Juggler

Juggler

is a sequencer belonging to the class of network-based sequencers. Basically it is a 40-step sequencer controlling pitch, a secondary CV plus a gate and you can use it in about the same way a classic sequencer would be used. But it is also open to more experimental uses by reconnecting the steps in different ways and assigning probabilities to these connections. When configured in this way, the Juggler will not bring forth a repeating pattern, as a classic sequencer would, but an ever-changing chain of related motifs or even produce total tonal chaos.

The "stage"

of this special Juggler consists of a multi-colored matrix of 8 x 5 nodes. These are at first glance quite like the steps of classic sequencers: they contain - as already said - information about pitches and gate lengths as well as supplementary CV values. These attributes are visualized by the color and the size of the "ball" representing the node - high pitches appear reddish, low CV values blueish, short gates make smaller "balls" than long ones. Now all this information is supposed to be read by a Play-head, which initially (i.e. after receiving a Reset Jack pulse) appears on the selected Starting Node (discernible by the thick ring around the "ball"). It always faces one particular direction and initially this is the east. Now every time the head receives a clock pulse, it tries to move towards the node it is facing in order to send the information of this node to the three output jacks. But the connections between individual nodes can be more "permeable" or more "resistant" (shown by the brightness or darkness of the arrows surrounding the node). This circumstance forces the play-head to throw a dice before every attempt of relocation in order to beat the "resistance" value of the connection laying ahead. In case of success it proceeds normally. But in case of failure the play-head turns to arbitrary nodes around it to see if its throw was at least good enough to reach those. First it looks left, then right, then behind itself. If one of these attempts succeeds, the head makes the direction of the reachable node its new preferred direction and proceeds. But if no other node can be reached, the play-head becomes sort of "paralyzed" and awaits either the next throw or even a further Reset Jack pulse, that will move it back to its Starting Node.

How to edit the "stage"

There is always one "ball" (node), that is the Selected Node (discernible by its bright yellow-colored ring). To select a node, click on its "ball" or use the arrow keys + Shift key of your keyboard for navigation. Now you can make this node the Starting Node by tapping the Set Start button. Furthermore you can edit the information of the node you selected along with the quality of the connections surrounding it by

• cycling through the Entry Modes and
• moving the Data Entry knob to the desired value.

Here two special cases deserve mention:

• Turning the pitch value fully to the right turns on the "keep" mode. In this mode the pitch value of the node preceding in playback is retained.
• Turning the gate value fully to the right - so it exceeds 100% - will tie this note together with the next note.

These two features in combination allow the creation of notes of multiple (double, triple etc.) time value. Here editing is facilitated by a further keyboard shortcut: Press Strg | Command + Alt and one of the arrow keys to prolong the selected note in the desired direction.

Furthermore there is a Gate Random knob, which will randomly shorten the gate times during playback, as well as a Scene Select mechanism, which memorizes up to eight different Starting Nodes. For this selection mechanism there is a CV jack nearby which translates a voltage range from 0 to 5 V to the respective memory slot positions.

Macros

The Tune Macro Commands from the built-in menu are immensely practical when starting are new preset. They tune the row or column the Selected Node resides in to a well-known scale or chord. In doing this, the node itself serves as the tonic as well as the starting point of the scale or chord. Choose e.g. the "Necklace" connection preset, then tune each column to a different chord and immediately you have randomized arpeggio generator.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Within this module there are 256 parameters that can be edited. If someone should wish have complete control over all of them, dialing each value in using the Data Entry knob soon might become cumbersome. So many would probably consider using the following keyboard shortcuts instead:

• Shift + arrow keys = change the selected node
• Strg | Command + Alt + arrow keys = prolong the note of the selected node
• Alt + Insert = raise the note of the selected node one semitone
• Alt + Delete = lower the note of the selected node one semitone
• Alt + PageUp = raise the note of the selected node one octave
• Alt + PageDown = lower the note of the selected node one octave
• Alt + ArrowUp = transpose all notes one semitone up
• Alt + ArrowDown = transpose all notes one semitone down