ADSR Mutable Instrument Plaits with Elektron A4 CV out

Hi,

I am triggering Mutable Instruments Plaits with Elektron Analog Four using the CV feature on A4.
All's good after setting up the CV track on A4 for pitch and gate going into the Plaits. In this case I am using CV A for gate and CV B for V/Oct.
CV A Gate goes into Plaits Level and CV B V/Oct goes into V/Oct on Plaits

BUT, how do I trigger the ADSR envelope?
I have read several forums and watched many videos and i just cannot understand.

NOTE - I am new to modular and this is my first post after exhausting my search or perhaps I couldnt find the right answers not knowing what to search for.

Questions

1. Do I need a ADSR module? (Tight on rack space so preferably would do without it)
2. OR do I need to set up another CV, CV C set up as VALUE LIN on A4? (Dont want to, as I want to use CV C and CV D on A4 to trigger MS 101)
3. OR do I feed the audio out of Plaits (Out and Aux) into A4 audio in (L and R) and set the Oscillators on a Track (e.g. Trk 1) and set WAV to IN L and IN R?

Any recommendations or solutions?

Thank you to all those who provide valuable information on this forum and help beginners like me motivated with answers and solutions to many newbie questions.

Cheers

Ambi

Hi Ambi,

Perhaps for starters you start with a bit more simplified setup. Once you build up experience you can then try to play around with that build-in LPG of the Plaits. How about the following?

Connect your CV A (gate) from the A4 to indeed the gate input of an (ADSR) envelope, the output of that envelope to a VCA (CV input). If you have one more EG you could output that to a filter too; but you can leave out the filter part first. If your EG has a switch for the speed of the EG, for example: slow, medium or fast, then make sure that your EG speed roughly matches with your gate speed you "export" from the A4 towards that EG. So if the A4 provides a speedy gate, set the EG to fast and for example if the A4 provides a slow changing gate then set the EG to slow.

Then connect your CV B (1 V/octave) into the 1 V/oct of Plaits indeed, the output of Plaits (optionally through a filter) to the VCA input. Then output the VCA (optionally through a mixer) to your audio output module to send it from your Eurorack to your external mixer. Some members here skip that audio output module but my advice is to use an audio output module to make sure everything goes smooth; but technically it's possible without an audio output module if you are careful enough.

Start simple and try to get some sound out of it first, then continue to improve the setup :-) You also can show us here your rack layout then it's easier to advise you.

Good luck with it, and soon I hope you will have fun with it as well once you got it working and kind regards, Garfield Modular.

Hi Garfield Modular,

Thanks a lot for your reply.

I have made my rack public so i hope it's visible to all.

So what you say "Connect your CV A (gate) from the A4 to indeed the gate input of an (ADSR) envelope, the output of that envelope to a VCA (CV input)" - I do need a ADSR module?

As for the output of plaits, it goes into MI Veils which eventually goes into Clouds or my external mixer (depending on what sound i am getting out of it) and finally record everything in abelton.

Cheers

Ambrish

If you connect the gate output to the trigger input of plaits the internal LPG will be strike and an external ADSR will not be necessary. Work fine for short percussive sounds. For other sounds shapes you will need an external module.

From the manual:

Trigger input. Serves four percussive purposes:
Triggers the internal decaying envelope generator.
Excites the physical and percussive models.
Strikes the internal low-pass gate (unless the LEVEL CV input [4] is patched).
Samples and holds the value of the MODEL CV input.

Adjusting the internal LPG and envelope
Hold the first button (A) and:
Turn the TIMBRE knob to adjust the response of the LPG, from VCFA to VCA.
Turn the MORPH knob to adjust the ringing time of the LPG and the decay time of the internal envelope.

EDITED Sep 1st 2020, 12:28

Hi Ambrish,

Do you need an ADSR? At the end that's up to you :-) That's the beauty of a modular synth, you don't have to do anything you don't want ;-) So, you could follow up on Defragmenteur's advice, that saves you for the moment an ADSR however, I do think that sooner or later you need an ADSR but then again, looking at your rack you might need other things as well like a filter, LFO, another VCO, etcetera. But that it easy on that since your limited space and follow Defragmenteur's advice. Once you have build up more experience with the A4 and your rack then it will become clearer to you what you are still missing and then go for that.

Good luck and kind regards, Garfield.

Thanks a lot Garfield and Defragmenteur!

My aim was to use the power of A4 CV capabilities to control Plaits without having to spend on additional modules to do the Enveloping, Filtering, etc. Yes, I want more, need more, but i came to a point where i said to myself that's it! Just play with what you have and make the best out of it :) Yes, I need to learn how to use Plaits and my other modules on my rack. To be honest my modular journey started during the lockdown desperation/depression times.

After a lot of searching i stumbled upon this video:

Which finally gave the direction i wanted :)

Cheers

Ambi