Erica Synths - Black Quad VCA

READ BELOW!
First up the voice over audio is a little different and there's some shaky camera action ... MEGA SHAKY CAMERA in place ;-P . That's due to not having access to my usual set up and a big shift around in my studio room. Bear with the camera knocks (tripod had to be on the desk with the modular, not ideal)
Second, this module features a unique pre-emphasis / de-emphasis circuit of the high frequencies based on noise and distortion reduction within radio transmission. This works to create a clean high quality linear VCA.
As always fire away with any questions, hit like and subscribe and check the Patreon link below to see how you can support my channel.
/ divkid

[@sykorabsurd]

A demo video that simply and cleanly explains what a device does. An all too rare occurrence. Good on you, Mate. Cheers!

[@thomasyount3873]

Terse, concise as usual DivKid. And what an extraordinary innovation as well from Erica Synths.

[@DivKid]

+Thomas Yount thank you :)

[@gabrielmanzanedo]

Nice one. This seems like a useful vca module. Thanks for the demo.

[@DivKid]

+Gabriel Mnz it's a great one, really useful.

[@pholcmann]

Thanks for your effort and amazing vids! Trying to get my head around a key tracking VCA solution. When turning a knob from ccw - just hearing the lower notes of sequence - to cw more and more emphasizing towards higher notes. In middle position all notes equal ampl. How would I manage this? Thank you for your help!

[@RigatoniModular]

:O YOUR NEW INTRO

[@DivKid]

+Ian Hoffman that was purely some added processing for carrying the sound over with the initial text added before I started speaking. It was iZotope's new free "DDL" (if I remember the name right) and Logic's Silver Verb.

[@davidesaggiotto4468]

Hey man! Does this module distort sound? Seems like I'm hearing that

[@reptilespantoso]

good video, thanks. one question please? can you take output 2 (sum 1+2) and output 4 (sum 3+4) simultaniously? or does it break the chain (at 2) and then becomes seperate outputs (3,4). I've got a few L1 quad VCAs but this is very neat. Would go with my TipTop Z8000 sequencer perfectly.

[@EricaSynths]

+reptilespantoso It breaks the chain.

[@uplinkstudio]

nice

[@DivKid]

+Doug Bjornholm thanks

[@ElCharvo]

Liking the Erica synth demos-are they available in the UK ?

[@DivKid]

+ElCharvo there's some Erica Synths modules with Matttech Modular. Drop him a message to see if he's stocking it - matttechmodular.co.uk

[@Astronaut_FX]

I need this! Any idea when this will be available and how much? It's not showing on the ES website or Modulargrid yet.

[@EricaSynths]

+Astronaut FX It will be available next week!

[@Astronaut_FX]

+Erica Synths Thanks! You are quickly becoming one of my favorite eurorack builders!

[@EricaSynths]

Thanks!

[@DivKid]

+Astronaut FX what Erica Synths said ... I generally don't know much about release dates in most cases regarding things I'm demoing.

[@EricaSynths]

Here it is! www.ericasynths.lv/en/shop/eurorack-modules/by-functions/vca/black-quad-vca/

[@mrbukse1]

Hello and thanks alot for the great films. I am new to eurorack modules. I bought an Mother 32 as an entry cpl of months back. Have now gotten a Doepfer DIY PSU for a 9u rack, and i ordered A Belfacco Rampage DIY and the Radio Music DIY. Some how you have kind of hit me spot on on your last 3 videos the Rampage, Black Quad and the Neutron Orgone.. I hope you can give me some input for my further purchase.. As i said i now soon have the rampage and a mother 32 that goes in the rack. Im curious if you think that adding The Neutron and this Quad will be good? Also thinking about a Dixie 2+. What else do you think is needed to make everything working? Hope you see my vision here and i apreciate some help :) All the best!

[@mrbukse1]

+Stefan Strand One question is if the Neutron works as a OSC? or do i have to CV input it from another OSC to get the sound going? ^^

[@Astronaut_FX]

If you haven't already, you may want to consider joining the muffwiggler forum. There is a great deal of information to be found there, and it may be a better place for getting the kind of advice you are seeking. Modukargrid is another great resource as well.

[@mrbukse1]

+Astronaut FX I have been reading tons on that forum and watched tons of videos :) also tried to open up an account on muffwiggler but somehow it has been locked not sure why.. Sent them an email to support 2 days ago but no respons.. I wanted to ask DivKid because they have just had the rampage, orgone in for reviewing. Just wanna know if they think it is a good idea/start for me..

[@DivKid]

+Stefan Strand Hey Stefan, let's chat! Want to add me on Facebook or chat over email?

[@DivKid]

+Astronaut FX Read EVERYTHING on Muffs is always my suggestion haha it's worth the time investment.

[@reinklang]

Anyone noticed the level contols basically have no effect until about 12 o clock? Is it because they're linear VCAs as opposed to exponential?

