Yeah nice extra quantizer. I like ones that have playable keyboards to turn notes on and off live. That's always good fun and very performative. Martin has hit the nail on the head too that they can also give you a gate output when a new note is quantised or some take in a gate to tell the quantizer when to quantize a new note.
This quantizer applies a positive offset at the output. This makes it incompatible with other pitch sequences. I will often take a quantized pitch sequence from my Mother-32 or Subharmonicon and go through WMD’s Sl3kt (buffered switch) before running it into another Oscillator. I will also run a pitch sequence from a separate quantizer (in this case the Pico Quant) into Sl3kt so I can switch between them. However, the Quant outputs a positive offset, making it incompatible with the other sequence. (One sequence will be in tune and one will not). If I were to switch between the sequences before running them through the quantizer it would fix the pitch issue, however it would not be the same effect as only the notes programmed into the quant would be played and the other melody would have to conform to those notes. I have contacted the manufacturer and they did not care about this issue and simply told me I was doing it wrong. I will no longer be supporting Erica Synths. I suggest anyone thinking to purchase this module considers buying the Disting mk4 as it is only 1hp wider and does not output an offset.
that doesn't sound like the support I know the team at Erica Synths offer. I'm also not sure I entirely get the patch. The Moog systems do have a known output impedance issue that causing pitch issues, modules have been made to fix this issue (Erica Synths and AJH) could that be part of this? I'm not sure I fully get your patch to comment but I didn't experience a positive offset, do you mean a slight positive offset making the oscillator it controls pitch rises slightly? Is it out by a note or just a slight amount? Not denying your issue of course just trying to understand what's going on.
@@DivKid yes, it raises the pitch of an oscillator slightly even with no CV patched into it. It’s a simple issue that is common with all modular systems. And while the common advice is just to tune the given oscillator after patching it into the quantizer, this does not fix all the issues. If one is attempting to switch between melodies created by separate quantizers being sent to the same oscillator, these quantizers need to not only be calibrated to create perfect intervals but also to have the same (or no) offset. This allows for the user to switch between the outputs of different quantizers to a single oscillator or multiple quantized melodies to be combined in precision adders without falling out of tune. It also allows for true transposition, not just modal shifts within the same key and chosen intervals. When my Moog devices are playing the root note internally, and I take the KB output of my Mother-32, or one of the Seq outputs from my subharmonicon (or the output of my Disting mk4 while in any quantizer mode, or the output of marbles with bias and spread turned full CCW) and patch this into the v/oct of any oscillator there is no audible pitch change. Therefore, when I switch between which of the sequences I send to a given oscillator there is no difference in the tuning. However when I send the quantized values coming from the Pico Quant to an oscillator that was previously receiving a sequence from another quantizer the pitch is +16cents or so. This is the only quantizer in my case that displays this behavior. My Moog devices do not share this issue. I understand that the classic advice would be to switch between these patters pre-quantizer, however this would give a very different effect.
thanks for the further explanation, I understand fully. And yeah that's incredibly frustrating. A solution which would give the desired results would be to mix an offset/bias voltage and the PICO Quantised signal in a unity mixer / precision adder. Using the offset voltage to counter and "fix" the offset from the quantiser. I know that using up HP and two extra modules (or one nice utility) to fix something isn't ideal but it is a solution. I find utilities are necessary for fixing all sorts of things and making things work better together so I don't get too frustrated with those sorts of things. Over the years it starts to feel like just part of using modular ... again that's not so much fixing an issue that could/should be fixed on the module ideally.
@@DivKid thanks. I would rather sell the module and buy another Disting to as a quantizer since it doesn’t have this defect. However, I agree that dealing with bad designs and poor craftsmanship is a large part of modular for sure.
Hope you get to push the system in the direction you want and get good results ... one thing I do wonder is if it's just one defective module or if a whole bath or just the whole design is like that. I don't remember offset issues personally.
I'm very interested in this answer as well. I'd love to set up my 8 preset chord/scale "types" and adjust the root of each chord/scale without having to make another 8 presets every time I want to play in a new key, which is all the time as a keyboard player. Thanks for the mini demo!
I think it's important here to say that any sequence giving you a definite note I always view as kind of "wrong" anyway. It down to the tuning of the oscillator. Much like say fret 3 on the low E string on a guitar should be a G. Well yes in standard tuning but in drop C that's an Eb. Treat the scales like a set of intervals and patterns and you're fine :)
Trente, couldn't you mix the output of this with the output of your keyboard and work that way? Or mix your keyboard and another source before hitting this.
@@DivKid I don't follow this logic. Scale is just a relationship between notes. The scale has to be rooted in some frequency/note, hence the root note. Blues C scale has different pitches than Blues E scale. So are all the default scales in C? Sure, you can make your G on the fret 3 into an A by transposing the audio up, but you'd need to do it after the quantiser, surely...
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thanks for the demo... the tolerance feature is pretty cool.. its like adding another layer of random on top .
may add this to the ever growing list
yeah I like the tolerance feature.
Seems like an attractive option as a secondary/utility quantizer
Martin Doudoroff I was wondering why I would want such a limited quantizer as far as ability, you answered my question. 👍
Some of them, including this one, can be used as a sort of comparator, to send a trigger when a voltage fluctuates.
