MATRIXSYNTH: X1L3


Showing posts with label X1L3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label X1L3. Show all posts

Saturday, April 13, 2024

New X1L3 - DRAIL - hacked fx processor - eurorack module


video upload by X1L3

"Hardware hacked fx processor module.
What it is and where to get it - below.......

Available at: https://x1l3.bigcartel.com/product/dr...

A few sections of this vid contain strobing and flashing images. If susceptible to seizures then viewer discretion is advised.

Amiga/P3 W95 demoscene spec run down and demo. Created due to a request to demo the module in a way that wasn't 'just noise'. Initially intended to be one part made from the best track out of three that i came up with. Later deciding to shoe horn the two reject demo tunes into it, which lead to it becoming a ramshackle lesson in polygons and 3d. It also caused the whole thing to end up panning out like some kind of messed up fever dream 💀🤣

Drail is an fx processor module based on a fixed chip set containing 100 preset effects. Reverbs, delays, pitch shifters and modulators of various types, such as flangers and phasers. More details are over on the bigcartel link. Hacked referring to the hardware hacking principles applied in reclocking the cpu and messing with the phase in the signal path to turn it into the somewhat weird thing it is now. Hacked also sounds better than circuit bent, which has been done to death as a term and wouldn't fit on the front panel anyway 💀🐗

A bit of a departure from my usual powerelectronix/sound design outings when it comes to modules. Right now this is the only demo i have complete. I'll upload some stuff soon that's more in line with the roots of where i came from, and which features some other new stuff that got completed in the somewhat hell froze over time it took me to complete this outing 🔥🔥

As always - enjoy - or don't.
The sun rises in the morning either way 😘☀️👌

Cheers for checking it out."



"The module is based on a fixed stereo fx processor chip which contains 100 presets. These presets consist of numerous reverbs, delays, harmonizer/pitch shifters and modulators such as flangers and phasers.

It has a mono input, a summed L/R mix output with dry wet control which covers 0-100% wet,
Two 100% wet stereo outputs give access to the ping pong delays and different phases of panning in the stereo field that some of the effects use,
The combination of summed dry wet and separate stereo fx ouputs offers some variation in how you might hook the module up to achieve different results in a setup.

Patches can be selected manually, or by gate inputs with an input to cycle each way through the patches and an input to select them.

In stock form it's a fairly vanilla and quite unremarkable, all be it useful set of fx. By applying some of the tricks learned in my time in the circuit bending arena the whole thing becomes a Swiss army knife of weirdness and opens up to some bizarre effects and unruly behavior. With the principles of hardware hacking applied and the cpu reclocked, along with some creative phase altering in the signal path, the processor takes on an entirely new life. Still being able to run as a useful set of stock reverbs, delays or modulators, but doubling up as an interesting sound design tool. All sorts of mad sounds and unexpectedly good processing can be achieved. Great for soundscapes, turning basic sounds into things that are bigger than the sum of their parts, making guitars sounds insane, it can even be used to turn a saw into a pseudo supersaw that somehow looks like a kind of mutated pwm square by using the modulator fx. This kind of thing gets fat when you start using both the dry wet mix output and the 100% wet L/R outs. With 100 fx to choose from, there's generally something interesting and at times fascinating to be found when messing around with it.

From experience, different fx chip sets behave in radically different ways when attempts to circuit bend or reclock them are made. Some prove to be pointless and uninteresting, others become prone to crashes and are rendered too unpredictable.and useless beyond extreme noise This one happens to be an excellent target for a bit of creative alteration. When underclocking the cpu, a kind of subtle low pass filtering effect is applied. Not enough to make the effect undesirable, but enough to eliminate the unwanted noise inherent to underclocking. In testing this chip set and discovering it's predictable, but quite abstract nature when abused, it became obvious that it would make a brilliant target for an interesting module. One which i'm finding to be an excellent addition to my own rigs. Given the roots of how it came about and how that ended up sounding, it is i imagine an acquired taste, but a quite unique acquired taste in the scheme of things."

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

X1L3 - PORT 2 - retro joystick and paddle adapter - eurorack module


video upload by X1L3

X1L3 - PORT 2 - Atari paddle mod walk through





via X1L3

PORT 2 is an 8HP, 37mm retro joystick adapter.

