Holidaze

Published on Dec 1, 2014 darksideothetune

"Modular synthesizer pefromance"

The Packrat Comes to MATRIXSYNTH!

I'm happy to announce that starting with the December issue, The Packrat has found a new home here on MATRIXSYNTH!

The Packrat has been featured on MATRIXSYNTH many times in the past (and of course the MATRIXSYNTH Packrat on the right has been a staple of the site since 2006), but now it will be a bit more official. You'll find some words from Dave, the creator of The Packrat, below.

But first, click the image for the full size comic. You can find previous issues on Dave's Packrat site here, and be sure to check out The Packrat Book! It's a great bit of synth history and it makes a great stocking stuffer. MATRIXSYNTH and a few other names in the synth community are featured in the book.

Regarding the future of The Packrat, Dave has the following to say:

"The Packrat is by all accounts among the smallest, most niche-y comic strips in the entire universe. Nevertheless, it has its fans, and just in case they have any curiosity, they are owed the backstory of the events of the past few months.

I came back from my August, 2014 camping trip through the Canadian back woods with a hot, steaming case of Lyme Disease (I'm fine now!). I was covered in a rash for several weeks and ended up submitting one comic strip too late for print. The following month, specifics too unexciting in which to delve (exclusively involving the publication's administration, going higher than Keyboard Magazine itself) created problematic logistics preventing the print of the next two installments.

I bear the magazine itself no ill will at all, and consider the matter unfortunate only for the fans who had perhaps thought that the Packrat had been retired (by me or the mag). Indeed, those of its followers who are wise enough to follow it on Facebook or my own personal art site umop.com have been able to see monthly synth-tastic adventures at the usual periodic times, so hopefully the notion that the Packrat went to Synth Heaven wasn't too widespread.

Comic strips are trifles in this world, and this one is damn near the, uh... trifliest? So the details about how this strip gets made surely must consist of the silliest orts of minutiae ever to cross anyone's plate. But here they are anyway, every last crumb of them.

Anyway, inasmuch as the break from the magazine was unintentional on the part of everyone directly involved with its creation, I'm using the resultant reality of things as an excuse to move onward with the Packrat. It will now be available online on all the aforementioned sites, and Matrixsynth has agreed to be the exclusive first link to it every month (and possibly, in installments of a more timely fashion!). Neither he nor I are currently making any money at all from any of this; we're both in it for synth-love alone right now (and for me, exceedingly rare book sales). While I was formerly earning enough for a couple of tanks of gas a pop from the magazine (and was lucky to get it in this economy), even that modest honorarium will be gone.

This comic strip has somehow survived ten years of life come February, and I have no plans of slowing down any time soon. In order to help keep it going, I plan on setting up a Patreon page this week. I would consider even $100 per month a major victory, since that would at least cover its own dodeca-annual creation. Details about the page will follow once it's all set up.

Thanks for reading the Packrat comic! Enjoy this first Matrixsynth-exclusive episode, featuring an appropriately green synth to start off the maiden voyage."

Befaco EVEN VCO Eurorack Module

via Befaco

Available assembled or as a DIY kit.

"Module in last stages of developing. Information may change without any notice.

This is an voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) with great precision, designed to be stable even in the case of power supply fluctuations.Supplied with a octave selector of 10 positions from 32′ to 1/16′ (C0~C9).

Outputs:
Triangle
Ramp
PWM
Sine
Even (waveshape with emphasis on the even harmonics)

Inputs:
Hard sync. This forces the core to down in the event of change to zero of the input
V/oct. Two inputs fro pitch control summed to the main octave selector and the tone control.
FM. Linear pitch control.

PWM CV. Pulse width control summed to the potentiometer."

Befaco CRUSH DELAY Eurorack Module

via Befaco

Available assembled or as a DIY kit.

"This is a delay based on the PT2399 chip. Starting with a previous design of Scott Bernardi , we added mix CV , in addition to the repetition rate and the feedback . This is the first design in collaboration with Familiar.

It has two inputs, output mix with DRY / WET control and clean delayed output . With this external feedbacks are possible with other effects and controls.

PT2399 is a digital chip widely used in DIY projects. You may get delay times of about 500 ms with pretty good sound quality. Switching to crush mode you can force the machine and get delay times up to 4 seconds at the cost of substantial amounts of downslampling and digital junk."

