This 2 Shall Pass

Passive-aggressive XOR

This module grew from one of those throwaway circuits in a 70s electronics magazine for a 2 input passive analogue XOR. Of course it is great and production of CMOS XOR 4030 and 4070 chips was immediately halted………no.

Does it do interesting things to your signal tho? YES!

So this module is a dual version, with three inputs (it was just an extra resistor and transistor). It works in very different ways depending how it is patched. If you want to get close to XOR behaviour, use the top and bottom inputs, leave the middle one empty. Then again if you want a voltage controlled “XOR” (using ” “ because it isn’t really XOR but wants to be), feed your signals to the top and bottom inputs and a CV signal to the middle input.

Try switching around the signals on different inputs, to get different results. Feed it anything: CV, audio rate, gates, mix them up. Generally with audio signals it sounds like a Ring Modulator, adding CV to the middle input (but feel free to experiment) it sounds like a VC Ring Modulator.

Anyway, this is probably the easiest NLC module to build and a nice, gentle introduction to soldering SMD.

Please note - NLC no longer sells assembled modules but there are several builders around the world who build NLC modules to sell. Email NLC for the list

https://www.nonlinearcircuits.com/modules/p/this2shallpass