DDSR

[T. Jervell]

Email Tom, if you haven't - he's always been accessible and responds quickly, in my experience. Welcome to MW, milak9!

+1 always a joy! Also subscribe to Tom’s mailing list for (monthly?) up to date information on stock, new stuff etc.

[BugBrand]

Hi, first time posting on muff so hope this is ok to ask here. I was just wondering if these will be back in stock anywhere sometime soon? As a system or solo. Thanks!

Yes, email me to discuss - just making more at the moment as it happens, but I've typically had stock built & ready for most modules the last few months.
The old/current website is clearly in need of an update to make things clearer! New website coming soon - but I will probably continue to keep the modular stuff as email order only because we invariably have to discuss various bits & pieces.
I will be able to make up systems around SynthVoice and/or DDSR in the next 2 weeks - just waiting to calibrate new run of CVCOs.

[BananaPlug]

I've typically had stock built & ready for most modules the last few months.

Something to be thankful for!

While I'm here, a brief update relevant to both Chirper and DDSR. As of yesterday my portable setup has 20fu right in the center. Chirpers up front. The one on the right gets a COF and a PT Delay. The one on the left gets a DDSR(!) and has a tap tempo delay pedal and some reverb.



The DDSR is clocked by the Chirper oscillators. Two steppy D/A voltages from the DDSR are mixed with external CVs and then modulate the Chirper. One mix to filter and the other to osc2. And one of those D/As goes directly to CV osc1. The two other D/A outputs are sent to the opposite register's data input. Exact details don't matter much - still experimenting.

If there are no bits in the shift registers yet they have no affect on the Chirper and it just plays normally. Once you poke a button into into one of the registers it goes to work.

Brief demo. Up to about 40 seconds the shift registers are empty and you're just hearing the cross synced oscillators as I twirl knobs. Syncing is optional but it's livelier that way. Past 40 seconds the shift registers are adding there influence and you notice the addition of short repeating patterns.

LISTEN
Actually, I should have demoed that if you leave off the CVs you will get lots of useful repeating beats. Twirl knobs until you find one you like.

The sweet spots are when the oscillators are at similar rates and I think I prefer the slower sections. Feeding osc2 with a mix of DDSR D/A and LFO allows the patterns to mutate in interesting ways. That's when a tap tempo delay comes in handy.

Additional sounds:
Demo #2
Demo #3
Demo #4 In addition to the DDSR and Chirper there is a SEQ2A instead of the DC mixer. And there are lots of creatures!
Demo #5
By the time we get to #5 I have a pretty good uncomplicated setup.
One Chirper is quietly droning. The other Chirper is plinky melodic percussion with occasional forays into other realms. That one has the DDSR connected, one shift register for CV of filter and one for oscillator 2. At first there are no bits in the DDSR. Their patterns don't show until after a couple minutes of freeform playing. I'm really enjoying the contrast these geometric DDSR patterns provide.

[T. Jervell]

Exquisite as ususal

[milak9]

I've typically had stock built & ready for most modules the last few months.

Great news!

Email Tom, if you haven't - he's always been accessible and responds quickly, in my experience. Welcome to MW, milak9!

+1 always a joy! Also subscribe to Tom’s mailing list for (monthly?) up to date information on stock, new stuff etc.

Thanks for the welcome and responses! I'll email soon and for sure subscribe

[gnome666]

Hoping to get some ideas from y’all in how your using the DDSR. I’ve watched Tom’s video, and read a bit about it, but I don’t really seem to grasp what’s going on. For instance, I don’t really know what to expect when I switch between hi lo and ext states on the data input etc, and similarly sometime the recirc switch when set will stop the cycling behavior. Also, sometimes when I have a cycling pattern and a change the tap points, the cycling pattern will stop (I’m assuming because I tapped a step with a 0 bit?)

I embrace that part of the charm of the module is the inherent unpredictability, just hoping for some insight so that I feel like I’m doing more than just randomly flipping switches and pushing the data jam buttons (though doing that is fun!)

[BugBrand]

I guess you read the instruction pdf?
https://bugbrand.co.uk/docs/DDSR_Instructs_Jul18.pdf
It is quite a hard one to describe without being quite technical!

[gnome666]

I guess you read the instruction pdf?
https://bugbrand.co.uk/docs/DDSR_Instructs_Jul18.pdf
It is quite a hard one to describe without being quite technical!

will revisit funny how quickly one forgets to (re)-RTFM

[gnome666]

in reading over things, it occured to me, is the DDSR "similar" to the Serge gated comparator? At least conceptually it seems so. Though I can't claim that I totally understand how the gated comparator works either

[BugBrand]

in reading over things, it occured to me, is the DDSR "similar" to the Serge gated comparator? At least conceptually it seems so. Though I can't claim that I totally understand how the gated comparator works either

Reading the synthwiki of the CGS Gated Comparator, I seems similar in core bar the XOR on the DDSR, though of course implementation is completely different.

[gnome666]

for those interested, user flx has a very nicely diagramed breakdown of the concept behind the gated comparator. Although the DDSR is different, I'm a visual learner kinda guy, so reading the explanation I feel is bringing me closer to getting the most out of the DDSR

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=209972

[ear ear]

in reading over things, it occured to me, is the DDSR "similar" to the Serge gated comparator?

The Gated Comparator is a Ken Stone (of CGS fame) design.

[BananaPlug]

The core is the "conveyor belt" metaphor Tom uses to explain it. Bits moving along the moving belt, snapshots of them made into stepped voltages. That much resembles the gated comparator. What's different is the logic and switching around that conveyor belt. The thing about the DDSR that I find both magical and vexing is that a step by step understanding of how the thing works, instructive as that may be, only helps so much when you run it in a patch. There are more little transactions going on than you can follow in you head. That keeps it interesting.