[@DivKid]

+reinklang yeah you get less response below 12. Not sure why, or how exactly the control ranges are "tuned". It's been very good in use for mixing both CV and audio though. Might be a question for Erica Synths directly if you're looking to get one and have questions. I've no answers on the control "tuning" though unfortunately.

[@hermisphere5681]

@@DivKid ​ I've done scope tests and found out that there is nothing, zilch, 0, happening on those knobs under 12 o'clock - neither in stand-alone nor in CV attenuator mode. I don't know why they've done it like that. Also, it appears the module is not fully DC coupled, so for processing CV it doesn't really work for any static DC signals or slow modulation under ca. 20hz. Nowhere in any documentation is that made clear.

[@xnflg3074]

@@hermisphere5681 Hey, just stumbled upon this comment... I KNEW something was weird. So they recently released a V2 (which is super frustrating) and I’m hoping it’s fixed with that revision to the module, which also has linear/log switches for each channel. Thank you for confirming that I’m not insane.

[@ChrisBennettGameDesign]

Are you using a HD camera now? Video looks different.

[@DivKid]

+Chris Bennett Hi Chris, not at all. Same camera, so hopefully my previous videos didn't look really bad and non-HD! haha. I've had a new lighting rig for a while which I think has been a massive improvement overall. You can see another angle in the Orgone Accumulator video - kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y2XQeGOMmNOXd9U

[@ChrisBennettGameDesign]

+DivKidVideo ah, must be the lighting. Looks profesh!!

[@RobertCharlesMann]

Your synth audio is 180 out of phase mate.

[@DivKid]

tracked down the culprit and rectified (got rid of it). I thought at the time this was re-uploaded and sorted out. Clearly not, sorry about that.

[@krakou2]

what do you think vs WMD triple bipolar vca?

[@DivKid]

+krakou2 that's easy ... do you want 3 or 4 VCAs? ;-) I have both, this is newer to my set up and I have the TBVCA permanently as an expander for the PDO so never really used is as a standard VCA.

[@RigatoniModular]

+krakou2 A couple nice things about the TBVCA are CV attenuversion, 4-quadrant multiplication, and the option to break the input normalization to different quadrants, to allow fading through zero to a completely different audio signal.

[@BiGreDNoSecoMpAny]

intellijel quad vca packs so much more functionality

[@nth7485]

How is the audio comming out - Straight from the VCA to soundcard, or via an output module..? Also I'm not hearing any bleed. I have bleed on mine, in the sense that if the level controls are on 0, I can still here sound coming through... I run straight to a Focusrite Saffire soundcard.

[@DivKid]

I can't remember what my set up was exactly at the time but straight to sound card. An output module wouldn't help with the module's bleed itself. Bleed could be a power issue in the case or use of flying bus boards, it's a deep dark hole sorting out things like that. What's your case and set up?

[@nth7485]

You would think so right... I have a Doepfer P9 PSU3. Incidentally I've done tests at stores in Berlin giving the same results as I have at home... VCO -> QUAD VCA (levels at zero) -> headphone. Can still hear a buzzing from the oscillator. However running VCO -> ES QUAD VCA (levels at zero) -> ES Output (levels at 50%) -> headphones yelded complete silence (as far as I could determine). Wierd. But then again the VCA is linear and as it is intended for audio purposes, optimal would have been exponential, IMO.

[@DivKid]

I never plug headphones straight into modules that aren't intended for them. Exponential VCAs for audio makes sense in terms of level control but an exponential envelope and exponential VCA response can yield too drastic results in terms of sharp shape changes.

[@nth7485]

Dependens on how steep the curves are but yeah... Headphones were used as that was the only listening source I had access to at that time. I did actually return to the store some days later and plugged in to speakers from output module... Still got bleed, but volume on the output module were on max in order to hear the bleed.

[@DivKid]

Yeah definitely curve dependent. Ah ok I've realised what the bleed thing is here, I talk about it in the video (I think) the knobs are CV attenuators up to maybe 1 o'clock and then it's adding an offset from there. So it will seem like bleed but that's opening that VCA on top of the CV modulating it. As there's no offset/bias/level and then CV per channel it's a way to try and get around it. In practice you find and remember where peak CV level is without even thinking about it.

[@pholcmann]

Thanks for your effort and amazing vids! Trying to get my head around a key tracking VCA solution. When turning a knob from ccw - just hearing the lower notes of sequence - to cw more and more emphasizing towards higher notes. In middle position all notes equal ampl. How would I manage this? Thank you for your help!

[@pholcmann]

Thanks for your effort and amazing vids! Trying to get my head around a key tracking VCA solution. When turning a knob from ccw - just hearing the lower notes of sequence - to cw more and more emphasizing towards higher notes. In middle position all notes equal ampl. How would I manage this? Thank you for your help!