Klavis - Mixwitch - Mixer & CV/Clock controlled Switcher

[Vibe010]

Just ordered one, i love the density of functions, and the well thought design! The new ones demo’d at superbooth are supercool also! The logica xt and the quadigi and the caltrans will find their way in my system as well!

[lisa]

So I love this module. Mixer, switcher, sub-octave generator/oscillator etc, cheap and still oozing of quality.

I have one gripe though. The mutes are "click-less" which is great, but why isn't the switching "click-less" too?

[Zentek]

So I love this module. Mixer, switcher, sub-octave generator/oscillator etc, cheap and still oozing of quality.

I have one gripe though. The mutes are "click-less" which is great, but why isn't the switching "click-less" too?

Thanks a lot for the nice words.
The click between channels depends on the precise time when you cut through one wave and allow another one. Imagine you cut at the top of a sine wave and the next channel is currently silent, you will nevertheless get a strong edge, which is a click you will hear.
Switching from channel to channel is clickless by itself. In other words, it doesn't create a click when the instant voltage is the same between the switched channels.
Not sure it's all clear :-)

[lisa]

Yes, I kind of know why clicks occur when switching from one sound source to another. This can be avoided by adding a short crossfade between the two channels when switching, right? That would have been great.

When muting and unmuting these types of clicks do not appear so I thought you already implemented some kind of crossfade, but perhaps I'm being stupid?

[Zentek]

Yes, I kind of know why clicks occur when switching from one sound source to another. This can be avoided by adding a short crossfade between the two channels when switching, right? That would have been great.

You're right; crossfade requires a VCA on each channel; here we have analog switching.

[lisa]

crossfade requires a VCA on each channel; here we have analog switching.

Ah, got it! Well well, there are many workarounds that take care of the issue so it’s all good in the neighbourhood.

[Seaweed Sound]

Really well thought out design.. def on my radar

[gl1tchp-udding]

Can someone please explain the Drum randomizer/selector feature? I read the manual and I can't quite figure out what it means.

[Zentek]

Can someone please explain the Drum randomizer/selector feature? I read the manual and I can't quite figure out what it means.

I should admit that the explanation is definitely short on details. Sorry.
Here is a drawing of the setup evoked.
This should help.



For those who don't have it at hand, here is the text from the manual:

Drum randomizer/selector
This works in combination with some rhythm pattern generator. Using a single VCA and envelope generator allows creating a set of 4 different sounding drums.
The selector is put in clocked random mode and fed with the gate/trigg signal that comes with each step.

A variation of the above is to create up to 4 drum sounds from a single track on a sequencer.
We talk about a sequencer where besides a CV setting, you can enable/disable the gate for each step.

The track's CV is dedicated to select which sound will be produced for a given step.
The Mixwitch' selector is set to CV control.

It's up to you to assign from 2 to 4 sounds since you define the voltage that will be issued at each sequencer step to select a given Mixwitch input.
When using only two sound sources, you can set the selector to two-channel-CV mode (CV-B), freeing up the first mixer section (A) for other uses.



Enjoy,

Eric

[matttech]

Nice patch idea

[defalut]

Ordered a MixWitch yesterday, i need another mixer and it has a lot of extra functionality which will be good to have.

[droningspaghettimonster]

clever designs... so many insanely good designs coming out lately. how does mixwitch handle boosting CV levels? Can 2.5V be boosted to 5?

[lisa]

From the manual:

Each potentiometer controls the gain from zero to max. At maximum setting, the signal is amplified slightly above x2.

[droningspaghettimonster]

thank you lisa.

[nrg242]

just wanted to chime in and add that Klavis' support is stellar. My module had some issues (possibly right out of the box, but couldn't return to dealer, not really sure), and they had me ship the module back to them. Package got stuck in customs for a bit, so they just sent me out a new module via overnight.

now that its up and running, so glad i got one of these.

[williamjturkel]

Super useful for feedback loops! I only had one for a couple of days before buying another.

[nomass]

Will Mixwitch switch between to stereo sources? R = channel A, L = B. It appears that you cannot switch from A1 & B1 to A2 & B2. Am I thinking about this wrong?

[mdoudoroff]

Will Mixwitch switch between to stereo sources? R = channel A, L = B. It appears that you cannot switch from A1 & B1 to A2 & B2. Am I thinking about this wrong?

I don’t think you can do what you describe. You’re missing a switching mode where A and B are each 2-channel switches.

[Zentek]

For the Mixwitch lovers and those wondering why they miss the party, there is an updated manual with 18 applications.

1. Control signal mixer with pots acting linear
2. Audio mixer with pots acting logarithmically and mix level muted by 6dB
3. Four step sequencer/randomizer generating CVs for a sequential or random melody set by the 4 pots
4. Simple sub-octave generator using only one half of the module
5. Complex sub-octaves generator one and two octaves below freely mixed and tweaked
6. Simple granular synthesis using any VCO with multiple wave outputs
7. Multiple-segment waveshaper fill each quarter-wave with other waves segments
8. Phase-controlled wave-stitcher using PWM for control and a pair of audio sources
9. Voltage controlled transposer to up to 3 or 5 independent tunings
10. Drum randomizer in combination with some rhythm pattern generator
11. Digital inverter / signal amplifier using one half of the module
12. Voltage window comparator does switching/gating when a signal is within a specific range
13. Drum selection in sequencing applications using one CV/gate pair for 4 drum sounds
14. Random clocking – Chance generator with settable occurrence
15. Two-input logic AND / NAND gate for digital duties
16. Two-input logic XOR gate – Digital ring-modulator for exclusive selection or MS20-like ring mod
17. Saw to PWM with manual or CV control for audio shaping or LFO gate length adjustment
18. Hard clipping for audio shaping and distortion
and besides the book, as you may already know, a CV mixer can act as a logic OR gate

Go get it:
Klavis Mixwitch manual V1.1

Thank you to all who had nice words for this module.

[lisa]

Thanks! Several ideas I hadn’t thought of.

[nostalghia]

Attention US wigglers: Mixwitch is in stock and on sale price at Perfect Circuit. Just ordered one myself.