CVBank is a polyphonic CV generator equipped with unique CV processors. Not just removing trigger sequencing features from sister module OPS - Oneshot Phrase Sequencer, it has its own playability as a chord player for poly oscillators without playing keyboards or a foundation of controlled randomness for CV generation.

demo video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zuggG5-cwT8

Functionality

The module has 16 voices of CV. Each voice is processed as a Note. You can shape Notes all at once by tweaking the CV Manipulator or tune CV value of each Note one by one.

Manipulating CV generation

CV Manipulator controls how CV signals changes Note to Note. Offset sets voltage value of first Note as a starting point and Interval controls how much the CV increases/decreases as the index of the Note advances. Curvature changes the curve of plotted line of Notes and Stretch decides overall magnitude of change of voltage value in the set of Notes.

Basically, the voltage generated by the CV Manipulator is ranged 0 to 5v. Every exceeding voltages are cropped to 0-5v. Then, CV Out Voltage Range Knob scales it up/down and voltage values generated at CV Manipulator stage will be ranged 0-1v to 0-10v by its setting.

Those signals generated by CV Manipulator goes to Quantization section.

Quantization

Internal quantizer quantizes CVs generated by CV Manipulator into musical note pitches.

Both CV Out Offset Knobs add their CV value to the signals after the Quantization.

Also, signals injected into the module through Pitch CV In (1v/oct) jack is added to output signals before or after the Quantization by the setting of Toggle 1v/oct Pitch Input Quantization button. If that button is turned on, injected signals are added to all Notes before the Quantization process. If the button is turned off, injected signals are added after the Quantization process and in this case, CVs output from the module can easily get out of quantized voltage values.

Automatic Re-allocation on Polyphonic Out

The module re-allocates for doubling disabled Notes to enabled Notes automatically by setting pitch (CV value) of disabled Notes to the pitch of enabled Notes. When the Voice Allocation for Disabled Notes Switch is set to Highest, pitch (CV value) of all disabled notes are going to be same to the highest note of all. In Lowest setting, all disabled notes are going to be the lowest note. The switch is set to Even, the module try to spread those disabled notes between all enabled notes evenly until the number of polyphony in the Polyphonic Output is fulfilled.

After that, those re-allocated notes are detuned according to the setting of the Detune for Unison Notes Knob.

Normally, Automatic Re-allocation is applied to Polyphonic Output only and you can get pure CV Manipulator generated signals from Monophonic Outputs. If you want exactly same signals from both Polyphonic Output and Monophonic Outputs, turn the Copy to Mono out button on.

Automatic Detuning

When two or more Notes have same pitch (CV value), those can be detuned automatically. Degree of detuning increases as the index number of the Note increases. e.g.) If all 16 Notes share same pitch, the Note 16 is detuned more than Note 2 is. If 8 Notes share same pitch, the Note 8 is also detuned more than the Note 2 is, but less detuned compared to the Note 16 of former 16 Notes example.

Overall amount of detuning is controlled by Detune Intensity for Unison Notes Knob.

Output Voice Rotation

It changes relationships between Notes and Outputs by rotating their assignment. If the Output Voice Rotation Knob is set to +1, Note 2 is processed as Note 1. As a consequence, Monophonic Output 2 jack (and second channel of Polyphonic Output jack) emits CV of Note 2.

It can be slightly complex in Polyphonic Output with Automatic Re-allocation (especially with Highest or Lowest settings of Voice Allocation for Disabled Notes Switch). You may hear the difference that the number of voices doubled to is changed as you rotate the Voice Rotation Knob.

Glide

Every output socket has a glide processor. Glide effect is applied at both Monophonic Output and Polyphonic Output; the final output of the module; after all the processing are done (including Recalling snapshots, Pitch Injection, Output Voice Rotation, Automatic Re-allocation and Detuning.

CV Output

There are two types of output for generated CV signals. Both are not just mirrored and output signals could be differed unless the Copy to Mono out is toggled on.

Monophonic Output

Each Notes (1-16) are assigned to the same numbered Monophonic Output jack regardless of Enabled/Disabled settings of each Notes.

Those assignments can be changed by the setting of Output Voice Rotation Knob (see above).

Polyphonic Output

In the Polyphonic Output jack, the order of _Notes_ can be different from those Monophonic Output jacks.

