Comparators - selecting voltage ranges

Create 3 voice procedural melodies from single LFO signal, using comparators. I also show basics of using comparators and selecting voltage ranges from main CV source. Useful for people interested in procedural approach to creating melodic structures.

[@klacke2]

Your tutorials are the best on KZbin. Please make some more.

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Thank you very much for the nice comment. I believe I will do more next year

[@thomasbrown3325]

Another brilliant video. Your tutorials are my favorite tutorials on KZbin. I have watched each of them multiple times. Please make some more!

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Hello Thomas, thank you for the great comment. Yeah, it's been a while, but stay tuned, I am keeping a list of ideas for new videos.

[@lilskullymane4057]

agree with all the comments, i learned a lot from this! some of the best modular tutorials out there

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Thank you very much

[@MrMarcLaflamme]

I didn't understand 70% of this video but I enjoyed 100% of it!

[@dinkoklobucar526]

:) thank you for your comment, glad you liked it. Let me know how the rating changed if you decide to come back to it sometime in the future.

[@Natemasterflex]

Fantastic tutorial! Thanks for all your hard work, I would love for this to turn into a whole series dedicated to the intermediate to advanced users!! There are so many already for beginners and it’s nice to see some things other than “this is a lfo, and this is a envelope”. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Thanks again!!!

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Hello Nathan, I'm glad you liked it.

[@piotr803]

I really enjoy your way of explaining things. Thanks Dinko

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Thank you Godaz

[@chisel316]

I always look forward to your tutorials. Thanks!

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Great! Thanks for watching

[@kebrooify]

One of the best videos! Thanks for sharing mate !

[@RichardHamilton79]

Excellent video, Dinko. I'll need to watch it again a couple more times to get my head around it. Thanks for taking the time to make such informative videos, it's much appreciated!

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Thank you

[@sonicspecter]

Very cool tutorial. I neither have comparators nor voltage controlled switches… didn’t know that they are that useful. Hope you make some more videos some day in the near future.

[@dinkoklobucar526]

thank you very much

[@fuzzpope]

Come baaaaack!!!!

[@intensesurtax483]

This is terrific - your videos are consistently excellent. Keep ‘em coming.

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Oh thank you very much

[@igbooga8307]

thanks for the amazing video!

[@monkeymodular]

Thanks a lot Dinko, really interesting videos on your channel. Keep the good works !

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Thanks

[@LeeCantare]

This is an incredible video. Very clear to understand thank you!

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Thank you

[@jasevaughan7829]

Fantastic vid Dinko

[@sourgelockte139]

Thank you for your wonderful videos, its very calming and informative

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Thank you for your comment. Glad you liked it

[@JAkoGreyshire]

Yeay... I've been waiting for another video... Thank you Dinko!

[@dinkoklobucar526]

:) Thanks, I hope it won't dissapoint

[@JAkoGreyshire]

Nope, good stuff here... as always..

[@LeonvanBokhorst]

Excellent Dinko. Very interesting take on how to use a comparator 👍👍👍

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Thanks man

[@Natemasterflex]

Fantastic video! 😺

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Thank you

[@2DiskK]

Dear Dinko, Thank you for sharing the knowledge and making those great videos. I hope you get more time for making more in the future, after making music of course ;)

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Oh thank you very much

[@accidentaltrigger]

so now is the time. i got a two voice not 3 voice patch. if this works i'll expand the system.. theoretically, with the kit arranged we should get results. no mordax data but a good ear so lets see what happens, ha ha, pretty amazing how you packed so much tecnique into a video dinko. its like a good film, each time you watch, so more detail surrenders itself up. top draw mate, really top draw

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Thank you, really glad you find it useful. Would be great to see what you make of it.

[@splodge9]

Superb video, thanks so much.

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Thank you Alan

[@accidentaltrigger]

You completely baffled me in this video right up until the melodies. Will have to watch a few more times to understand. That's the power of your content dinko it's complex but so educational. Thanks for the head ache

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Yeah, you're right, if this idea was to be presented in real life, it would have a bit different structure, or each step could be explained in more words. But my thinking is, this is video, so anyone can pause or rewind, and I try to keep pace at something I would find interesting. I also try to show everything relevant for the concept in this small case, and keep material length under 30 minutes including examples. Originally i wanted to include 3 comparators... but then, other important modules wouldn't fit into this case. I think all the information that is needed was included in video. Sorry for the headache, but probably in very near future you'll be baffled at how simple this really is. Thanks for watching

[@accidentaltrigger]

Dinko the head ache is an expanding mind, the accomodation of new thoughts and the struggle with new knowledge. I de constructed your first video, on noise, and worked towards the end goal as I will with this. I don't have any comparators. Can I ask you, even though you have the doepfer module would the Jor comparator be as useful?

