KON

Versatile Looping Lag Processor

short demo video | user maual | shop

Enter KON, a versatile signal processor unit. The three main actions of KON is input signal attenuversion, lag processing and oscillating. This module has one signal input with a dedicated attenuverter knob, handy to scale and invert the input to taste. The input is then passed through a lag processor core. It consists of a core setup many Serge modules and their derivatives use for lag processing, stripped-down to basics and reconfigured for KON. The module's output is the output of this lag processor, indicated by a bicolor LED on top of the jack. Red colour indicates positive voltage, and blue colour indicates the negative.

The most common use of KON is lag processing, or slew limiting: put a signal to the input jack - and get a 'smoothed out' version of it at the output. When the input signal voltage changes, the output slides to the new voltage instead of reaching it immediately. Upwards time setting knob and a dedicated CV input jack determine the upwards glide time. Likewise, the downwards time is determined by the downwards time setting and its CV input. Both time settings can be controlled using the BOTH CV input. The more clockwise a time setting knob is, the smaller the lag time gets. While this sounds counterintuitive at first, higher time settings correlate to faster transitions and higher pitches in LOOP mode, so this way is, in fact, more intuitive then the other way around. Using KON as a lag processor on CVs will add glide, or portamento: squarewave LFOs can be turned into (dynamically controllable) trapezoids, sequences and other staircase-like voltages can get variously glided - from adding a little downwards lag for the acid feel, to smoothing them out into a sequential fluctuating curve.

The second main way KON can be used is - flicking the LOOP switch up and setting KON to oscillate. This may be used as an LFO in lower ranges and as an audio VCO in upper ranges of the upwards/downwards time knobs. The two controls are independent, so one can dial in any oscillation shape between sawtooth, triangle and reverse sawtooth. Of course, changing upwards or downwards time also changes the pitch of the oscillation. Controlling the overall frequency of the oscillation after the shape is dialed in is easy using the BOTH cv input. While it does track more or less exponentially, it does not have 1v/o properties, so it cannot be used to get tuned melodies using sequencers that stick to this standard, but plays well with hand-tunable sequencers and such.

Finally, looping and input lagging can be used both at the same time. The signal that causes KON to loop is merely added up to the input signal (see flowchart), so having some input signal along with it will cause interesting interplays of cycling and input processing. The looping oscillation usually occurs when the input voltage level is low enough, so scaling it with the attenuverter is necessary. In CVs, this will lead to occasional oscillations along with the lag-processed input signal at the output. At audio rates, this turns KON into an extremely potent dynamics and harmonics processor: looping adds a peak to the sound, similar to resonant peaks in VCFs. Controlling upwards, downwards or both times with an external CV will cause interesting timbral modulations, somewhere between a waveshaper, a filter and a VCA. Using this trick with LOOP disabled also works - but yeilds a tamer, non-'resonant' tone.

A lag processor and voltage scaler, KON is a very general and versatile module, yet has its own character. It can fulfil many roles beyound the ones mentioned above. For instance, one can also use it as an attack-release envelope by processing a gate signal from the keyboard with it, or as an envelope detector by passing audio through it, setting a short upwards and a slower downwards time. Creative possibilities are unlimited!

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