All enabled Notes are assigned to the Polyphonic Output first. After that, disabled Notes are assigned to remaining channels in the Polyphonic Output.

When the Number of Polyphony (on the Voltage Modular instance) is 8 and 8 Notes are enabled in the module, just those 8 enabled Notes are assigned to the Polyphonic Output of the module. If the Number of Polyphony is 12 and 8 Notes are enabled, first 8 enabled Notes are assigned to Polyphonic Output and next 4 disabled Notes are re-allocated to any of 8 enabled Notes according to the Voice Allocation for Disabled Notes Switch then assigned to remaining channels on Polyphonic Output.

When the Output Voice Rotation is set to other than 0, Voice Rotation is applied before the Re-allocation process. It causes changes for the result of Automatic Re-allocation process.

Snapshots and Shared Buffer

Every CVBank instance has 8 snapshot memories on their own. Snapshots data are also saved in presets^*1.

In addition to snapshots, there's a shared buffer (which actually is a temp file on your computer) to store a sequence. You can copy/paste a sequence to another instance of CVBank module through this.

Filename of this temp file is "temp_m4cvb" and saved in Voltage Modular's User Library Path. You can delete it by clicking blue colored "clear" button.

*1: Empty snapshot buffers are not saved in preset files. You can keep size of the preset file smaller by clearing unused snapshots. You can clear a snapshot buffer individually by Shift+LMB click on the store(1-8) button.

Controls and I/O

Knobs

• CV Offset: changes offset voltage of the sequence. At the setting of CV Out Voltage Range is 5v, 1.00 of CV Offset means 1v.
• CV Interval: controls how much voltage are increased/decreased between a note and next note. When the CV Out Voltage Range is 5v and CV Interval is 1.00, differences of voltage value between a note and next note will be 1.00 volt.
• CV Curvature: shapes the curve of plot of sequence by shifting change amount of CV. Positive value makes the plot swelling to right. Negative value makes the plot swelling to left.
• CV Stretch: expands or narrows the range of CV plot in the sequence.
• CV Input Gain: Tiny knobs put just right side of input sockets control the gain of input signal 0-100%.
• Output Voice Rotation (VoiceRot): remaps voices on outputs by shifting assignments of all Notes. e.g.) When the knob is set to +1, Output 1 emits Note 2 and Output 2 emits Note 3 signals. When the knob is set to +3, Output 1 emits Note 4 and Output 2 emits Note 5.
• Detune Intensity for Unison Notes: If a Note has exact same CV value to other Notes in the Polyphonic CV output, the module increases or decreases the CV value of the Note automatically to make an unison detune effect. If there's no unison notes, it does nothing.
• CV Out Offset (Octave): adds a fixed DC voltage to both monophonic and polyphonic CV output as an offset. Range is ±5v (±5 octaves). Both CV Out Offset Knobs add their CV value to the signals after the Quantization.
• CV Out Offset (Half-tone): adds a fixed DC voltage to both monophonic and polyphonic CV output as an offset. Range is ±1v (±12 halftones). Both CV Out Offset Knobs add their CV value to the signals after the Quantization.
• Glide Time: adjusts glide time for internal glide processor. To switch the glide processor off, simply set the glide time 0 ms (hard left).
• CV Out Voltage Range: sets the range of output voltage 1v to 10v by scaling it. It affects both mono and poly CV output. The range is applied before the Glide processor.

Buttons

• Clear Note Tunes: sets Tune parameter of all Notes to +/-0v.
• Mute CV Input on CV Manipulator: During the button is turned on, it mutes all CV input on CV Manipulator.
• Transpose Quantization +1: Transposes the set of quantized notes up by 1 step (halftone).
• Transpose Quantization -1: Transposes the set of quantized notes down by 1 step (halftone).
• Copy to Mono out: By turning it on, Monophonic Outputs emit signals exactly same to each channel in Polyphonic Output.
• store(1-8): "Store Button (Snapshot 1-8)" stores settings of a sequence currently displayed Note CV Display to Snapshot buffer. You can clear a snapshot memory individually by Shift+LMB on the button.
• recall(1-8): "Recall Button (Snapshot 1-8)" recalls settings of a sequence from "Snapshot (1-8)" internal memory. When the snapshot memory is empty, it shows "--" as the label of the button. You can clear a snapshot memory individually by Shift+LMB on the button.
• Clear Snapshot Memories: deletes both of snapshot memories. You can clear a snapshot memory individually by Shift+LMB on the button.
• copy seq: copies current settings of CV Manipulator knobs and Quantization states to the copy buffer* which is shared by all CVBank module instances on a local computer. It can be used for inter instance copy/paste function.
• paste seq: pastes a copied settings of CV Manipulator knobs and Quantization states from the copy buffer* which is shared by all CVBank module instances on a local computer. It can be used for inter instance copy/paste function.
• Clear Copy Buffer: erases copy buffer by deleting a temp file used as the copy buffer.
• Toggle 1v/oct Pitch Input Quantization: Those signals injected into the module via Pitch CV In (1v/oct) jack can be quantized to current setting of the quantizer with the button.

