$4.00
Capricious Clock II
... is a clock multiplication driven sequencer, that can derive a 'swinging' clock pulse train out of a 'straight' one and transform it into a randomly changing and equally 'swinging' trigger pattern.
Main controls
The Clock In jack needs a perfectly stable clock signal plugged into it. Note that after sudden changes of the clock frequency, the module will need a few clock cycles until it has adapted to the new tempo.
The Clocks jack outputs the modified ('swinging') clock, while the Triggers jack outputs the resulting trigger sequence.
Steps decides how many extra clocks will be produced for each incoming clock signal and - accordingly - how many steps will be in the sequence. "2" e.g. doubles the tempo and creates a two-step sequence.
The sixteen central knobs control the step parameters within the sequence of multiplied clocks. What they do depends on the Entry Mode:
- Delay means the delay applied to each trigger
- Occurrence is the likelihood of a trigger actually being send
- Variance introduces a time-span by which the time a certain trigger is delayed might be reduced (creating a tendency of 'swinging' beats to become more "straight" from time to time)
Secondary controls
The two knobs on the left relate to two special dices that are thrown every time the sequencer proceeds. The first one decides about the actual delay time reduction in case the Variance of a step is higher than zero. The second one decides if a step will actually trigger or not in case the Occurrence of a step is lower than 100%. The result of the latest throw of both dices is shown by the two blue meters above the knobs - 'D' stands for Delay and 'O' for Occurrence.
While the behavior of the dices will be purely random in normal operation, this can be changed by lowering the Moodiness knob. When turned down, the more the singular occurrences of good and bad luck will turn into persisting "lucky and unlucky streaks" and the notorious "moods of Fortuna" become more tempered, so to speak. You may exclude each of the two dices from the influence of Moodiness by clicking on the respective meter and rendering the meter inactive thereby.
The second knob ('Whimsicality') introduces an element that is even more repetitive: The higher this value, the more "obstinate" the whole mechanism becomes. It will no longer generate completely new patterns every cycle. Instead it will try to preserve it's past random creations - however artistically worthless they may be - and more or less exactly repeat the very sequence, it had already produced in the previous cycle. Whenever such a "repetition phase" is active one of the green LEDs will flare up below the respective "dice monitor".