OPS - Oneshot Phrase Sequencer

OPS - Oneshot Phrase Sequencer is a single lane CV/Gate sequencer. It plays a short oneshot phrase.

• Short demo video https://youtu.be/tDkiCAbbksw
• Playing with OPS video https://youtu.be/eFIFO5_1OKA

The module has 13 plots of notes (CV/Gate informations) to play a musical phrase.

When you start the sequence, a playhead runs left to right through the Sequence Display. It's not a step sequencer and once the sequence has started to run, it plays CV and Gate signals in realtime manner according to the plotted notes. These notes are plotted by Manipulators.

Manipulators

The module has two Manipulators which controls the sequence's CV movements and timings.

CV Manipulator

It controls the course of CV signals in the sequence. CV Offset sets a starting point of voltage value and CV Interval controls how much the CV will be increased/decreased when the note played. CV Curvature changes the curve of the plotted line of course and CV Stretch decides overall magnitude of voltage value in the sequence.

Basically, the voltage range of CV signals generated by the sequence is ±5v. Every exceeding voltages are cropped to ±5v. After that, **CV Out Voltage Range** is applied and final output range will be ±1 ~ ±10v according to current setting of the **CV Out Voltage Range**

Time Manipulator

It controls when to play a note in the sequence. Time Offset moves the timing of the first note. After that, notes are lined up according to the value of Time Interval. Time Curvature shorten or enlarge the interval of the timing. It makes the time interval of each notes shorter (or longer) as the order of the notes in the sequence advanced. Time Stretch changes time span of set of notes without changing Time Interval or actual length of the sequence.

By the settings of knobs, timing of notes can easily exceed the overall length of the sequence. Every exceeding notes are brought back to the last most-right position in the overall length window.

Quantization

Internal quantizer quantizes CV output signals to play musical note pitches. Quantization is applied before the Glide processor.

Note setting data for quantizer is bundled with a sequence. When a sequence is stored to a snapshot, current setting of quantization is saved in the snapshot.

Glide

Both monophonic and polyphonic CV outputs are respectively equipped with glide processor(s). Each of polyphonic voice has a glide processor.

Polyphonic Output

Basically, OPS is not a true polyphonic sequencer. But it allows fast arpeggios or chord play by making the sequence shorter (or making gate length longer).

For polyphonic output, leftmost note in Sequence Display (bottom in Note Enabler Display) will be assigned to the first in the polyphonic cable and the number of polyphony increases as other note plays. Next note will be assigned to next order in the polyphonic cable, and so on. If a note in the sequence is disabled, the note won't be assigned to the polyphonic cable and in this case, the number of polyphony of the module will not increase.

Currently, maximum number of polyphony for the module is limited to 13 (mainly, due to the space for displaying notes).

Snapshots and Shared Buffer

Every OPS instance has two snapshot memories on their own. Snapshots data are also saved in presets.

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 OPS module through this.

Filename of this temp file is "temp_m4ops" and saved in Voltage Modular's User Library Path. You can delete it by clicking blue colored "clear" button.

Controls and I/O

Knobs

• BPM: sets BPM value. BPM value is used to calculate overall length of the sequence.
• Seq Length (Sync): controls length of the sequence by selecting musical note value. Overall length of the sequence consists of Seq Length (Sync) and Seq Length (Realtime). Actual length (number of samples) of Seq Length (Sync) is calculated with BPM value.
• Seq Length (Realtime): changes length of the sequence by adding certain duration of time to Seq Length (Sync). (Negative values not accepted).
• 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.
• Time Offset: changes offset time of the sequence. If the value is 0, position of the first note is just same to the starting point of the sequence. The value of 1 is the point of the end of the sequence. On the seq display, there's a vertical line and the value 0.5 is on this halfway line.
• Time Interval: controls how much time length is increased between a note and next note. When the value is 0, all notes are lined to the offset point of the sequence. The value of 1 is a entire length of the sequence set with SeqLength(Sync) and SeqLength(Realtime).
• Time Curvature: shapes the curve of plot of sequence by shifting change amount of interval between a note and next note. Positive value makes the plot swelling to right. Negative value makes the plot swelling to left.
• Time Stretch: expands or narrows the range of time of all notes in the sequence. It doesn't change actual length of the sequence.
• CV Out Offset (Octave): adds a fixed DC voltage to both monophonic and polyphonic CV output as an offset. Range is ±5v (±5 octaves).
• 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).
• 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.
• Gate Length: sets the duration of all notes. It's related to SeqLengths and 100% of Gate Length is same to entire length of the sequence. Gate signals remain opened even after the playhead reached to the end of the sequence or the sequence stopped playing. If the Gate Length is set to 0 (hard left position), the duration is set to 1 sample.

