Intellijel Quad VCA Walkthrough

[@JMLRecording]

aIve watched hundreds, if not thousands of Modular explanation vids on YT and this is hands down the most clearly and intuitively explained. Thank you.

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

Super walk through on how to use this powerful VCA module. I just ordered mine today as one can never have enough VCAs!

[@Jimbo386000]

You don’t know how many “answers” to the question “what’s the difference between a vca and a mixer” I looked through and didn’t actually find an answer remotely related to my question. This answered it immediately just by showing what the module did. Thanks.

[@ScottMFR]

Glad to hear you found it helpful! You might also find this article helpful: intellijel.com/support/eurorack-101/

[@Larry30102]

I learned so much from this! Instruction was very clear and understandable. A big thank you!

[@LarsBjerregaard]

Oh goody! This answers the question: Is the Quad VCA DC-coupled? And the answer is: Yes! I was looking in vain for that answer in the manual and on the website, and it would have been great to have it noted there. Great module!

[@73puto]

I’m eating a kebab and watching this.

[@jeffrytessier6017]

I'm eating a philly cheesesteak

[@benbauer1065]

This is a great comment

[@Puto73]

@@benbauer1065 thank you the kebab was dope but the vca is just hot!

[@brhodes0]

How was it?

[@theTerribleFamiliar]

I recently added this VCA to my rack and I'm loving it. I think this video does the module a bit of a disservice, or at least it's sterile in how it explains the capabilities of VCAs and THIS VCA in particular. Great hardware. Thanks, Intellijel!

[@jeffrytessier6017]

I got this bad boy coming my way very soon. Complete newbie to eurorack so I did "some" research then dove in randomly

[@scottshriner1]

Great to have this run-through Thanks!!!

[@dr.dionpeoples]

Traded in all of my guitar/effects for a Eurorack... what is the best way to run 2hp Kick, Snare, Hat modules though the Quad VCA, and still use my oscillator/Filter? I'm not going back to guitar, no matter what an antagonist says. :)

[@KeithCanisius]

Great video !

[@TheNimasan]

Is that possible to use the quad vac as a stereo vca for a stereo signal path? If yes how? The other question did the mofos from behringer asked you to copy this amazing module 1:1?. Smfh

[@ekoboydj]

Nub question..I receny bought the module but I find hard to use it as a classic vca/enveople and at the same time route in the rest CV other mods. For example if I send on the second cv an LFO u can hear the effect in the overall sound but when the key is unpressed the LFO continues to cycle where I would want to it stop like my envelopes. Am I doing something wrong?

[@ScottMFR]

Not sure I understand @Ekoboy. Might be best to e-mail [e-mail] and ask them for assistance. Bear in mind that the bottom inputs are mixed together, but the CV inputs along the left side are not - they are just normalled so they feed from top to bottom. If you want to combine CV sources, you could either mix them together with the bottom inputs, or you could take the output of a channel and feed it into another input. Hope that makes sense.

[@THIEFSOUNDS]

if you are using the Quad VCA as a mixer, why would it be beneficial to have the vca set to exponential?

[@ScottMFR]

That's a good question! The exponential curve (or just a touch of exponential) may be useful if you're mixing in a louder signal, as it will come in more slowly in the early range of the knob.

[@gregcoles9175]

might be a dumb question, but can you mix in stereo using two channels of the Quad VCA?

[@intellijel]

Greg Coles u could!

[@ScottMFR]

Absolutely! If you take the outputs of channels 2 and 4, they will have a mix of channels 1&2 and 3&4.

[@gregcoles9175]

Awesome tip! thanks mate :)

[@0neTwo0neTwo]

just wondering, if you are using the springray as an effect send in the last patch wouldnt you want the dry/wet to be totally wet??

[@ScottMFR]

Good eye! Yes, you would want it to be 100& wet, or you could use the SEND output. In this case that was a prototype module where the wet/dry balance was reversed on the panel.

[@NutritionalZero]

she's a beaut!

[@deefman]

oh, springray dry/wet full on dry, but wet - how possibru?

[@schwajj]

s33k3r3000 springray wet/dry mix is being cved by vca

[@malted.coffee]

Oh hello there springray 2...

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

Ok so if I have 4 VCOs and 2 LFOs, how many VCAs do I need and why? How many filters (VCFs) and envelope generators (EG/ADSR) do I need and why?

[@ScottMFR]

Good question, and tough to answer because it does depend on what you want to get out of your system and how much HP you have to work with. In the case you described, a single Quad VCA would let you mix the four oscillators and you would be able to send the mix to a single filter and control the amplitude and filter cutoff with a single envelope using a mult/hub, but I'd recommend at least one more envelope (Intellijel's Dual ADSR would give you 2, Quadra would give you 4). Of course you would need another VCA if you wanted to apply the LFO to create tremolo or you could just send fewer VCOs to the VCA, or use a mixer module like Mixup first.

[@theTerribleFamiliar]

I don't think this is an equation that you can simply solve for. When asking how many VCAs you "need", I think an honest answer will be another question along the lines of, "how creatively do you want to use VCAs in your patches?". The classic Eurorack adage is true: "you can never have too many VCAs" . Why? Check out some videos that result from typing that into KZbin. VCAs can be used to modify anything other CV/audio signal in your path.

[@mikeyeager3643]

Short answer, nobody explains anything worth a shit when it comes to modular. Needs to be a comprehensive manual instead of these jack dick videos

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

@@theTerribleFamiliar being new to modular, I'd love to find sample patches how to do these things with VCAs to help better understand how they work.

[@whitenoisefromelectronicto1728]

I just gave up and bought one :-)

[@q3rageq3]

Didn't get the last patch. Can you please share a nodulargrid patch?

[@ScottMFR]

Hey Funky Junky, sorry about the late response! I've tried to recreate it a couple times on modulargrid, but the sketch a patch thing has just been too buggy to complete it! Even using Chrome, which is the recommended browser. I think probably the most confusing and easy to miss thing about this patch is that the output of channel 1 of the Quad VCA is being multed and fed back in to two other channels of the Quad VCA (in this case channels 2 and 4). The output of channel 2 is sent to the effect, which creates your SEND channel. By increasing the LEVEL or CV input of channel 2 you send more of the dry signal to your effect. The effect then goes to channel 3 which becomes your RETURN. You can control the amount of return using the LEVEL or CV input. Channel 4 is your duplicated dry signal from channel 1, so you can control your DRY amount using the LEVEL knob. Now as long as nothing is connected to output 3, output 4 gives you a mix of channels 3 and 4. You can set a blend of your wet and dry signals, but you can also modulate them with CV. Hope that clears things up...

[@sonikboom007]

Scott have u been smoking? U need me to grab u some fishermans friends? 😉

[@ScottMFR]

Viral Bronchitis! All cleared up now so I shouldn't be as raspy in the next videos.

[@sonikboom007]

ScottMFR oh snap! Thats brutal