NLC - This 2 shall pass - passive analogue XOR - build notes

These are my build notes for the Nonlinear Circuits "This 2 shall pass" module

It's a eurorack format 2HP module.

Should be a simple build ... It's a passive analogue XOR circuit

No CMOS ... which is different & nice to see.

How to build a logic gate with transistors is a basic circuit which is a handy piece of knowledge.

There are 2 ways to use this:

1. If you want to get close to XOR behaviour, use the top and bottom inputs, leave the middle one empty. 

2. if you want a voltage controlled “XOR”  feed your signals to the top and bottom

     inputs and a CV signal to the middle input.

Feed it anything: CV, audio rate, gates, mix them up. Generally with audio signals it sounds like a Ring Modulator, adding CV to the middle input (but feel free to experiment) it sounds like a VC Ring Modulator.

Links

+ Wiki

+ BOM

+ Logic Modules - The 7 gates

XOR Gate (Exclusive OR gate)
Will only output a high signal when one input is high and the other is low.
It allows the signals to pass Except when they happen simultaneously.
It's like when 2 people try to squeeze through a narrow door at the same time.

(use this for your two snare drums - to prevent them triggering simultaneously)

In1	In2	Out
0	0	0
0	1	1
1	0	1
1	1	0

......

Parts:

1k 2 0805

4k7 6 aka 4.7k 0805

22k 2 0805

BC847 6 sot23-3

3.5MM SOCKET 8 Tayda: A-2563

The red tape is to prevent any shorts

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You can find more NLC builds here.

http://djjondent.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/non-linear-circuits-ncl-index.html

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Make noise Rene V1 - Logic

 The logic functions of the Rene are accessed with these 9 pads:

To enter the logic settings you'll need to access the X-fun or Y-fun pages

 The 3 rows of the logic processing can be divided into

1. CLK by MOD, 

2. Gate by MOD

3. Gate by Opposing CLK.

WE need to send pulses & Clocks into the Clk & the MOD inputs

 (for the respective X & Y gate outputs).

The logic setting will influence the final gate outputs.

1. CLK by MOD

    With the Clock Logic Ops (locations 9, 10, 11) the MOD input is AND, OR, XOR against

    the CLocK and the result drives the counter for the associated Axis.

    For CLK by MOD logic operations the results apply to both the movement of the

    sequence and the associated gate outputs. 

                                               AND                           OR                         XOR

2. Gate by MOD

    With the Gate Logic Ops (locations 5, 6, 7) the MOD is AND, OR, XOR against the CLocK

     and the result drives the gate programming logic (X Gate or Y Gate pages).   

     For Gate by MOD logic operations the results apply only to the associated 

     gate outputs.    

                                            AND                              OR                          XOR

3. Gate by Opposing CLK.

     Here, the inputs are the X and Y clock inputs

     So it's impt that the clocks are running at different speeds

                                          AND                                OR                         XOR

--------------

Note:

One parameter that has a great deal of bearing on the outcome of these logic processes is 

Gate Width of the incoming CLocK and MOD signals.

Herbs and stone Liquid foam

This is a quirky groove box.

Very acid sounding -- like a TB 303

https://herbs---stones.com/liquid-foam/ 

 

Here’s a pdf of the official manual.

Mine was built from a kit ... just the PCB and panel were supplied.

All parts were easy to find.

 https://djjondent.blogspot.com/2022/02/herbs-and-stone-liquid-foam.html

 

The synth is a easy and cheap way to enter the world of Banana Synths.

If you have a Serge system, this is a perfect addition.

The important thing to remember is that any jack with a circle around it is an input.

All other jacks are outputs.

I'm powering mine from a old 6V adapter, so I like to keep any voltages that I'm inputting

from external synths in that range... 5V is safe.

 

The Liquid Foam is monophonic.

Its made up of 2 sequencers, a DAC, an analog VCO, one 2 pole 12dB/oct LP filter, one EG, 

a CMOS based overdrive and a wave mixer/shaper.

 

The sequencers

It has two square shaped sequencers ... left and right .

They are unusual in that you can't see any of the usual note info, etc that you would normally

see with a sequencer.