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Yes. I suppose that you are referring to Compare 2 unit? From what I can see it is a bit different implementation, but you can achieve exactly the same result as described in video. It defines a window. You would set this window to be FROM some specific voltage and TO everything above. In other words, to implement exact example from the video, you would set first comparator window to be from 2.8V-10V(or whatever is highest that can be set), and second comparator from 5.6V-10V. You want to have both comparators outputs high when in top range, and none when in first range(0-2.8V). You should be able to implement this with any comparator. Let me know how it goes :)

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Of course, you don't really have to be precise with this. I define it like that in video because it is much easier to explain the concept that way. The important thing is that you define some ranges and switch between those ranges. It is perfectly fine to find what works musically by ear for some given input.

[@accidentaltrigger]

Those examples are so musically rich. If the use of comparators is that integral then I will have to get one. Yes of course I will come back to you later, probably much later and share with you the results of your idea, my interpretation. Cheers dinko.

[@morismateljan6458]

Brate, al si ga zakomplicirao! Ali neka, super je..Dobar video i odličan rezultat na kraju! Imam dva komparatora, baš ću probati...iako ne znam kako jer nemam nikakav sequential switch. Moj doseg je poslati neki LFO (s offsetom) u half-wave rectifier, podijeliti i onda ponovo offset i šta već još dobro dođe prije kvantizatora...hvala za ovo!

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Ha! :) Nazalost, mislim da je ovo najjednostavniji moguci patch kako bi imao 3 kontolirana range-a. Naravno, mozes ovo iskoristiti kao inspiraciju za neku svoju interpretaciju. Ako nemas switch, mislim da mozes upotrijebiti logicke sklopove i 3 vca kako bi propustio potrebne gate-ove.

[@dinkoklobucar526]

I da, obicni sequential switch ti nece biti dobar, switch treba imati mogucnost odabira izlaza pomocu cv-a

[@pbrninja19]

Hope you are well, Dinko. We miss you.

[@dinkoklobucar526]

all good, yeah i miss making these also

[@GangiFilms]

subbed

[@johanwk]

Thank you for this great presentation. It comes across as a reminder why modular synths are different, and worth the effort. But now, would you consider collecting your work (from this, and other videos) into a textbook format?

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Hello Johan, thank you for watching and thank you for your comment. Yeah, about your question. I am thinking ... i like video better for this kind of thing. I think, maybe if i put it in some kind of diagram, that it wouldn't really translate the whole idea. My idea is to inspire procedural kind of thinking in modular patches, rather than a formula for something. That's why I try to illustrate (as best as i can) the whole process of thinking and measuring and testing while building a patch. I hope someone would get new ideas from the process rather than a patch diagram, and that these patches would be like an entrance to interesting places to go deeper and explore. And yeah, I can also show examples which is great. Video just seems a better medium for this to me. BUT, if you have ideas on how to make it into text and diagrams, feel free to translate to another medium

[@johanwk]

@@dinkoklobucar526 Many thanks for the answer. All this makes sense, certainly you have a sound approach, and yes, the videos do "inspire procedural thinking", very much so (not to mention, they inspire getting started and then being carried into another direction once things start working!). Maybe one thing I'm missing is getting away from the computer screen, putting that well away; to work on the modular while stopping and starting the video *works*, but the context switch can be a distraction. A cookbook-style cookbook would make sense, to me anyway. In "Patch & Tweak" there's a notation that was introduced for patch diagrams. Probably that would be useful, although I haven't yet done much with those diagrams myself. It would be interesting to hear from others on this thread, too!

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Yeah, I see what you mean. I haven't really considered how other people might consume the material. I just make it how i would like this kind of thing presented to me. I can see how it might be distracting to pause the video trying to recreate the patch part by part. I don't have some good answer to that :) I think i would watch the whole video and try to recreate something from it, and then if still interested watch another time and see it differently. But yeah, this is a very good insight. Thanks

[@scamlikely1442]

I'll second this! The only good book on modular is Strange's, which is out of print and $150 on ebay.

[@jasevaughan7829]

Dinko i've been trying to recreate this but my only switches are A151 and A150 by Doepfer so i'm stuck at the switch part. Would i be able to re-create this with a A152 voltage addressed switch rather than the WMD SSM??

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Yes. A152 will do it. Any switch that has cv addressing can be used.

[@pholcmann]

Thanks for your effort and sharing your ideas and amazing vids..I am looking for a kind of 'eurorack key tracking VCA' - solution that will ephpasize certain ranges of a sequence. When turning a knob from ccw - vca is just ampl. the lower ranges of a sequence - turning knob cw VCA is more and more emphasizing towards mid range and full cw only higher (highest) ranges. Could your comperator aproach solve thios problembe a solution? Any ideas how I could manage this? ( there is keytracking for VCAs in Ableton so I was wondering how to manage within eurorack system. ) Thank you for your help!

