Step 8

Joranalogue Audio Design

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Sequential Tracking/Sampling Register

Sequencers, sequential switches, counters, analogue shift registers... Modular synthesisers provide a wealth of creative sequential functions for controlling and processing signals. Choosing which of these to include in a system can be a bewildering task.

Except when you don’t have to choose. Step 8 represents a new type of modular building block: a sequential tracking/sampling register, which can be configured to provide any of these functions, and many more.

At its heart lies an analogue 1-to-8 signal switch feeding an octet of high-stability track/sample-and-hold stages. Each of these has its own analogue output with an attenuation slider, in addition to a gate output. LEDs visualise the status of each stage in real time. The switch can be controlled sequentially using the built-in 8-step counter, or addressed directly by an analogue control voltage (CV).

Numerous advanced circuit techniques are used to avoid the issues that often plague analogue switching and memory modules. The result: totally transparent signal paths with low noise, distortion and voltage ‘droop’, yet high bandwidth and precision.

Add to this the ability to ‘mute’ the inactive stages, pause the counter, reset it, change its direction or even shift the stages on each step, and the possibilities quickly become near-endless. A scanning output takes things even further, particularly making sequencer or addressed voltage source use easy and intuitive.

For those who are feeling adventurous, there are always more applications to try: configurable voltage mapper, hocketing controller, clock divider, graphic waveshaper, multi-output analogue downsampler... Discover a new world of sequential synthesis with Step 8.