Both are linked to the master clock ( but they are slightly differently from each other).

The 8 jacks in these sequencers are outputs.

(It's ok to stack outputs)

 

...

 

The Left sequencer

The left one  rotates in a clock wise direction.

It's controlled by the main clock.

The right is influenced by the LFO & the clock.

It seems to bounce up and down

Note that both sequencers output gates  .... on/off 5V pulses.

They don't output any specific pitch info.

 

X & Y are modifiers for the left sequencer .

They change the rotational direction of this sequencer.

The X/Y jacks are only inputs.  

 

If we start to stack cables into these inputs you will see

the usual clockwise direction of this sequencer 

start to change

The right sequencer & LFO

The right sequencer is linked to the LFO (and clock)

It's a rectangle wave LFO.

 

You can change its width & rate 

So you can set how long the pulse width is.

 

By tweaking the LFO rate & width you can send the 

sequencer into a counter clockwise direction.

 

Use this sequencer to add randomness and stop 

your patterns going stale. I like to plug these outputs 

into the X/Y inputs for the right sequencer

 

 

So if these sequencers are only outputting 5V gates how does the synth produce CVs for pitch?

The answer lies with a DAC ... a digital to analog converter.

 

The DAC (and VCO Pitch)

A, B & C inputs are connected to a (3-bit ??)  DAC which converts any 5V gates into

control voltages for pitch. I think these CVs must pass through a quantiser before 

reaching the pitch input of the VCO.

There is a max of 7 different pitches which can be created.

The pitch you will finally hear depends on the gate combination.

The combination (from low to high pitch) are:

A, B, AB, C, AC, BC, ABC,

 

The simple combination  of gates converted into CVs with a basic DAC produces really 

interesting patterns which I don't think would be easy to replicate with a standard sequencer.

 

 

The Envelope Generator

 

I addition to the LFO, the liquid Foam has a single

envelope generator. 

The envelope is triggered every time a gate is received 

at inputs A, B or C. 

 

It's primary route is to the filter cut-off frequency

I like to use this as kind of an accent.

 

 

Note that the EG doesn't have an attack. Its decay only, but there is an offset.

The decay will control the length of the envelope.

The envelope has two inputs. 

The upper input will invert the envelope. (that influences the filter cutoff) 

The invert knob will then set how much that inverted signal will effect the filter.

This means that the same sequence can have different envelope slopes on different steps.

However, if you connect a gate onto the "eg->VCO", the EG will now influence the VCO pitch.

This will also bypass any gates received at inputs A,B or C. 

When combined with an inverted envelope, this can be used to produce glides between notes.

Wave mixer

 

There are two sets of wave mixers with two knobs

for the upper & lower mixers.

The mixer combines triangle / saw & rectangle

waves with variable pulsewidth. 

 

 

The top knob controls the shape of the waveform.

Extreme anti-clock (left)= triangle

Extreme right = saw

In between  = will combine both waves

 

The lower knob works really well if the upper knob is in the triangle stage (extreme left).

But it mixes whatever is in the top stage (tri/saw or their combination) with a rectangle wave 

Playing around with these two knobs give a really interesting transition between different waves.

 

Synton Fenix III - sequencer companion notes - 2

 This is part 2 of my companion notes for the fenix III sequencer.

 

 

Part 1 is here:

  Synton Fenix III - sequencer companion notes - 1 

Note that the patch points are colour coded.

+ Inputs = Black

+ CV out = blue

+ Bus in/out = yellow

+ CV step input = grey

 

+ It is NOT OK to interconnect the blue outputs

+ It is OK to interconnect black inputs

+ It is OK to interconnect any number of yellow outputs

       These yellow outputs are binary (gates ... >7V or <1V)

       If one or more of the interconnected yellow sockets is HIGH, then all will be HIGH.

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Buffer Modules.

This module operates only for Logic signals ... eg those from the Yellow Bus outputs .

A Buffer is a special Logic gate. It's a non-inverting amplifier.

 

It is recommended to use a buffer module when connecting the yellow Bus to a normal gate source or an input (such as the clock input) which has internal patching.