Buttons

• Play: starts the sequence. After started, it keeps playing until the end of the sequence or stopped manually by pushing stop button or triggering the stop function with trigger signals.
• Stop: stops running sequence. If the sequence is already stopped, it rewinds the playhead position to the starting point.
• Mute CV Input on CV Manipulator: During the button is turned on, it mutes all CV input on CV Manipulator.
• Mute CV Input on Time Manipulator: During the button is turned on, it mutes all CV input on Time Manipulator.
• store1: "Store Seq Button (Snapshot 1)" stores settings of a sequence currently displayed Sequence Display to "Snapshot 1" internal memory.
• recall1: "Recall Seq Button In (Snapshot 1)" recalls settings of a sequence from "Snapshot 1" internal memory.
• store2: "Store Seq Button (Snapshot 2)" stores settings of a sequence currently displayed Sequence Display to "Snapshot 2" internal memory.
• recall2: "Recall Seq Button In (Snapshot 2)" recalls settings of a sequence from "Snapshot 2" internal memory.
• Clear Snapshot Memories: deletes both of snapshot memories.
• copy seq: copies current settings of CV knobs, Time knobs and Quantization states to the copy buffer* which is shared by/to all OPS module instances on a local computer. It can be used for inter instance copy/paste function.
• paste seq: pastes a copied settings of CV knobs, Time knobs and Quantization states from the copy buffer* which is shared by/to all OPS 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.

*This "copy buffer" actually is a temp file named "temp_m4ops" 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

• Auto Rewind: While Auto Rewind is turned "on", the sequence always runs from the beginning of the sequence.
• Trigger Mode: changes how the OPS module reacts to incoming signal from Play Trigger Input. When it is set to "Gated", the sequence plays while the voltage value of Play Trigger Input is high. When it is set to "One-shot", the sequence keeps playing until it reaches to the end of the sequence or Stop is triggered.
• Quantization on/off: switches quantization on or off.
• 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

• Sequence 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

• Play: runs sequence. While Auto Rewind is turned "on", the sequence always runs from the beginning of the sequence. When the Trigger Mode switch is set to "Gated" the sequence plays while the voltage value of Play Trigger Input is high. When it is set to "One-shot", the sequence keeps playing until it reaches to the end of the sequence or Stop is triggered.
• Stop: stops sequence. If the sequence is stopped already, it rewinds the position of the playhead to the beginning of the sequence.
• recall1: "Recall Seq Trigger In (Snapshot 1)" recalls settings of a sequence from "Snapshot 1" internal memory.
• recall2: "Recall Seq Trigger In (Snapshot 2)" recalls settings of a sequence from "Snapshot 2" internal memory.

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.
• Time offset: 5v of CV voltage is same to 1.0 of Time Offset Knob.
• Time interval: 5v of CV voltage is same to 1.0 of Time Interval Knob.
• Time curvature: 5v of CV voltage is same to 1.0 of Time Curvature Knob.
• Time stretch: 5v of CV voltage is same to 1.0 of Time Stretch Knob.

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

Outputs

Trigger Out

• End of Seq Trigger Out: emits a trigger signal when the playhead reached to most right position.

CV Out

• Monophonic Gate Out: emits +5v when it's opened. If the Gate Length is longer enough to connected to next note, next note will not be retriggered.
• Polyphonic Gate Out: emits +5v when it's opened. Every notes are independent form each other for polyphonic out, it can be triggered regardless of remaining of other notes. But the duration of same note is remained, it doesn't retrigger.
• Monophonic CV Out: outputs CV value of a note currently the playhead is staying.
• Polyphonic CV Out: always outputs CV values of all notes currently available. Differed from Monophonic CV Out, if you don't touch any knobs or don't inject CV signals to manipulators, output CV values never change by the time even the sequence is running.