I’ve been thinking about how to use controllable switches for automatic music. Being out of room in the ‘automatic music box’, I put together a 4ms RCD, the Pithoprakta, and Softwire Synthesis Octal CV-controlled Switch in a 48hp skiff. The control patch:

At the top of this diagram are four Quantussy Cells, consisting of four LFOs, each triggering two sample & holds. It is comprised of four Bastl Instruments Tromsø modules (each having an LFO and S&H), plus a pair of 2hp Dual S&H.

Below this are shown the eight switches of the Octal Switch, configured in pairs to make four DPDT switches. One switch associates with one Cell and selects the inputs for FM to the LFO and the input to the second S&H. The switch selects between one of two other Cells’ outputs (triangle and S&H). This is the same configuration as the real Quantussy in the Cocoquantus, except the real one has five cells, each with a 2P4T switch, so this patch is simpler.

To drive the switches, the four square wave output of the Cells are combined in two logic gates, one driving the clock in of the Rotating Clock Divider, and the other the rotate in. Four of the divisions are used for switch control.

Audio paths

The first audio path I patched used the new Xaoc Belgrad filter as an oscillator. This was patched directly to the Microcell Clouds and then out. The following recording was made as soon as power was turned on, with barely any tweaking, except for filter settings.

The second recording adds two more voices, drums from the Starling Via Meta modules, filtered through Vult Freak.