Yeah nice extra quantizer. I like ones that have playable keyboards to turn notes on and off live. That's always good fun and very performative. Martin has hit the nail on the head too that they can also give you a gate output when a new note is quantised or some take in a gate to tell the quantizer when to quantize a new note.
This quantizer applies a positive offset at the output. This makes it incompatible with other pitch sequences.
I will often take a quantized pitch sequence from my Mother-32 or Subharmonicon and go through WMD’s Sl3kt (buffered switch) before running it into another Oscillator. I will also run a pitch sequence from a separate quantizer (in this case the Pico Quant) into Sl3kt so I can switch between them. However, the Quant outputs a positive offset, making it incompatible with the other sequence. (One sequence will be in tune and one will not). If I were to switch between the sequences before running them through the quantizer it would fix the pitch issue, however it would not be the same effect as only the notes programmed into the quant would be played and the other melody would have to conform to those notes.
I have contacted the manufacturer and they did not care about this issue and simply told me I was doing it wrong. I will no longer be supporting Erica Synths. I suggest anyone thinking to purchase this module considers buying the Disting mk4 as it is only 1hp wider and does not output an offset.
that doesn't sound like the support I know the team at Erica Synths offer. I'm also not sure I entirely get the patch.
The Moog systems do have a known output impedance issue that causing pitch issues, modules have been made to fix this issue (Erica Synths and AJH) could that be part of this?
I'm not sure I fully get your patch to comment but I didn't experience a positive offset, do you mean a slight positive offset making the oscillator it controls pitch rises slightly? Is it out by a note or just a slight amount?
Not denying your issue of course just trying to understand what's going on.
@@DivKid yes, it raises the pitch of an oscillator slightly even with no CV patched into it. It’s a simple issue that is common with all modular systems. And while the common advice is just to tune the given oscillator after patching it into the quantizer, this does not fix all the issues.
If one is attempting to switch between melodies created by separate quantizers being sent to the same oscillator, these quantizers need to not only be calibrated to create perfect intervals but also to have the same (or no) offset. This allows for the user to switch between the outputs of different quantizers to a single oscillator or multiple quantized melodies to be combined in precision adders without falling out of tune. It also allows for true transposition, not just modal shifts within the same key and chosen intervals.
When my Moog devices are playing the root note internally, and I take the KB output of my Mother-32, or one of the Seq outputs from my subharmonicon (or the output of my Disting mk4 while in any quantizer mode, or the output of marbles with bias and spread turned full CCW) and patch this into the v/oct of any oscillator there is no audible pitch change. Therefore, when I switch between which of the sequences I send to a given oscillator there is no difference in the tuning. However when I send the quantized values coming from the Pico Quant to an oscillator that was previously receiving a sequence from another quantizer the pitch is +16cents or so. This is the only quantizer in my case that displays this behavior. My Moog devices do not share this issue.
I understand that the classic advice would be to switch between these patters pre-quantizer, however this would give a very different effect.
thanks for the further explanation, I understand fully. And yeah that's incredibly frustrating.
A solution which would give the desired results would be to mix an offset/bias voltage and the PICO Quantised signal in a unity mixer / precision adder. Using the offset voltage to counter and "fix" the offset from the quantiser.
I know that using up HP and two extra modules (or one nice utility) to fix something isn't ideal but it is a solution. I find utilities are necessary for fixing all sorts of things and making things work better together so I don't get too frustrated with those sorts of things. Over the years it starts to feel like just part of using modular ... again that's not so much fixing an issue that could/should be fixed on the module ideally.
@@DivKid thanks. I would rather sell the module and buy another Disting to as a quantizer since it doesn’t have this defect. However, I agree that dealing with bad designs and poor craftsmanship is a large part of modular for sure.
Hope you get to push the system in the direction you want and get good results ... one thing I do wonder is if it's just one defective module or if a whole bath or just the whole design is like that. I don't remember offset issues personally.
Can you transpose the melody?
quality
cheers
Is there any option to change the "root" note of the scale?
Doesn't look like it, but I guess it's tough fitting the extra knob/cv-in to a 3hp module.
I'm very interested in this answer as well. I'd love to set up my 8 preset chord/scale "types" and adjust the root of each chord/scale without having to make another 8 presets every time I want to play in a new key, which is all the time as a keyboard player. Thanks for the mini demo!
I think it's important here to say that any sequence giving you a definite note I always view as kind of "wrong" anyway. It down to the tuning of the oscillator. Much like say fret 3 on the low E string on a guitar should be a G. Well yes in standard tuning but in drop C that's an Eb. Treat the scales like a set of intervals and patterns and you're fine :)
Trente, couldn't you mix the output of this with the output of your keyboard and work that way? Or mix your keyboard and another source before hitting this.
@@DivKid I don't follow this logic. Scale is just a relationship between notes. The scale has to be rooted in some frequency/note, hence the root note. Blues C scale has different pitches than Blues E scale. So are all the default scales in C?
Sure, you can make your G on the fret 3 into an A by transposing the audio up, but you'd need to do it after the quantiser, surely...