User Manual - 4ms Pedals
Contents
1. to ramp down to triangle to ramp up and all shapes in between Channels can easily modulate trigger and reset each other for complex and slowly morphing outputs Slowest period is 71 minutes 0 0002 Hz fastest speed is about 500Hz marginal tracking up to 1kHz Tap tempo button is free running LFO runs indefinitely but external clock Ping is auto stopping LFO stops when external clock stops Controls and jacks Tap tempo button Ping for manually setting the tempo Ping jack sets tempo with an external clock any signal can be used On mute button enables or mutes the output latching button Skew knob and CV jack control the waveshape by altering the ratio between rise and fall times e At 0 Skew OV of CV the shape is a 10ms trigger e At 1 Skew is a near exponential pluck e As Skew increase to about 3 it becomes less exponential and more linear e At about 3 Skew the shape is linear ramp down e At 50 Skew about 5V of CV the shape is triangle e At 100 Skew about 10V of CV the shape is ramp up e Skew knob provides offset to the incoming CV signal so any range of CV is acceptable Reset jack restarts the LFO without changing the tempo rising edge triggered OUT jack outputs either a 0 to 10V waveshape or a 5V to 5V waveshape jumper selectable LED flashes and dims to the signal on the OUT jack Tap tempo button flashes to the internal tap tempo clock or to incoming pulses on the Ping jack On Mute button lights up w2. such devices as the Rotating Clock Divider RCD or the Shuffling Clock Multiplier SCM Turn the Skew knob all the way down to use the channel as a master clock this produces an output that s somewhat like a trigger pulse Any of the RCD or SCM outputs can be used to Ping and Reset the QPLFO Advanced After setting up this patch try running the slowest QPLFO channel output to the Rotate jack Or try running one of the slower clock outputs to the Reset jack of a faster LFO Using one channel of the QPLFO as a master clock Using an external master clock with RCD pinging the other three channels Ws Rotate Reset Skew 7 Reset QUAD PINGABLE LFO QCD OUTs normalized to QPLFO PINGs using ribbon cable A Ping DS H Skew 7 Reset ae Skew 7 Reset Reset Div CV Jie OUT OUT Reset Div CV Reset IO Div CV Skew Reset Div Mult Div CV QUAD CLOCK o DISTRIBUTER QUAD PINGABLE LFO Page 4 with shuffle slip to create complex a a Rotate Slip QCD QPLFO The QPLFO is designed to connect to the Quad Clock Distributer QCD which provides clock multiplication division The QPLFO and QCD connect in the back with a 8 pin ribbon cable Connect the PINGS header on the QPLFO to the CLOCK OUTS header on the QCD Make sure the red stripe is aligned to the white line on both modules When connected toget
3. the red channel skew shift from falling ramp to triangle to rising ramp You can mute the blue channel to make the red channel go back to a static waveshape If you want to get chaotic mult or stack the red channel output and plug it back into the blue channel s Skew Keep going try chaining all 4 channels together plug into Reset and Ping it s easy to get crazy quick TAP TAP HOLD 2sec Trigger Here s another fun trick One shot mode or bare cab le First you have to arm it by stopping your clock lights fi o hot e f you re running an external clock into Ping either go off Ires 4 Wneesne stop it at the source or unplug the Ping jack e If you re using Tap tempo then tap the button three J Reset times and hold it down on the third time for 2 seconds e The orange button should be lit up unmuted but the channel should not be running This is armed To trigger a one shot give a pulse on the reset jack You can plug Reset into a trigger pad Synthwerks FSR or Makenoise Pressure Points or FOH Choices Hint in a pinch you can use a bare cable by touching the tip to metal cheap and dirty hack but it works Page 3 Example Patches Tempo syncing If you want all the channels to be synced to a master clock or multiples and divisions of a clock you can use a clock divider or multiplier In a small system you might want to use one channel of the QPLFO as a master clock to clock
4. 4ms Quad Pingable LFO Eurorack Module User Manual v2013 04 25 initial release The Quad Pingable LFO QPLFO from 4ms Company is a compact playable four channel tap tempo pingable clock syncable LFO with variable skew and reset Each channel s speed is set by a Tap Tempo button or an external clock Ping Each channel can be Muted with a latching button and Reset with an external trigger The Skew CV and knob allow for a variety of waveshapes without losing sync to the ping clock A plethora of headers allows for connection to other modules including the 4ms Quad Clock Distributor the 4ms VCA Matrix the 4ms SISM and the Toppobrillo Mixiplexer Several advanced features are hidden within the QPLFO Floating Reset mode one shot mode mutli shot mode Fire on unmute Bipolar Unipolar outputs and more The QPLFO is designed to be useful in small portable systems that require maximum functionality in minimal space as well as large systems that need maximum modulation sources The QPLFO has a variety of uses e Four LFOs with mutes e Master tap clock e Clock delay Clock phase shifting e Quadrature LFO e Square Pulse to Triangle Ramp waveshaper e One shot DOWNLOAD MOST RECENT MANUAL AT http 4mspedals com qplfo php Basic features Quad pingable LFO s frequency is set by time between pulses ping Each of the 4 channels is an independent LFO Can produce a variety of waveshapes triggers to near expo pluck
