Juggler II

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 trigger signal 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 triggers as well as supplementary CV values. 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.

When, on the other hand, all attempts to progress fail, there is a switch called the Aporia Switch, which determines what will happen next:

• If it is set to "Stop", the play-head becomes sort of "paralyzed" and awaits either the next clock pulse - which means the dices will be thrown once more - or a Reset Jack pulse, that will move it back to its Starting Node.
• If it is set to "Loop" the Play-head will be returned to the Starting Node immediately and in any case (not requiring any reset pulse).

Furthermore there is 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.

Methods of editing

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. Note that you can set the pitch of a node to a special value: Turning the knob fully to the right activates the so-called "keep" mode. In this mode the pitch value of the node preceding in playback is retained.

Alternatively you can activate the MIDI Learn toggle switch and send a note event to the module which will make the received pitch the new pitch of the currently selected node and the received velocity its new CV value. Use this feature in combination with the arrow keys + Shift key shortcut to get the whole board programmed in no time.

Menu operations

There are two types of menu available - one for operations modifying the whole board and another one for operations that affect one of the nodes only. The first one shows up after left-clicking on the letters "Menu", the latter type will appear after right-clicking any of the colored "balls".

The "Connection presets" found in the global menu offer a quick way of restructuring the connection probabilities across the whole board. All kinds of movement styles are covered here: from completely linear "sequencer" behavior to random meandering.

In the local menu the macro the very useful "Tie with direction" macro is found quickly. It creates ties between nodes, which allows the creation of notes of multiple (double, triple etc.) time values by setting a neighboring node to "pitch keep" mode and turning off its trigger as well.

Another useful macro feature of the local menu is called "Close all exiting lanes". In conjunction with the Aporia Switch set to "Loop" this will ensure a return to the Starting Node after the modified node has been reached and thus facilitates working in a more traditional "sequencer loop" style.