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Hello iholci, thank you for your comment. I am really glad you liked it. If I understand correctly, you want lower notes in sequence to be quieter, and higher notes would be louder. That is very simple to do if you want to apply this to the whole range lineary. In that case, in addition to your envelope driven VCA, you would have one more vca that is controlled by your sequence CV. Higher notes CV would make VCA open more than lower notes. I would put this sequencer driven VCA before envelope driven VCA, but it would work other way around. If you want to make higher notes quieter than lower notes, you would just need to invert and offset the sequencer CV and apply that modified signal to new VCA. That is if you want this applied to the whole range lineary. Selecting a range using comparators would be useful if you want to emphasize specific range of notes. You would get gate signal which would tell you when those notes are played, and you could use it to apply more volume while gate signal is high. It also doesnt need to be used only for volume of course. You could apply some effect only to selected range of notes in your sequence.

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Essentially, this would be like applying velocity. But instead of velocity data you would use note cv. Maybe you can find some useful examples for patches that describe how to apply velocity.

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Ah yes, one more thing, if you have VCA that can process cv signals, then you can apply that new VCA to your envelope signal rather than putting it in audio signal chain.

[@pholcmann]

@@dinkoklobucar526 Thank you for your feedback and thoughts! Would your solution require two knobs? One for positive and the othe for inverted cv? What I want to achieve is , with just one turn of a knob, a smooth loudness(velocity?)-transition from louder lower notes over equal loudness in center position to louder high notes in cw position. And back. So I can emphasize certain ranges of one sequence. All in one move. I tried your suggestion with the invertig cv, but its also just one direction. Thats why I thought your comperator idea might help. Because I would shift a certain range from top to bottom and back. Of course in center position I would just focus on the mid range and loose high and low end parts. I would have to accept that compromise. Sure I lost you now! Haha Thanks for your time!

[@dinkoklobucar526]

No, not at all. There are two ways that come to mind, but this can certainly be achieved in many ways with different levels of controls and precision. 1. make 2 different signals that would work for your extremes, and mix them using crossfader. that would give you one knob control. 2. I would personally prefer this one. You could use some kind of attenuverter for example something like this: www.doepfer.de/a1832.htm You would firstly need to offset your notes CV in a way that your desired middle would be at 0V. Using attenuverter, fully cw would give you original cv centered around 0V, at middle position it would be fully attenuated (0V), and full ccw would give you fully inverted signal(around your selected middle value). So attenuverter control would be that one knob you want. After attenuverter you would need to offset the resulting cv so it is always above 0V so you could use the whole range controlling the VCA. Hope that this helps

[@MaxedMusicArts]

very detailed tutorial but I would have prefered to hear the changes the comparator does while you were turning the knobs and not just see them.

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Thank you for watching, and also thank you for your comment. Yeah, was planning to show changing comparator values and modulating it, but at the end I decided to focus on showing how precise one can be with this and how stable is voltage detection. I also thought that changing those values by hand would add confusion to following whats exactly going on with output. I just thought this would be much clearer way of explaining the concept. But of course, changing comparator values by hand or using modulation, adds more variation. In case you're wondering what is the end result of changing comparator values, it would change the selection range of notes for different voices.

[@MaxedMusicArts]

i just didnt find it very helpful to look at that confusing oscilloscope with 4 different color lines going on all at the same time. It's also not very interesting to listen for such a long time when you only get the result at the end. Next time just let us hear what the machine outputs while you're doing it. The drone in the background was really unneccessary

[@dinkoklobucar526]

Oh I see, then you just don't like my presentation in general. Sorry that you didn't find it useful, it is impossible to fulfil everybody's expectations, but thankfully there are many other people using different approach to present material.

[@MaxedMusicArts]

no I did find it useful. It's a good tutorial. I'm just saying what we're doing is music and sound. Trying to understand something musical without hearing it is very hard to me. After some minutes of looking at the graphs I tuned out mentally and found it really difficult to follow your explanations. Had I heard how changing the offset or input values, whatever, would have affected a modulation target while you were changing it, that would have made it much easier to follow along with and to comprehend. Again, everything you did was very well explained. I just dont see why you wont let us hear the results during the explanation.

[@dinkoklobucar526]

The thing is that there wasn't much to hear. Since these are not really trivial patches they require a bit of setup, and I want to show them built from nothing. It is helpful to use visual representation and measurement to setup something that you can test easily. It is really a pain to debug a complex patch if there are no patch points where you can tell for sure that the thing is working. I really doubt that I could even implement this kind of system, which is relatively simple, without the use of oscilloscope to see whats going on and see in detail how every component behaves. I really doubt that using sound during this setup stage would help. But who knows... I can imagine that this kind of approach is too detailed for some (or even lots of) users but I think there are some people interested in setting up procedural kinds of systems that would generate useful cv to create music. Setting up anything a bit more advanced will probably require some planning, testing and measurement along the way. I try to demonstrate the whole thinking process during patching. I am kind of doing it this way hoping to provide some tools and techniques for people wanting to translate their original ideas into modular system patches, along with the main idea for the tutorial. Anyway this was the best way I could think of showing it, or better said, this is how I would like this to be shown to me so I do it that way.