SCM Serge Workshop - The 'Kameruka' System - Video 2: Slewing, Waveshaping, CV Processing etc.

This workshop, filmed in August 2023, was designed for students from the Bachelor of Composition, Bachelor of Music (Digital Music and Media) and other degree streams of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney.
The small cohort in attendance for this class had some prior knowledge of modular synthesis techniques and general concepts, however this course was a first look at this Serge system, shortly to be installed in the SCM studios.
It was presented in a casual tutorial environment, and has also been designed for anyone using the studios to get up to speed on the functionality of the Kameruka system.
Whilst somewhat unstructured, an approach was taken to let the developing patch dictate the direction of the class content... this is the second workshop video, diving deeper into the functionality of this five-panel system. Unfortunately, this video was also cut short, so a final video is to follow, looking at Sample and Hold, and further Waveshaping. Hopefully this helps those wishing to dive into this unique system in Studio 1030C!
Dr Benjamin Carey - Lecturer, Composition and Music Technology

[@vgermuse]

Your deep dive into Pos & Neg Slew multi-functionality is worth the price of admission 🤩🙇‍♂️

[@BenjaminCarey]

Thanks! 🙏🙏🙏

[@Boneless_Chuck]

So helpful! Thank you for producing these videos. I have a 73-75 Homebuilt with a paperface sequencer. This gives me quite a boost in what I can try!

[@sebp400]

using the slew as a vca? That confused me. Isn't a slew/lag processor/function generator an integrator and a vca, a four-quadrant multiplier? It sounds great though, it gives that almost voltage-starved sound. That Serge sound. thanks for the tips! From an old Synapse magazine edition: ''Serge developed some very unusual voltage controlled modules, such as the negative slew, which acts as a VCO, envelope generator, envelope follower, and a clock and pulse with modulator: a truly modular module.
''. It talks a lot about Serge in Synapse. It's great that we can read the archives online!

[@BenjaminCarey]

Hi there... Sorry I just saw this comment (my notifications are doing weird things). Someone else with more knowledge of the circuits can correct me if I'm wrong, but a VCA is only a four-quadrant multiplier if it's a bipolar VCA, like a ring modulator is. Otherwise it's a two-quadrant multiplier. To take the positive slew as an example, here the slew is being used as a 'sort of' VCA, but more like an LPG sound wise, owing to the fact that decreasing voltage at the CV input slews out all positive changes in the incoming signal, effectively creating a type of low-pass filter. When only using one slew (positive, or negative), you don't get a balanced sound (as can be heard here), but it's an example of a cheap and dirty way of regulating the amplitude of spectra contained in the input, thereby effectively controlling the amplitude the incoming sound under voltage control - which is what a VCA does. If you think about it, slewing all positive voltages in an AC/audio-rate signal will effectively flatten out the incoming waveform. With lots of slew, you theoretically won't be letting any positive voltages through at all. Given an audio-rate signal is going very fast, the negative portion is hardly registered audibly before we're back to the slewed positive portion of the waveform again. Hence silence (or more precisely, some kind of DC offset due to a flattened AC waveform). Hope this makes sense!

[@gusfranklin963]

Great video Ben!
Get the Uni to buy you a lav mic and a couple of web cams for different angles/zooms!
You can use TH-cam comments for letters of support on budget requests, right?

[@UndertheBigTree]

I have learned so much about how to use my Serge from Ben. You may be creating these videos for students in Australia, but they are of incredible value to an advanced Serge user halfway around the globe!

[@BenjaminCarey]

Thank you so much for this. Glad these videos have helped and really appreciate you saying so 🙏

[@vgermuse]

Ok, now I got to the WS feedback-brilliant and wonderful routing🤩‼️

[@BenjaminCarey]

hah, so fun! Especially though a VCFQ!

[@vgermuse]

Yay! Can’t wait to watch this‼️🤩

[@hanshansen4267]

I'm very grateful for this great source of information!

[@BenjaminCarey]

You're welcome :)

[@zerobject]

Never thought about clocking a sequencer by the feedback "rhythm". Can't wait to try it myself!
Thank you for sharing these videos, would definitely love more of these.

[@JuanParraCancino]

Very cool, Ben,

[@BenjaminCarey]

thanks, Juan!