Current draw V+ 80MA / V- 50MA

Gate outputs are +5v

Paddle cv outputs can be set to unipolar or bipolar.
Paddle pair fire buttons are routed to joystick L / R gates.
Unipolar - 0 to +5v
Bipolar - -5v to +v5

Module can be used with a single stick, two sticks, four paddles or a stick and a pair of paddles.

The module consists of two dsub joystick ports which are compatible with all the old joysticks from back in the 80s/90s retro days of C64, Atari, ZX Spectrum, STs and Amigas.....

These joysticks consist of four on/off gates on the X/Y axis of the stick and a fifth gate on the fire button. Examples of compatible sticks are the competition pro, Atari joystick, Zip stick, quickshot 2 and the Cheetah 125+. There are numerous others. A search of retro joysticks will yield plenty of results.

The module is also compatible with the paddles that would come with an Atari 2600 system. The paddles require a simple mod that involves soldering a single wire into them to work properly with the module. No extra parts or desoldering is required. It's just one wire and a couple of minutes with a soldering iron.

****************************

NOTE: This module will NOT work with things like Sega megadrive/master system or Nintendo controllers. These use multiple fire buttons and rely on some cpu decoding to work properly.

****************************

Initial tests reveal this module to be an absolute killer in a noise/powerelectronix rig with a joystick/paddle pair combo for gate/cv control over a noise generating configuration. I'm sure it has plenty of other uses, but the SFX / noise rig is where it's at for me when using things like this.

Sunday, July 30, 2023

X1L3 - MX2 - manipulator expander - latching gates - eurorack module


video upload by X1L3

"Spec run down. Eye candy and chill tune.What it is and where to get it - below:

Available at:https://x1l3.bigcartel.com/

MX2 is an expander for the manipulator module.
It adds six toggle/latching gates to the main module.
These are tied to the momentary triggers of keys C1 - D3.

The vid run says the module is 8hp. It's actually only 4hp.
Funny enough, i'm not feeling too inclined to re render it all and re-upload the lot for a typo 🙈🙈🤣

Useful for additional control of anything requiering a constant gate.
The frag/shard gates of the shard module being a good example.

Half demo vid - half chill run with some visuals for a bit of fun.

Cheers for checking it out. I hope you enjoy the vid and find the module useful if you choose to pick one up 😊"



"MX2 is a 4HP,, 37mm deep expander for the manipulator module.
Available in yellow or black.
Current draw: V+ 30MA / V- 20MA

MX2 adds six toggle/latching gates to the gate array of the manipulator. The latching gates are tied to the keys C1 - D3.

Power is provided via the expander header. No additional power cable is required.

Works well with shard when the latches are tied to the frag/shard gates and the four CV outputs from manipuilator are used to control the atrophy and osc pitches of the module."

Thursday, May 05, 2022

X1L3 - MANIPULATOR - control cluster - eurorack module - demo run


video upload by X1L3

Update: harsh noise vid added further below.

"Demo track featuring manipulator + radio module set up.
What it is and where to get it - below:

Available at:
https://x1l3.bigcartel.com/

^^^^^ (probably about a day after this vid goes live)



Manipulator is a 22hp manual control module. Geared up for live performance, ambient and noise rigs and for studio work where you might want to live jam for a while and see what happens and where a track goes or how a sound design piece might evolve through hands on experimentation.

Full tech details of the module are on the bigcartel listing, but here's an overview of what's going on here in the demo.

I've got the manipulator hooked up to a radio module. The radio is passed through a low pass filter and then into a vca.

Gates A1 and A2 are being used to switch channels on the radio. X axis on joystick A is being used to sweep the low pass filter and a third gate on B1 is being used to fully open the otherwise closed vca. This allows me to manually filter the radio output and gate it in time with the track.

The bulk of the track was already put together for this in the daw and all i needed to do was add the actual module demo section. I let the section of track where the modules are being animated and used run in a loop and just jammed the radio set up with a daw track recording until i got lucky and had what i considered to be a decent pass. It turned out pretty good.

