Barton BMC009 User Writeable Quantizer (MOTM)

barton user writeable quantizer, MOTM

now available in MOTM format, 2U panel

Quantizing is taking something continiously variable, and limiting it's possibilities. It's something that humans do all the time because it makes our world easier to understand. In baking, we quantize our flour and salt by using meausiring cups so we get a cake that we know will taste good or at least edible. In music, we quantize pitches using keys or frets to create a sense of coherence and order that we know will sound good or at least not make our heads explode. In modular synthesis, the oscillators which create pitches are usually controlled by voltages using the 1v/oct standard, so the easiest way to quantize pitch is to quantize these control voltages. The most common voltage quantizers are ones which use divisions of 1/12th of a volt. This corresponds to the equal tempered 12-tone scale that is common in western music. There are then sometimes controls which limit the selection even further, so that only a major scale, or minor pentatonic scale can be played. If this is all you want out of a quantizer, you might want to check out the Barton Musical Circuits Simple Quantizer. The User Writable Quantizer is a little different from most other voltage quantizers. It is not loaded with any preset musical scale or mode. Instead the user needs to manually input each pitch that they want to be quantized to. This takes a little bit of time, but it allows users to create scales that are brand new, where the distances between pitches are uneven, or change with each octave. The writing of musical scales can also be mechanized, by using external triggers and control voltages to tell the quantizer when to add new pitches or remove old pitches from the scale

documentation here:  barton uwq

On Demand Info

These kits and assembled modules are offered on demand, click the link to learn more.