A buffer will turn a non-buffered output (yellow jacks) into a buffered output.

When in doubt it doesn't hurt to use a buffer. Its a safety module.

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The Master clock module controls the speed of the sequencer

 

The Clock frequency can be set by the frequency knob
and modulated with an external voltage at the FM1 and
FM2 input or by external Midi
 

There are 5 clock outputs:

Clk out, 

Out x 4

Out/4

Out/16

Out/32

 

 

The Clock outputs are I understand to be same voltage range as Gates .. that is ... 0 to +8V

 (need to confirm with a multimeter) 

If you want to connect the Fénix with an instrument based on S-Trigger (Vintage Moog 

or Korg MS 20 etc), you need an S-Trigger converter. 

If you want to use an S-trigger to control the Fénix, you can connect the S-trigger to

 the (-) input of the comparator and the output of comparator
can be used as gate. You'll have to look for a correct setting with the control knob.

The CV out is the CV of the Frequency knob. 

You can use this as an additional control voltage. 

The R/S and Reset inputs need Gates to work.

Anything larger than +5V is high

Anything under +1V is low

 ------------------------------------------------------

 

The 3 main sequencers (C1/B1/A1) have some unique input controls:

 

To clock the sequencers using an external sequencer you'll need

a +5 gate (or larger).

A signal larger than 5 volts is considered
high, and a signal that lower than one volt, low. 

The gate and trigger outputs produce such a signal.

Triplet & Duplet

To be continued...

Aristotle's Logic & Reasoning

As a musician with an interest in electronics my first encounter with logic was with analog computers.

However I've realised that the foundations of logic lie not with the early mathematicians, but with the ancient philosophers. Western logic originated in ancient Egypt and was further developed in Greece.There are Indian & Chinese schools of logic.

 

So what is logic?

It's a science that deals with rules & processes used in sound thinking and reasoning.

 It's often defined as "the study of techniques of valid inference". (wikipedia)

Inferences are steps in reasoning 

 

In ancient Greece there were many great thinkers such as Zeno, Paramenides, Socrates, and Plato.

They laid the foundation for Aristotle, who lived from 384 to 322BC.

There are actually two great systems of logic in the classical world.

Stoic and Aristotelian.

 

This page, covers Aristotelian logic.

 

Aristotelian logic, is a loose name for an approach to logic that began with Aristotle and was developed further in ancient history.

It's also known as Term Logic,  traditional logic & syllogistic logic.

His ideas developed the study of reasoning and argumentation.

(An argument consists of 2 parts:

Premises (what we presuppose) & the conclusion.

Aristotle was concerned with the breaking down of a proposition into its components.

 

Aristotle's logical work is collected in the six texts that are collectively known as the Organon. 

 

The basics concern these concepts:

1. The Term.

2. The proposition

3. The syllogism 

 

1.The term is a part of speech representing something. (eg a Man or a Musician).

2.Propositions are composed of two terms .

   A proposition is a sentence that signifies truth or falsehood.

   Eg: Don Buchla likes Electronics.

          Or

         Robert Moog is a Musician

       These are sentences that are true or false.

      Note that Commands or Questions can't be propositions because that can't be true ot false.

      eg: Build your module (this is a command)

     or

       have you finished the circuit design? (this is a question)

   Traditionally, there are 4 types propositions:

        a-type: Universal and affirmative ("All men are Greek")
        i-type: Particular and affirmative ("Some men are Greek")
        e-type: Universal and negative ("All men are not Greek")
        o-type: Particular and negative ("Some men are not Greek")

 

 3. Syllogism

     This is the final conclusion that is drawn from two given or assumed propositions.

eg:  1st Proposition (Major proposition) :All men are Musicians

        2nd proposition (Minor proposition): Don Buchla is a Man

        Syllogism (conclusion) : Therefore, Don Buchla is a Musician

This is an example of the a-type Universal / affirmative proposition.

This can be put in mathematical form:

  

All A is B

All C is A

All C is B

 

When you are debating, you have two ways to refute an argument.