Undoubtably a useful module for anyone after a good manual control section. Having one in my power electronix suitcase i can say from experience that it really does make already abstract and obscure modules shine.

Thanks for watching. I hope you enjoyed the vid and enjoy using the module if you choose to pick one up."

X1L3 - MANIPULATOR - harsh noise and power electronics

"A Tetsuo the iron man level bit of action in a half hour powerelectronix jam using manipulator as the core control element in my noise suitcase with some nonsense shoe horned into the vid.

Not for everyone, but it is what it is."

Monday, August 02, 2021

X1L3 - UWX - underwurlde glitch expander - eurorack module - demo track.


video upload by X1L3

"Demo tune featuring underwurlde and uwx expander.

When in stock - available at: https://x1l3.bigcartel.com/product/uw...

Pretend AGA Amiga pixelated demoscene-alike outing with track put together by manually manipulating the UW and UWX. Main loop is a sequence put together by grabbing slices of shard. Melodic section is then trashed for the mid section and a vocal grab is torn up before the main loop kicks back in for the outro. Tune does the talking, scroller elaborates on that, story reel - just eye candy for the sake of it really.

UWX is a 4hp module that adds the extra five glitches that are standard on the desk top version of underwurlde. A compromise was made when the main module was created due to space and I/O limitations. By removing the jumpers from the back of UW and plugging in the UWX to the pin header with the supplied ribbon cable you can access all eight points of the glitch array. You get a year zero art is resistance flag on the front panel intersection thrown in when you do this too :D"



Sunday, January 24, 2021

Uglysound Noise Demo: NLC GENiE (part 2)


video by Uglysound

Part 1 here

"Paul tests out his newly-built NLC GENiE with a noise demo.

From the NLC site: "GEneralized Nonlinear Extrapolator This module is made of 3 neuron circuits and a difference rectifier. (... )Just like a set of synaptically connected neurons, this module is noisy and unruly. It is never going to learn anything it lives in and for the moment."

More information about this design (as well as PCBs, panels, and complete modules) is available from Nonlinearcircuits here: https://www.nonlinearcircuits.com/mod...​

PCBs, panels, and complete kits are available from synthCube here: https://synthcube.com/cart/nlc1080-ge...​

As always, thank you for supporting independent artists and businesses. They make the world a far more interesting place!

note: The Shard is made by X1L3"

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

MB-6582 midibox sid - C64 - Enigma Force cover


X1L3

"The theme from the sequel of Shadowfire recreated with the MB6582, a Boss DR550 mk2 and some supersaws to pad it out a bit.

Staying quite faithful to the original with all the modulated PWM stuff from the MB6582.

Another shout out to Fred Gray - the composer of the original C64 version.

Cheers to:
https://www.lemon64.com/
For hosting the scans that i used here :)

A fun one to do. The tune is great, and making the little comic strip recreation of the crashed shuttle opening screen bought a smile to my face :)"

See the X1L3 and Midibox labels below for more.

Monday, December 28, 2020

MB-6582 midibox sid - C64 - Shadowfire cover


X1L3

"Messing around with the MB6582 midibox sid (with a bit of help from a supersaw to fatten up the lead melody)...

Shadowfire. I LOVE this tune. It's got a kind of epic scifi story feel to it. True childhood escapism at the time when i was really into it. I found it quite hard to recreate, but keeping close to the 8bit version i think it ended up sounding pretty cool and quite faithful to the original.

Cheers to:
http://www.c64sets.com/index.html
For the great selection of box set art and inlays which i looked up to use in the video.

http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_sid.html
For making the fact that an MB-6582 exists a reality and something i was eventually able to build :)

Shout out to Fred Gray - the composer of the original C64 version."

Thursday, December 03, 2020

MB-6582 midibox sid and the armalyte nostalgia


X1L3

"Quick demo of an MB-6582 wrapped up in a Thalamus nostalgia shabby scroller, for anyone considering building one. They can do lots of conventional and nice synth stuff, but the way they can pull off being a supercharged commodore 64 is where the magic is for me. A throw back to the days of pissing my parents off by turning the tv up full blast to listen to Hubbard and Galway tracks. Such a cool machine :)"

Thursday, October 08, 2020

X1L3 - circuit bent Yamaha DD-10 - meadow black


X1L3

"DD-10 redux. A one off. A run of this take on things will be made when i've got enough of them to justify doing it :)

Bleak observation and a piano........"

