato.
The module can save presets including keyboard layout, sequences and all the options under settings.
Feature set :
Duophonic pitch and/or capacity modulation Dual gate and/or trigger options, adjustable per channel Clock and rest options via the 208 pulser and/or sequencer switches Fully integrated into the 208 system bus and/or banana sockets for optional routings. Matrix display for visual feedback Advanced arpeggiator and 32 step sequencer with internal end external clock options Low power consumption of only 80 mAh TSNM is a software layer written and managed by www.DOBOZ NLM has licensed the infrastructure and is offering the cardTSNM with full support by doboz.audio"
See previous posts via the Doboz label below for a eurorack format module.
"I'm still getting to know my Buchla Easel, but this was a pretty fun patch to play with. Also using the Triglav Modular Clockwork Card for rhythms and Northern Light Modular cardME Mobile Effect Engine for delay and reverb."
"Immensely powerful yet easy to use and understand. It is also very flexible and I consider it to be a mini Event Generation Workstation. Bring a bit of East Coast exponential envelopes (and whole bunch more madness) your 200 system.
00:00 Off we go! 00:01 Basic walkthrough of layout 01:14 TWO ADSRs but the right side has more features 02:47 Explaining “BOTH” and “INV BOTH” outputs. 03:56 Patching in the 251e sequencer and kicking things off. 04:30 Note the exponential curves and why not linear 05:36 Repeats 06:08 Repeats wait until the end of a gate’s sustain 06:59 End of all Events pulse output 09:43 INVERTED output patched to filter 10:58 Trigger Delay 12:25 Randomized Trigger Delay Times 13:15 Randomized Trigger Delay with Repeats (Behavior) 14:55 Fixed Delay with repeats 15:15 Both Outputs Cascaded Looping 16:56 attenuate 17:58 Cascaded Looping gives you full envelope settings and programmed rules on each side 19:19 Individual envelope looping via shorting bar 19:54 super quick AD envelopes! 20:34 Looping the right side with trigger delays and repeats 21:24 Recap of hDI features 23:00 Fini, Finished, Fertig"
"The Covid Kid is back with his 90th video, 30 minutes in length(!), and 3rd round of Covid. I seem to only find time to make videos when I have some downtime due to Covid. Please excuse my flagging voice.
00:10 start of Audio Demos 07:39 start of Technical Overview and Features 08:07 AS3340 & AS3345 chips 08:20 What the 2AT isn't: not e-series and not based upon Buchla designs 09:38 The 4 main sections of the module 09:53 Common Control (Master Pitch in and offset knob) 10:33 Mix Out section with optical clipping 11:22 LFO Swarm based upon their Electric Dompteur h-seriers 1/2 space module. Genius! 13:35 LFO Swarm waveforms 14:15 the weird LFO shapes 15:05 8 octave range with rotary switch 16:08 mixer per oscillator 16:28 3 varieties of sub-octaves 17:39 FM normalling and routing 18:16 0-10V properly biased modulation outs on banana jacks 18:50 scoping out the modulation outs 19:50 shorting bars 20:00 listening to the various forms of oscillator sync 23:30 FM showcase. How it sounds and how the routing works. 28:00 3 Operator FM with 223e arpeggiator 29:21 Adding clocked LFOs and VCA mixing 30:14 fini!
The 2AT is an incredibly feature rich module: It tracks over 8 octaves 3 oscillators with four waveforms each. Each waveform has an individual mix level control via knob and banana jack Rotary switch for selecting the octaves 3-stage sub oscillator Selectable Waveforum Mod CV (0-10V) out Scalable FM and CV control Full PWM control Attenuverters wisely employed where they make sense FM inputs normalled to the outputs of anther oscillator and the routing can be changed on the back Sync I/O via shorting bars Each oscillator's waveform outputs are mixed internally and are present at the MIX OUT if no single out is used Optical clipping stages are present at each OSC, and again at the Mix Out stage
Clocked or Free-Running Swarm LFO The 8 frequencies (the 8 outputs) can be offset in phase or frequency, always based on the master frequency. It can go down to 0 Hz and freeze the levels at their present state Each output has its own attenuator
It’s feature rich! (12 VCAs, syncable & offset-capable LFOs of various waveforms, 4 optical clippers: 3 x each osc and one on Mix Out, 3 sub-oscillators, multi-waveform oscillator sync, and so much more.)
