Modular Synth Basics #02: CV, Gate, Trigger & MIDI 

Glad you like it! Thanks for your comment :)

ahahha!! thats right!! thxs TTNM!!

Justin Kennedy Awesome! Have fun :)

Arizona State University has a modular synth? Cool...

Thank you! Really glad the video was useful :)

Thanks! You don’t necessarily need tons of utilities. It depends on what you want to achieve, but you shouldn’t forget about those simple modules :-)

Thanks! That's great to hear! Let me know if you want me to cover a certain topic in a future video.

I was about to say what modules and rack casings you would recommend for a beginner (based on affordability, need etc), but I've just paused your excellent 'Let me show you my (Euro) rack' video to write this comment where you do that.

Thanks a lot for watching! I glad the videos are helpful :)

Thank you very much! That’s great to hear 😊

Thanks for watching :)

You're welcome! Enjoy the modular craziness! :D

Awesome! That’s great to hear :) Enjoy your modular journey!

+Nairo Music thanks! I hope it is :)

Vielen Dank! Freut mich sehr, dass die Videos immer noch aktuell sind :)

Thanks! I will :) Let me know if you want me to cover something specific.

Damn, you got me! Oh well, better get back to my Sauerkraut. Enjoy the rest of the videos :)

You're welcome :)

Thanks! :)

+gian - no problem! Ask away :) you can use the amplified guitar sound to modulate the modular synth signal or you could use an "envelope follower" module which tracks the volume of the guitar and creates CV from it.

+The Tuesday Night Machines great!! thank's for the answer and the video!!

Not a stupid question.

@@tuesdaynightmachines You could also use a guitar to midi converter to control your setup via midi instead of a keyboard

You're welcome :) happy that the videos are useful!

+ian jones Great news! Another child for the dark lord!

It depends on how your MIDI-CV interface handles this. If it sends a new gate on each key press then you just need an envelope module that has a retrigger input (e.g. Doepfer A-140).

Who is Tom from the buero? :D

+The Tuesday Night Machines you ;)

Because of flexibility. Pitch and Gate CV are two very different things and if the gate/env CV would also directly control the VCO's volume from the keyboard, you'd have a regular non-modular synth ;-) Also, there are things like velocity, pitch bend, mod wheel, etc. which all have their own CV channel as well. So it's not just Pitch and Gate CV you have at your disposal, but a bunch of others too, being generated by the keyboard or MIDI-CV interface.

Ok I see! It's that I saw from many sources that VCO were the ones creating sound as if they were the only source of a signal, but now according to you, I feel like a sound can be created by different sources including VCO, gate/env and many others. Is that right? And do different sounds from different sources in the synth are somehow mixed together in the VCA ? (By the way thank you for the quick response, you're really awesome!!!)

The VCOs provide a constant stream of waveform sound. So for example one ongoing BRRRRZZZZZZ from a sawtooth wave ;-) That's it. If you want different pitches, you send pitch CV into the VCO of course, but if you want volume changes (like hitting a keyboard key and then having the sound fade out), you'll need a VCA, usually controlled by an envelope's CV. Then you've got your filters which subtract frequencies from a waveform sound, which can also be controlled via CV (e.g. keyboard velocity controlling filter frequency, etc.). So that original constant BRRRRRZZZZ sound will be like ... bbBBBrrrzwwwffnngwee... hahaha ... well ... so with subtractive synthesis, our VCO offers a base sound and we use other modules/effects to shape the sound. Like a woordworker, starting with a big block of wood and carving stuff off until you get a small wooden statue ... check the beginning of first Modular Synth Basics video again and you'll see that non modular synths often behave the same way, containing the same "modules", but hardwired.

@@dreeminde Exactly 👍 The trigger is just a small "blip". It's easier and cheaper to make than a gate and it's usually enough to trigger drum sounds, or sounds that don't need a sustain part in their envelope.

@@tuesdaynightmachines Thanks 🙏

A gate usually goes on and off, or rather from 0V to a set voltage and back. A constant voltage is always at a certain level. The voltage level you need depends on the situation, for example triggering an envelope generator, advancing a sequencer or doing stuff with a comparator set to a specific voltage.