Friday, August 14, 2020

Eurorack Compilation #4 | Bastl | Moffenzeef | Befaco | Noise Engineering | X1L3 Shard | Elektron


Nostalgic Ruckus

Techno. Cake.

Monday, February 24, 2020

Soma Lyra 8 with X1L3 Shard. 🙏


Published on Feb 24, 2020 Nostalgic Ruckus

"hello Lyra. (Shard is going through the Lyra's input)"

Tuesday, December 03, 2019

Starved Pitch | X1L3 Circuit Bent Casio PT50


Published on Dec 3, 2019 Nostalgic Ruckus

"Trying to get there but it’s too low.. Favorite type of pitch."

Monday, December 02, 2019

X1L3 space drones synth project1



Pics and details previously posted here.

One more video:

X1L3 space drones synth project2

Published on Dec 2, 2019 Scienceforce

Sunday, December 01, 2019

X1L3 Modded Yamaha PSS-120 & Roland TR-505

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

Update: Demo of the PSS-120 here and TR-505 here.

Custom Keyboard synthesizer features:
Keyboard drone generator
Digital synth generator
Mixer
Atari Punk Console
Modulation Generators
Pre delay filter
Echo / Delay
Post delay Filter
Built in speaker and Output control.

Custom Roland Drum Machine:
Damage (like distortion) moudule
Filter
Echo / delay
Mixer
Glitch Matrix

Sunday, November 17, 2019

X1L3 - MONOLITH bluetooth receiver

X1L3 - MONOLITH - sunvox and some envelope follower routing

Published on Nov 17, 2019 X1L3


"Monolith - bluetooth receiver with envelope follower. What it is and where to get it below.

A quick demo here as i haven't got the time for the full twenty minute power electronix session. But i'm sure that'll turn up some time soon :)

Monolith is a simple and quiet bluetooth audio receiver. It allows you to stream audio from your phone or other bluetooth capable device into your eurorack rig. It boost the incoming audio to modular levels and has a bipolar envelope follower tied to the audio out. The follower has attack and release controls to shape the response. It works best with gated signals and things like drum tracks. But will generate interesting results with any signal that has a signifigant degree of amplitude variation in it.

Great for streaming found sound, youtube vids, phone conversations and the recording of the super market you made one day that you realised sounds like a hellscape nightmare when you slow it down to 50% and feed it through a clouds module :)

Sunvox on the phone is running a drum track which is streamed to monolith via bluetooth. This is then fed into a filter. The envelope follower is routed to the filter cut off and also a vca which has the bassline oscillator running through it. This is also fed into the filter. Both drums and bassline are then sent to the output mixer. The pads and melody are seperate from the monolith chain. And i'm playing the pitch of the bassline oscillator at the end via a yarns midi to cv module tied to the keyboard.

6HP with a mono output. The sum of the stereo bluetooth audio in is mixed inside the module."

Friday, November 15, 2019

X1L3 UNDERWURLDE (Delay, looper and glitch generator) Black eurorack modular module!

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"Rare module hard to find in the states. Save some money and buy it local rather than in the UK. Awesome experimental module. Delay, looper and glitch generator. Will ship out first thing Monday. In great condition. This one shouldn't last long - thanks."

You can find a couple of demos here.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

X1L3 Modified / Circuit Bent Casio PT-50 Synthesizer With MIDI

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"X1L3 Modified / Circuit Bent Casio PT-50 Synthesizer With MIDI. Professionally modded. Ultra rare - only a few ever made. Works great."

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Eurorack Compilation #2 | Noise Engineering // Moffenzeef // Abstract Data // XAOC Zadar // X1L3


Published on Oct 15, 2019 Nostalgic Ruckus

"More from the sketch diaries."

Tuesday, October 01, 2019

5 Min Eurorack Modular Compilation | Noise Engineering // X1L3 // Elektron // Dreadbox // Moog DFAM


Published on Sep 30, 2019 Nostalgic Ruckus
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