Either 

1. Prove that one of the two propositions is false

                          Or

2.  Show that the conclusion doesn't logically follow from either Proposition

 + Philosophy index  

 

 

Beat Frequency - NLC - Build notes - part 2

This is part 2 of my build notes for the NLC Beat freq module.

Part 1 is here

Beat Freq - build notes - part 1  

 

The module is in Eurorack format.

It's a CV and Gate generator.

 

You input two signals - audio or LFO rates and the module spits out CVs and gates

depending on the frequency difference between the two inputs.

Plus the module has lots of flashing / rotating LEDs which are always cool to watch.

All DIY. - The SMD is mostly 0805, pretty straightforward.

The build so far.

All ICs , diodes, trannies are on.

 the resistors now.

Re the LED resistors:

"RL: These are the resistors for driving the LEDs. As the resistors are shining thru the window on the panel, you want them brighter than usual. For example, if I normally use 10k for RL for a particular LED, I would use 4k7 for the same LED in this module."

I think I'll try 4.7K. 

If you are like me, you may have bought a bunch of LEDs off EBay many years ago and cant remember their specifications. So if the LEDs aren't bright enough, just swap them for a lower value.

There is just one PCB to populate.

Caps next.

All pots 100K

+ LEDs 

+ Logic Modules - The 7 gates

I'm using orange LEDs only because I have lots of them.

don't solder anything in till you have the panel on

Links

+ BOM

+ Wiki

+ https://yusynth.net/archives/WirelessWorld/C-Clapp-BeatFreq-1976.pdf

+ https://djjondent.blogspot.com/2014/06/bruel-kjaer-beat-frequency-oscillator.html

 

 

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Click here to return to the NLC Build Index:
http://djjondent.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/non-linear-circuits-ncl-index.html  

 

NLC - Beat Freq - build notes - part 1

 These are my build notes for the NLC Beat frequency module.

This is a indicator module not an oscillator.

Beat frequency indicators are used to indicate whenever the  frequency of a signal  exceeds a reference frequency.

This module uses LEDs to indicate when the two frequencies match.

"the ring of 4 LEDs would light up in a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction. The speed of rotation would indicate how close or disparate the frequencies are. If the signals have the same frequency then just one LED is lit."

Some pics of the virgin PCBs

I'm not exactly sure how I'll use this.

As far as I understand it takes 2 incoming signals, then spits out CV or audio???

plus XNOR of the 2 signals and gates to give a ring modulator effect.

The two inputs can be either audio or clock (LFO) rates.

Maybe I'll feed it with some VCOs and use the outputted CVs and gates to control a filter and some drums. ???

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is version 4 of the PCB, .... its missing a trace, so a wire will need to be added if you want 5V gates. If you can’t be bothered it just means one of your gate out signals will be 10V rather than 5V.

I personally like 10V gates. So I may keep this as is.

I always start with the ICs first.

We need one of each of these

4555 1 soic Mouser: 595-CD4555BNSR 

40193 1 Soic Mouser: 595-CD40193BNSR 

4070 1 Soic Mouser: 595-CD4070BM96

The CD4555 is a CMOS decoder/demultiplexer.

The CD40193 is a up/down binary counter.

The CD4070 is a  Quad Exclusive-OR Gate.

power rectifier diode

821-S1JL

BC847

there are six of these

 

Two diodes

LL4148

 

Links

+ BOM

+ Wiki

+ https://yusynth.net/archives/WirelessWorld/C-Clapp-BeatFreq-1976.pdf

+ https://djjondent.blogspot.com/2014/06/bruel-kjaer-beat-frequency-oscillator.html

To be continued.................

Beat Frequency - NLC - Build notes - part 2

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Click here to return to the NLC Build Index:
http://djjondent.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/non-linear-circuits-ncl-index.html 

 

Synthesizer Logic Modules - The 7 gates

Logic gates are great ways to create interesting rhythms or combine triggers from various sequencers.
Recently I've been using them to trigger drum modules.

Some logic gates also work at audio ranges.

There are 7 basic gates: OR, XOR, AND, NOT (inverter), NOR, XNOR, & NAND.