It’s the Northern Light Modular Model 2AT Animated Tricillator. https://northernlightmodular.com/prod...
This thing is nuts but also very well thought out. The master stroke is adding their Electric Dompteur H-Series module ( https://northernlightmodular.com/prod... )right on board. With so many modulation destinations, it makes perfect sense to add 8 syncable, freezable, offset-capable, and multi-waveform LFOs to complete the package and animate the entire show. Each LFO output also features its own attenuator, thus providing subtle movement as heard in this video.
I’m planning to do a full walkthrough of the module as soon as time allows."
The oscillators are built on the classic circuit used in the 80s by Roland, Sequential and others. The new AS3340-HYP VCOs give us that silky smooth 80s feeling back again and take care of the pitch drift the classic CEM shows It tracks fine over all 8 octaves.. All four waveform levels are CV controllable There is a rotary switch for selecting the octaves, a 3-stage sub oscillator and a front panel jumper selectable Mod CV (0-10V) out , scalable FM and CV control and of course full PWM control , all attenuverted The 2AT has the FM inputs normalled to the outputs of the other oscillators and the order can be changed on the back The sync inputs can be connected with shorting bars to the adjacent mod outputs conveniently The 3 separate oscillator outputs are mixed internally and are preset at the MIX OUT if no single out is used. Optical clipping stages are present at OSC and MAIN stage
The left side of the module is a swarm LFO One master frequency, set by a knob or an external input, is re-used 7 times with variations The 8 frequencies can be offset in phase or frequency, always based on the master frequency. It can go down to 0 Hz and freeze the levels at their present state And every output can be adjusted directly at the output without the need for attenuators
There is also a shared pitch input with a 4 octave offset and level LED on the lower left side. The upper left corner is the collective clipping and gain control.
8 linked true zero LFOs Sine, triangle, rising and falling ramps , square , pulsing and frozen random available
V2 offers new Midi clock sync multipliers and a MCU controlled phase/spread button
Offset in phase up to 180 degree Offset in spread based on sub harmonics of the master frequency Frequency range from 0 to 300 hz 8 Outputs can be adjusted from 0-10V individually Cv controlled frequency up to 2x and down to 0hz
The h series modules require a h bracket to be mounted in a 1U space
"Buy any 2 used Northern Light Modular modules and receive a free h-Bracket."
"The h series modules require a h bracket to be mounted in a 1U space"
You can find videos featuring Northern Light Modular in previous posts here.
Pictured:
Voltage Circus – Model hVC
Trommelmaschine – Model hTM
Morphing Mixer – Model hMM
Electric Dompteur – Model hED
Time and Triggers – Model hTT
Classic Oscillator – Model hCO
The Voltage Circus consists of two rows of 3 voltage inputs and outputs that can be chained together.
Voltages can be added , subtracted or an offset can be applied per channel.
The inputs and outputs are buffered and can be connected with shorting bars.
A switch limits each rom to provide 100% or 33% to the mixer channel to make subtraction possible or prevent clipping.
One use of the hVC is for example transposing of sequences, adding subtle animation to pitch signals or mix wild CVs to provide complex noise sources
"Braids going in Verbos Bark filter piged by Northern Lights Modular 2TT, Kick from Braids (DAO) Grayscale. Solo synth by complex Oscillator 261e .Percussion sequenced by the 251e."
"This is a tough one to write up and summarize. It certainly evolved into something rather different than intended. The primary reason being that the 252e and/or 251e lost their programming twice! Twice for the 252e (the core of the show) and once for the 251e. I’ve never had the Atmel products lose their minds like this before. I think that they are rather sensitive to low voltage conditions (brown outs) as they power up as this when they lost their minds. The currently loading preset gets scrambled or wiped. As can be see in the short ancillary video below, the 252e became unresponsive. That’s two trips to the 10-panel case in order to be reflashed with firmware and three runs at programming the damn thing.