Befaco BF-22 VCF SALLEN-KEY FILTER Eurorack Module

via Befaco

Available assembled or as a DIY kit.

"This is a dual Hi/Low pass filter. Inspired by the famous sallen key filter from MS-20 early version.

It has attenuverters (inverter-attenuator) as an addition to the normal CV control in Cut-Off and CV control for the resonance with a little more presence of the resonance than the original. The normal CV control for Cut-Off keeps tracking trough 3 octaves.

The ‘Link’ switch connects the input of the second into the output of the first to have it in series"

Befaco VC ADSR Eurorack Module

via Befaco

Available assembled or as a DIY kit.

"Classic four states envelope generator (Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release) with all the states voltage controlled

It has linear and “RC” responses selectable by a switch.

Can be triggered through the Trigger and Gate inputs or using the manual trigger button.

When is trigger through the Gate IN and the Gate signal ends before the time of attack, the attack is interrupted going directly to the Release state.

When triggering through the trigger or manual trigger button, the attack time is completed regardless the end of the incoming signal."

Befaco I² – INSTRUMENT INTERFACE Eurorack Module

via Befaco

Available assembled or as a DIY kit.

"Sometimes the interaction between a modular system and other musical instruments (electronic or acoustic) is needed. With an envelope follower circuit we can achieve a direct control of the amplitude of the signal.

It will produce a control voltaje proportional to the amplitude. Allowing a real communication between our system and the external sound source.

Instrument interface module has the following blocks:

“PREAMP”
With two audio inputs (6.5 jack and Minijack/banana), input apmlification is controlled with “GAIN” pot, controlling the amplitude of the envelopes that will be generated.

Minimum signal required to generate the maximum envbelope is 200mV peak and allows up to 5v input.

“BPF”
The signal will pass thru a band pass filter with cutoff frequency and band width control via “FREQ” and “WIDTH” pots.

Like this we will select the frequency range that will generate our control signal.

After this stage the signal will be outputed with synth level via “AUDIO OUT”.

“ENV.FOLLOWER”
After filtering the signal it will feed “RESPONSE” stage, that will determine envelope follower response velocity. It features a “HIGH”, “MEDIUM” and “lOW” selector switch to get an optimal envelope for different kind of signals. “FOLLO OUT” will otput the envelope extracted and show us it’s level via a LED. Green: Medium level, Orange: High level and Red: Max. Level.

“ENV.REGENERATOR”

“REGE OUT” is a re-generated envelope that will allow controlling the rise of the evelope with “ATTACK” and the fall with “DECAY”, making them longer or shorter.
It features a LED indicator for the regenerated evelope level. Green: Medium level, Orange: High level, Red: Max. Level.

“TRIG.EXTRACTOR”

With “THRESHOLD” pot we control the level of a comparator that determines when “GATE OUT” and “TRIGG OUT outputs will be activated.

“GATE OUT” will be at high level while the envelope is over the threshold we set, while TRIGG OUT is present just when the threshold is passed.

Indication LEDS will show when the outputs are active."

Befaco VC SLEW LIMITER Eurorack Module

via Befaco

Available assembled or as a DIY kit.

"Voltage controlled Slew limiter AKA Lag Processor

A Slew limiter is a device that smoothes an incoming signal, limiting the maximum rate of change of the output voltage per unit of time

It is widely used applying it to pitch CV to obtain portamento but can be very useful in other applications like convert a gate signal into a basic envelope

This module have independent time controls for rising and falling voltages, each of them with his own CV.
Also you can change the response from linear to logarithmic with a dedicated potentiometer"

Befaco JOYSTICK CONTROLLER Eurorack Module

via Befaco

Available assembled or as a DIY kit.

"Arcade style controller with 2 axis and 2buttons, 2 CV outs and 2 gate outs.

Atenuverters and offset control included for both CV outputs.

For visual reference two bicolor leds have been added for positive or negative plus intensity visual output reference. It also has 2 gate leds."

Befaco HEXA VCA Eurorack Module

via Befaco

Available assembled or as a DIY kit.

"Six voltage controlled amplifiers (VCAs).

It can be used as voltage controlled mixer since the sixth VCA can function as CV master.

This circuit is DC coupled so it may be used interchangeably for handling audio or control signals.

It has linear and logarithmic response modes individually selectable in the first five channels.
Two CV inputs per channel."