*This "copy buffer" actually is a temp file named "temp_m4cvb" and will be saved on the User Library Path. It doesn't exist until the first time you perform "copy seq" and remains until you delete it manually since the module doesn't delete it automatically.

Switches

• Quantization on/off: switches quantization on or off.
• Voice Allocation for Disabled Notes Switch: If there's a disabled note, the module re-allocates it to one of enabled note.
• Voice Rotation CV Input Mode: When the switch is set to CV, +/-5v on Output Voice Rotation CV In shifts current Voice Rotation by +/-15 Note index. When the switch is set to Trig, it shifts Voice Rotation by 1 on every positive trigger signals. If you inject negative triggers (by inverting trigger signals), it shifts Voice Rotation back by 1 (rotates the knob left). Using unipolar signals is recommended on Trig mode unless you want the Voice Rotation knob to move back and forth on every pulses.
• Glide Mode: Internal glide processor has two modes. "Lin." means "linear" and the amount of time to reach target pitch will be varied with the distance between current and next pitch. "Con." means "constant". Regardless of the distance between current and next pitch, the amount of time to reach target pitch will be the same in constant mode.

Displays

• Note CV Display: shows a sequence currently set up. You can toggle enabled/disabled state of a note by clicking on a note which displayed as a white square. You can tweak tune of a note by dragging the pin of the note up/down.
• Note Enabler Display: When you do click on Note Enabler Display, it toggles availability of a note. When you click with alt key, it inverts enabled/disabled states of all notes at once.
• Quantization Display: You can set quantization state of internal quantizer by clicking a note on the keyboard displayed in the Quantization Display. When you click with Alt key, it toggles states of all keys at once.

Inputs

Trigger In

• Output Voice Rotation CV In: It works as trigger input when the Voice Rotation CV Input Mode Switch is set to Trig. Positive triggers (equal +2v or higher voltages) rotate the Output Voice Rotation (VoiceRot) Knob to right and negative (inverted) trigger signals rotate that knob to left. The Voice Rotation value can be looped back to 0 or +15 only with trigger signals on Output Voice Rotation CV In.
• recall(1-8): "Recall Trigger In (Snapshot 1-8)" recalls settings of a sequence from corresponding "Snapshot" internal memory. When the snapshot memory is empty, it shows "--" as the label of the button.

CV In

• CV offset: 5v of CV voltage is same to 5.0 of CV Offset Knob.
• CV interval: 5v of CV voltage is same to 1.0 of CV Interval Knob.
• CV curvature: 5v of CV voltage is same to 1.0 of CV Curvature Knob.
• CV stretch: 5v of CV voltage is same to 1.0 of CV Stretch Knob.
• Output Voice Rotation CV In: It works as CV input when the Voice Rotation CV Input Mode Switch is set to CV. +/-5v on Output Voice Rotation CV In shifts current Voice Rotation by +/-15 Note index.
• Detune for Unison Notes CV In: 5v of CV voltage is same to 100.0% of Detune Intensity for Unison Notes Knob.
• Pitch CV In (1v/oct): injects signals into the module for an additional base pitch control.

All the CVs injected from CV inputs are added to current knob values. ±5v can be accepted.

Outputs

• Monophonic CV Out 1-16: outputs CV value of corresponding Note.
• Polyphonic CV Out: always outputs CV values of all notes currently available. Disabled Notes are re-allocated to available channels of the Polyphonic Output.

_Assignment of Notes to jacks/channles can be changed by rotating Output Voice Rotation Knob.