I was so exasperated that I nearly pulled everything so that I could start on the other 3 ideas that I wish to explore and execute. I did promise myself that I would endeavor to be less concerned with perfection and be more concerned with simply getting anything of interest out into the world. It doesn’t have to be novel. It doesn’t have to be world-changing. It just needs to get out there if there is even anything 51% interesting in the recording; I do have some standards after all! I brewed up a double espresso and hit ‘record’.
It started as an E Minor progression with evolution to… Fuck if I know anymore. That stuff got deleted. I eventually threw in some Whole Tone stuff (especially noticeable toward the end) and smashed it all together in gobs of delay via new toys from X1L3: a Shard, an Underwurlde (messed up delay), and a circuit bent and high augmented with Korg MS20-ish circuits (plus a delay) drum machine that used to be a Yamaha DD-7. It is now a rather more interesting and useful X1L3 DDX.
Basically, the BLUE rings on the 252e went to the upper macro oscillator of the 1979 DAO The GREEN rings to the lower part of the DAO (ratcheted bell sounds) Both using their internal VCAs, which I also used to modulate “Color” & “Timbre” at times. Both voices went into the Analogue Systems RS-290 delay. The Blue voice also went, in parallel, to the Underwurlde which then went to the 290. It’s a cheat for keeping delay nonsense in synch even though the Underwurlde was hand synced to tempo. RED rings were the 259e into a 292e LPG. Lots going on there and the Pendulum/Ratchet was acting as a burst generator. I was using the 251e for that but didn’t want program that again.
Studio.h
CSR doing its scaling job plus attenuation of audio signals along with manual muting of both audio and gates/triggers. Love it. 254e was being controlled by the Buchla 266e to quasi-randomly filter out some of the drum rolls/fills for the Green ring. It also had a manual Gate voltage connected to it so that I could inject tones into the X1L3 Shard.
Northern Light Modular 2TT Taking the clock from a channel of the 251e and distributing it, mangling it, and doing its thing. All Eurorack connects to this as well.
X1L3 (pronounced “Exile”) DDX: It provided percussion in 3/4 via Malekko Varigate 4. I also played it manually at times. It ran into the TipTop Áudio Z-DSP with the Valhalla “Shimmer” card but set to program #8 for pitched echo.
https://x1l3.bigcartel.com
Lots of Eurorack. Some mentioned specifically at the end of the video. I left out a lot as I wanted to get this video posted. Best Supporting Cast: 2x Folktek Matters. All Even Beat Count percussion. Tyme Sefaris Mk1 & Mk2… Connected to Matters Audio Damage (I know, right?!) Grainshifter on one of the Matters. Lots of Eurorack sequencing. As I look back on what was used, much of the processing was changed due to reprogramming things. All compression pulled and I just mixed it ‘live’ without multi-tracking.
"Buchla Music Easel in Tip Top Audio Zdsp with Valhalla Shimmer
and the plugin version in Live for recording.Northern Lights Modular CardOC modulates the wave shape oh so slowly
All live no overdubbing."
"The Buchla sound, that is sometimes described with adjectives like 'wooden' or 'nasal', is to me when the machine seizes to be a synth and starts to become a living creature. Within a sequence, these sounds become vowels between consonants.
My easel is made up of a Roman Filippov 208 Clone, a BEMI 223e an Electric Dompteur Model hED, a Voltage Circus Model hVC and a Time and Triggers Model 2TT lent generously to me by Northern Lights Modular."
"Test driving the new Northern Lights Modular: Buchla format Dual Polymorpher CV Model 2OC, a version of Ornament & Crime open source CV generator. http://northernlightmodular.com/
I am only working with a single app. There are 13 apps in each of the two modules. I am just barely scratching the surface here. Can't wait to go deeper. Many thanks to Sascha Haber!! Enjoy!"