To make things even simplier, the 3 basic fundamental gates are OR, XOR, AND.

They use the inverter (NOT) to make NOR, XNOR, & NAND.

 

One final grouping of gates is what is known as Universal Gates

A universal gate is a gate which can implement any Boolean function without need

to use any other gate type.  

The NAND and NOR gates are universal gates.

These 2 gates are the basic gates used in all IC digital logic families. 

--------------------

OR gates
Output a high signal whenever one or more of its inputs are high.
Useful if you wish to combine several gate signals into one.

You can use this instead of a mixer or multiple.

In1	In2	Out
0	0	0
1	0	1
0	1	1
1	1	1

XOR Gate (Exclusive OR gate)
Will only output a high signal when one input is high and the other is low.
It allows the signals to pass Except when they happen simultaneously.
It's like when 2 people try to squeeze through a narrow door at the same time.

(use this for your two snare drums - to prevent them triggering simultaneously)

In1	In2	Out
0	0	0
0	1	1
1	0	1
1	1	0

AND gate
Outs a high signal when all its inputs are high.

(If only one input is high it will output a low signal)

In1	In2	Out
0	0	0
1	0	0
0	1	0
1	1	1

NOT gate

The above 3 gates are available as inverted versions (N = not):

In	Out
1	0
0	1

OR -----> NOR

XOR -----> XNOR

AND-------> NAND

NOR Gate

This is a OR gate followed by and inverter.

This is quite a useful gate to have, as it's possible to build the other basic logic gates

using only NOR gates.

In1	In2	Out
0	0	1
0	1	0
1	0	0
1	1	0

Its output is "true" if both inputs are "false." Otherwise, the output is "false."

XNOR

This is a XOR gate followed by an inverter

In1	In2	Out
0	0	1
0	1	0
1	0	0
1	1	1

NAND Gate

This is a AND gate followed by an inverter

In1	In2	Out
0	0	1
0	1	1
1	0	1
1	1	0

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

For most Eurorack modules:
Low signal = 0V to 1V (usually)
High signal = greater than 1V to 5V (Usually)

Many logic modules respond to continuous CVs like LFOs .
They are reading the CV as a high gate when it exceeds 1V (usually) and a low gate when it is below.
So they can be used as comparators with a fixed threshold.

The logic synth modules you can buy or build will either use discrete diodes, transistors & resistors,

or use integrated circuit chips. TTL and CMOS are the most common types of ICs.

TTL IC’s may often be labeled as the 7400 series.

CMOS ICs are commonly marked as 4000 series.

Eurorack Logic Modules
+ Elby ED132 - Boolean Logic (Also a Serge Version)
+ Erica Synths - Pico Logic
+ Mystic Circuits ANA
+ Intellijel OR, Plog, Spock , uMod II
+ AniModule  LogicOgic, XX_OR
+ 2HP - Logic
+ Mutable Instruments - Kinks (OR & AND gate)

+ Doepfer A-166 (Dual Logic Module) .... AND, OR & NOR, plus two inverters.

+ NLC - Bools, Neuron, Chopper, 8 bit cypher,

+ RYO - Boolean Logic

+ Ken Stone's Quad Logic Module

+ CGS Funky Drummer

+ CGS Boolean Logic

+ EMW Logic 101, Logic 202

+Wiard /Malekko - JAG

+ Snazzy FX Ardcore

+ Synthrotek - Either-OR Eurorack OR Module

+ Pittsburgh Modular - Logic Banks

+ Analog Ordnance - Logiplex, OR gate,

+ Ladik B-010 Bool2, B-020 Bool3,

+ Circuit Abbey - ANDY, ORY, XORY, VERTY

+ Synth Cube Dual Logic

+ Temps Utile

+ LZX - Castle 100, Castle 101

+ AE modular - Logic

+ Pulp Logic (1U tiles) -Logical AND, OR, Diode-OR, XOR

,,,

Plog - Intelligel

This has AND, OR, NOR, XOR, NAND, and XNOR gates

RYO

NOT, XNOR, NOR, OR, NAND, AND

Links

+ Yusynth