F_GENR8

GENR8 is a module aimed at creating generative music. It is created using input of Rolf Kasten, who has just released an epub on that subject for Voltage Modular.

Everything in GENR8 is based on the Master Clock, the big knob you can not really miss. This sets the time for a repeating pulse, from once every half hour, yes once every HALF HOUR, upto 120 bpm. From 10 BPM ( or once every 6 seconds) up to 120 shows as BPM, below 10 the value is shown in seconds. If you right-click Edit Value the knob, you have options... Just fill in a value and it will be transferred to BPM, fill in 10s and the knob is set to 10 seconds so you get a pulse every 10 seconds... Fill in 10m and it is calculated from minutes to seconds, so the knob is set at 600 seconds.

Below this Master Clock you can set a gate time, so how long the gate is 'opened'.

Further there are 4 sections. On the left you'll find the GATE section. Here are 8 outputs that send a clock depending on the setting of the knob. With the knob you can go from 1/16, 1/12, 1/8... 14, 15, 16 times the setting od the Master Clock. So - with the default setting of 10 BPM, you have a range to send gates from 0.375 seconds up to 96.0 seconds for a gate to repeat. With the Master Clock at its lowest setting you can go from 112.5 up to 28800 seconds (8 hours!) Each of those 8 outputs can have their own settings so a lot of events that you can start this way.

If that is not enough there is a LOGIC section in the middle. There you will find 4 outputs with 8 led-switches and a slider that you can set to AND, OR, NOT or XOR. If you switch on a LED, the module keeps track of he numbered GATE output port. The LEDs go from 1, 2, 3, 4 from left to right and 5, 6, 7, 8 on the row immediately below. That goes for each of the 4 LOGIC combinations. If you switch 1 and 3 on, the module looks at the output GATE values from gates 1 and 3, and then uses a LOGIC function output a gate value. When set to AND there will be output when 1 AND 3 overlap. When set to OR there will be output when 1 OR 3 is 'high' When set to NOT there will be an output when NEITHER 1 OR 3 has output When set to XOR there will be output when 1 and 3 DO NOT have output.

Then the LFO section. The LFO section has 4 LFOs that are linked to the Master Clock as well, meaning that with a setting of 1 of the knob, the frequency will be 10 BPM = 10 beats per minute = a beat every 6 seconds, so 1/6 Hz. With the range of 1/16 up to 16 x that would be a frequency of 2.667 Hz up to 0.01042 Hz, let alone if you dial the Master Clockl is set at its slowest rate.where with a setting of 16 a cycle of the LFO would last 8 hours.

Finally there is a RANDOM section. Here are 4 outputs that send a GATE out. The knob sets how many GATEs with the same randomly chosen time will be output. In the middle part of the module on the bottom there are a LOW, HIGH and TIME knob. LOW and HIGH set the range where a RANDOM value is chosen by the module. That random value ios picked in such a way that it still is in line with the overall clock. Time sets the GATE open time for the random GATE.

All in all this module can be used as a master controller in a generative system running sequencers or driving ADSRs at random within a set clock range or at such a low speed that repetition is hardly noticeable.