It’s that time of year where we all get a few days off to play with our synthesizers, and some of us are gearing up for the winter NAMM show in less than a month. Let this be a reminder that despite this blog’s usually-low rate of posts, I *will* be covering the NAMM show here again this year, so keep your eyes opened.

So I acquired such an audio interface and the two plugins that have been released for these purposes, MOTU’s Volta and Expert Sleepers’ Silent Way.

I’m using a non-MOTU interface, so there are some kinks to work out there with Volta, but MOTU is being plenty helpful, and I trust we’ll get things worked out eventually. In the meantime, here’s Silent Way controlling my 101 via my simplified CV/Gate test rig. 6 octaves of perfect tuning!

Check it, it’s a big ‘un that clocks in at 48HP, dual oscillator with built in ring mod:

Click for make bigger

Doepfer 155 sequencer:

Plan B Model 15 oscillators

Bananalogue VCS

Analogue Systems RS95 oscillator

That said, here’s a quick demo using two PlanB model 15 oscillators feeding one half of the MakeNoise ModDemod dual ring modulator.

I botched the modulation bit, instead of grabbing the heisenberg’s stepped out, I just unplugged the smooth out from one VCO and put it into the other one. Oh well, you can’t get ‘em all 100% right, and I had no time for a re-take.

MakeNoise ModDemod from Brandon Daniel on Vimeo.

Full flickr set

The ModDemod is a dual passive ring modulator, in case you didn’t know…

Drums are 808, the rest is NM G2 and the eurorack modular (or the former processed with the latter).

I’d never thought of the 200e as particularly “epicurean”, but maybe someone else feels differently…

It’s a plug-in intended for use with any of their DC-capable audio interfaces (Like, say, a Traveller or 828), it allows multi-channel PitchCV/Gate/ControlCV out to your modular system. Its interface is like a grid for your IO, each output is a box in the grid. Into the grid, you place (drag and drop-style) the voltage source for that output. You may choose from items as mundane as the channel’s midi input (for things like note data), or as crazy as step/trigger sequencers, LFOs, clock sources, etc.

This all sounds pretty neat, right? But wait, it gets better…

There’s a built-in calibration and scaling tool, so that it can automatically determine the proper CV scale to generate musical pitches from your possibly-less-than-perfect analog oscillators.

Now how much would you pay?

They couldn’t quote an exact price, but they said to expect in the $250 range. Of course there is the cost of a MOTU audio interface if you don’t already have one. That said, killer product for analog geeks like me, way to go MOTU, I know this must have been a hard one to pitch to management.

Pictures from the presentation after the cut…