Yes, you should be fine to patch those CV/Gate signals into pretty much any input :) experiment ahead!

@@tuesdaynightmachines lets the craziness begin...Thank you!

It's probably the input that triggers the ADSR(?) envelope, which is usually done by a gate signal.

@@tuesdaynightmachines yes I figured that out, was just confused because enb and gate have each their output but are together as an input. Thanks !

Env gate input will cause the envelope generator to run. Env output is the envelope-shaped CV output. Gate output goes high while the envelope is active.

One example would be simple „math“. If one voltage is too high, you can use a negative voltage to subtract from it and get a lower voltage. Or think about controlling fiter cutoff. Usually you turn the cutoff knob down and use a positive envelope to open it. Using a negative envelope CV you could leave the cutoff knob high and close the filter with the envelope, which creates a different sound effect.

LFOs usually run free (but can be synced to a clock or reset by triggers sometimes). Clock pulses are just triggers and triggers are mostly just very short gates. It's all the same electricity.

Yes, MIDI-CV just converts the note data to CV. What you do with that CV is up to you then. Patching it into a VCO pitch input will change the pitch, but you can also patch it into filter cutoff or anything else really to control parameters with pitch CV.

Right thankyou, is it a fairly standard thing for VCOs to have a CV input? also people mention stack-able patch cables, could you have the same key stroke controlling multiple different VCOs?

+callumissocoollikf yes, VCO stands for Voltage Controlled Oscillator, so it should have a CV (Control Voltage) input :) Stackables copy signals so that you can indeed use them for multiple purposes at the same time.

right thank you so much, it's so much quicker and easier speaking to a real human

Is the CV in on a VCO sometimes called an fm in or is that a different thing?

+Eden Puder with your fingers or the magic of CV! :)

Do you have any suggestions for good cv sequencers ?

agustin0genoud A trigger can often just be a gate (from a keyboard or a square wave LFO, for example), i.e. something with a fast rising edge. Some modules might trigger twice though with a gate signal, once at the rising edge and once a the falling edge. I don't know about the Peaks, but you're probably fine with gates. Otherwise, you could generate a proper trigger with a really fast decay/release envelope from an envelope generator, or from a trigger sequencer of course. But, as I said, I assume that the Peaks works well with gates too.

What? :D

im trying to play my midi in pro tools

Oh, okay. I'm afraid I don't really know Pro Tools, but I'd assume that you just need some software instruments/VSTs that you can play with a MIDI keyboard.

trolling 101

Well, it is unfortunately the only "standard", apart from direct CV control. I'm happy to see more CV-capable gear in the past couple of years though. Still, MIDI is everywhere and most people who are new to modulars will be somewhat familiar with it (you and me already talked about this a year ago further below). If people want more precision, they should definitely look into the ES stuff, which I mention in the video about Clocks & Sequencers. However, since this is a series of short videos about the "basics", I'm not going to cover everything there is to know. I rather want to give the viewers a foundation of knowledge, upon which they can build by doing their own in-depth research. :)

You are certainly right, but I think that many people who are new to modular synths are somewhat familiar with MIDI and less so with CV. Also, I personally always wanted to integrate my modulars with my other gear, so a MIDI-CV interface is important to me. I know about your Expert Sleeper products and think they're great, but since I don't use a computer in my setup, I haven't tried them out yet.

***** Fair enough. I wasn't going for a sales pitch here, by the way - it was a personal comment. Given the infinite possibilities offered by an analogue modular it seems a shame to immediately tether it to a slow 7 bit digital interface. People can use whatever works for them, of course, but I certainly wouldn't want people to come away thinking that they have to use MIDI (or indeed, any kind of external controlling device) to use a modular.

Devin Tariel I'm German. Funny that Welsh apparently sounds similar :D

Leider nein. Aber poste ruhig deine Fragen hier :)

Thanks! There are so many practical examples out there. For instance my "Patch from scratch" videos :)