[hollunderkurve]

anyone ever use two DDSR's together in a Bug-set up? Random question I guess, but after having been messing around with the DDSR in many different ways and seeing how versatile it is at audio rates and as a kind of "controller" it just got my mind roaming about what one could do with two - patched with one another, and/or mixed within a larger patch

[otoskope]

I have a tendency of getting two of most things, as I see it as giving x^2 instead of 2*x. But the DDSR I don't have two of. Seems like a very powerful thing to try. I have done DDSR+Chirper in various cross-modulation setups, which also is a great combination (I have them in the same frame).

[BananaPlug]

Here's a haunting little tune which gets most of its DNA from Chirper, DDSR, Grilles.
Listen

Those three, along with simpler cyclic modulation sources, are collaboratively creating the rhythm and melody.
Personally one DDSR is about right for me (I mean it's already a dual) but I fully support the idea!

[batchas]

Here's a haunting little tune which gets most of its DNA from Chirper, DDSR, Grilles.
Listen

Awesome!

[hollunderkurve]

Here's a haunting little tune which gets most of its DNA from Chirper, DDSR, Grilles.
Listen

nice! thanks for the tune

[DickMarker]

anyone ever use two DDSR's together in a Bug-set up? Random question I guess, but after having been messing around with the DDSR in many different ways and seeing how versatile it is at audio rates and as a kind of "controller" it just got my mind roaming about what one could do with two - patched with one another, and/or mixed within a larger patch

I haven't but could absolutely see myself making use of two of them in even my quite modest set up. So many handy applications in that module, and it really acts as sort of meta-controller in a lot of my patches.

[BugBrand]

I have two in my studio system but that tends towards several voices - I'd think one per regular system is ample.. but... possibilities are open!

[BananaPlug]

This spring I've been exploring ways of mixing and routing modulation and audio. DDSR is part of the modulation side of that. I'm taking two divisions of a Chirper's Osc2 to clock the two sides of the DDSR. The DDSR steps and other more cyclic things modulate the Chirper. Convoluted CV interaction like that and different time manipulations make for some interesting results even when it's just rolling along in autopilot like this.

LISTEN

[hollunderkurve]

This spring I've been exploring ways of mixing and routing modulation and audio. DDSR is part of the modulation side of that. I'm taking two divisions of a Chirper's Osc2 to clock the two sides of the DDSR. The DDSR steps and other more cyclic things modulate the Chirper. Convoluted CV interaction like that and different time manipulations make for some interesting results even when it's just rolling along in autopilot like this.

LISTEN

this sounds wonderful! thanks for sharing - is that really the chirper osc as the sound source? wild.

I have also recently been messing with clocking the DDSR with oscillators... but with very different sounding results! ha

[T. Jervell]

This spring I've been exploring ways of mixing and routing modulation and audio. DDSR is part of the modulation side of that. I'm taking two divisions of a Chirper's Osc2 to clock the two sides of the DDSR. The DDSR steps and other more cyclic things modulate the Chirper. Convoluted CV interaction like that and different time manipulations make for some interesting results even when it's just rolling along in autopilot like this.

LISTEN

Very nice indeed

[BananaPlug]

hollunderkurve:

is that really the chirper osc as the sound source? wild.

Yes and no. The looping plucks, scratching, gongs is a piezo amplified metal gadget. The brighter sounds are Chirper playing the part of a mythical bird/insect creature. There's some Crossover Filter on that and the main mix is a transistor based DC circuit with a quirky overdrive response. With the amount of I/O in a Chirper or DDSR and all the ways to mix signals in this system the results can feel like alchemy.

[GryphonP3]

A littlehelp for people trying to understand Digital shift registers:

For rhythms/triggers (digital section)
The main concept is DIGITAL. This means binary:no or yes, 0 or 1, 0V or 10v, gate off or gate on. Every clock pulse, it checks the data input or push button to see if there is a signal there crossing its threshold or not (its a comparator.) If there IS, it says “yes! 1!” registers that, and a pulse now arrives in the “conveyer belt” which bounces one bit down the line at each additional clock pulse, until it either disappears, or reappears at the beginning if the recirculate is on. This is a 10v pulse which appears at the digital output to be used as atrigger or whatever every time it passes the first step, so if you have multiple pulses in the conveyor belt, it will generate a repeating rhythm. Therotary switches set the sequence length and position of the active bits in the sequence.

For stepping voltages/melodies (analog)
DA: Digital shift registers can generate an analog variable control voltage by checking which of the steps is on (each one can have a different arbitrary value as determined by the circuit design) and SUMs an average of these voltage values for all bits currently on in that conveyor belt at that clock step, and outputs a voltage based on this value. So every combination of steps on currently will give a different voltage output. So it is kind of random in this sense, but it is repeatable if the pattern of blips in the conveyor belt is recirculating and repeating, but it is NOT dependant on any analog signal at any input like an S/H, it is instead entirely dependent on analyzing which steps in the sequence are currently 0s/1s at that moment. For instance, using 0s as off steps/unlit LEDs and 1s as on steps/lit LEDs, 00101101 could equal 2.8v or whatever in this circuit, and 10111011 could equal 7.2v at the output. It is an analog signal derived from the combination of on/off steps in the register at any moment.

CGS gated comparator is the grandfather of this module and has pots per step to assign each step’svoltage value when on for the DA summing. One of the most genius and underrated modules in any format, probably because few people understand how it works