Poly Pressure Encoder

[utdgrant]

I've just submitted a new module to the boffins at Cherry Audio for approval. It's called the Poly Pressure Encoder and it will be available free-of-charge once it gets through the approval process.

User Guide

It allows you to convert polyphonic control voltages inside VM into MIDI Poly Pressure messages. It was originally intended as a companion module for the Poly Performance Controller, so that you could drive third-party plug-ins and MIDI hardware from it (rather than being confined to VM poly modules). However, it can also be used for lots of different per-voice modulations, entirely independently of the Poly Performance Controller.

PolyPressureEncoderSchematic.jpg (50.62 KiB) Viewed 1848 times

You really need to own Voltage Modular Core to use the Poly Pressure Encoder, as it relies on the Plug-In Host / Mini Plug-In Host (for driving third-party plug-ins) and the MIDI Output module (for external hardware devices, loopback into DAW, etc). The Mono to Poly and Poly to Mono modules are also very useful for more creative patches.

WithMIDIOutModule.jpg (108.89 KiB) Viewed 1848 times

ControllingChroma.jpg (289.84 KiB) Viewed 1848 times

It goes without saying that any device / plug-in which you drive must be able to receive and process Poly Pressure MIDI messages. I have tested it so far with Cherry Chroma, and Arturia CS80-V, SQ80-V, Jup8-V and 2600-V.

Here is a short demo of it in action with Cherry Chroma (YouTube), driven by a Nektar Panorama T6 (which only has mono / channel aftertouch).

The first section shows Chroma being driven directly by the T6, in "MONO AT GLOBAL" mode.

The second section shows Chroma being driven directly in "MONO AT LAST NOTE" mode.

Finally, the third section demonstrates the combination of Poly Performance Controller and Poly Pressure Encoder sending pseudo poly pressure MIDI messages to Chroma.

[utdgrant]

Now available for download in the store.

Enjoy!

[utdgrant]

Another YouTube demo.

This time, multiple rhythmical patterns are sent to individual voices of the Chroma via the Poly Pressure Encoder.

MultiLaneFilterModulation.jpg (339.78 KiB) Viewed 1832 times

[Steve W]

I will have to take a look at this. I haven't done anything with the Drum Trigger Sequencer in a few years when I was trying to understand the file format so I could go beyond the obvious, surface features. I decided it is much more powerful that it looks, but didn't go further into making use of the full scope of what it's capable of doing. At the time I was thinking of doing manual edits as a step towards creating a custom editor.

At first glance what you have here with the latest example of using the DTS has me thinking about it again, esp. in conjunction with some other things I have been working on.

Thanks.

[utdgrant]

Hi Steve,

Basically, I'm using the DTS to provide eight synchronised lanes of 'Square Wave Modulation', flipping between values of 0V and 5V.

By feeding these eight values into the Poly Pressure Encoder, you can have each of the Chroma's eight voices (on this patch) assigned a different modulation pattern per voice. Here, I've set the Chroma to modulate the filter cutoff freq using Poly AT with a depth of +78:

MultiLaneModulationChromaSettings.jpg (25.78 KiB) Viewed 1793 times

Each row of the DTS is programmed to generate a different pattern. Here are Row A to Row D:

MultiLaneModulationRowARowD.jpg (286.57 KiB) Viewed 1793 times

And Row E to Row H:

MultiLaneModulationRowERowH.jpg (294.94 KiB) Viewed 1793 times

I put Row A (shown in red) on both Multi Oscilloscopes so that we have the same reference Row at the top.

Due to the lack of connection between the voice-assignment algorithm on VM and the voice-assignment algorithm on Chroma, you have no guarantee of which note will be associated with a particular row on the DTS. In general, the first eight different notes you play will be assigned to voices 1 to 8 in that order, but all bets are off after that point. However, this doesn't really affect the overall nature of the sound, which is a sort of dense poly arpeggio.

[Steve W]

Thanks for the additional explanations; they make sense and remind me of a few more things I wanted to explore a few years ago. (I am sure I have notes I jotted down about those ideas somewhere.)

Glad you mentioned the voice assignment issue. I have noticed some things myself regarding the apparent unpredictability.

I am way behind on too many things at the moment, but this interests me and I hope to make some time to explore it further.