5. PLFO behaves the same as reset on a traditional typical LFO it re starts the LFO when a trigger is received on the Reset jack However there are some unique subtleties to the QPLFO When you first power the QPLFO on without having given a reset pulse the output waveform always starts at the same moment the Ping button lights up Try setting a slow tempo about 3 seconds or so and turn Skew all the way down See how the LED by the output jack and the Ping button light at the same time This means that they are in phase See in the diagram left the first few triangle waves all start on the ping s rising edge they are in phase Reset changes the phase relationship between the incoming Ping and the output Let s say your incoming Ping is a clock that marks the start of a measure By default the LFO will begin at the start of each measure ONE two three four But if you give a reset pulse mid way through the measure the LFO will begin at this point mid way through the measure one two THREE four It will keep resetting re starting when this point in the measure happens until unless you assign a different reset point This point in time is called the Reset Lock Point and it s measured in the amount of time to delay the start of the wave after a ping is received The QPLFO will make sure the output always is synced to this Reset Lock Point unless you tell it otherwise See the diagram after a Reset pulse is given the triangle wa
6. QPLFO as a one shot or for manually re syncing the LFO Each channel has its own jumper so you could enable this on all none or only some of the channels Threshold Trimpot Adjustment The trimpot on the back of the QPLFO adjusts the voltage required to trigger a ping or reset At fully CCW the voltage is 5 0V At center it s 2 5V At fully CW it s OV and the unit will not respond to Ping or Reset The QPLFO can be interfaced with LZX level compatible equipement by setting this trimpot to about 0 8V It s safe to turn the trimpot with the unit powered up but normal cautions apply when handling any piece of equipment that s live You can use a volt meter to measure the voltage on the wiper of the trimpot as you turn it This voltage will be the threshold voltage _ Factory default is about 2V or roughly near half way es r Reserved for future use Ping jack normalizations LFO outputs connects to 4ms VCA In the initial release firmware jumping Connects to 4ms QCD Matrix Input Toppobrillo Mixiplexer with pins makes each channel free running In the photo the top row is ground and adaptor or 4ms SISM disables auto stop of Ping clock the each pin on the bottom row connects In the photo the bottom row is the to the normalization of a Ping jack signals the top row is ground Page 8
7. ase offset independantly and on the fly 1 Ping all the channels with the same external clock stack mult to all four ping jacks 2 Run a manual gate into each Reset jack 3 Fire a trigger into each gate at the appropriate time approximately a quarter of the way through the previous channel s cycle Connecting LFO outputs to other modules with 8 pin header Page 5 OUT jacks The QPLFO has an 8 pin header labeled OUTS that outputs the LFO signals 0 to 10V This can connect to other modules for behind the scenes connectivity The On Mute button stays active the signals on the header pins are literally the same signals that are on the e 4ms VCA Matrix use the DAISYCHAIN INPUTS header The LFOs appear on the main input jacks not the CV jacks This is extremely useful for routing combinations of LFOs to various places in your patch Note to minimize clipping use the QPLFO in Bipolar 5V mode when connecting to the VCA Matrix or any DC mixer e 4ms Shifting Inverting Signal Mingler SISM Details forthcoming in the SISM manual e The Mixiplexer from Toppobrillo accepts this cable with a special mod board Pressing the X I button on the Mixiplexer selects the QPLFO s four LFOs to control the four VCAs of the Mixiplexer Level knobs on the Mixiplexer attenuate the LFOs and the mute buttons on the QPLFO can mute the channel The Slope parameter on the Mixiplexer is also active Detailed Discussions and Special Features Sk
8. ate skew all over the place Just mult stack your ping clock into the Reset jack or send some other clock into Reset if you want phase shift A pulse received on the Reset jack will force a reset to occur even if Skew is being modulated Again this just does what you think it will do but if you ve made it this far in the manual you deserve to know what s really going on Bottom Ping for reference Top is output while skew is being modulated continually starting with the second triangle wave Notice how period and phase are variable Jumpers and Trimpots ro AAL Bipolar Unipolar jumper a This jumper selects Bipolar output 5V to 5V waveforms or Unipolar output OV to BIPOLKK 10V On PCB version 1 0 the jumper is labeled BIPOLAR on the left side Putting the jumper between the left pin and center pin gives you Bipolar mode 5V to 5V Putting the jumper between the right pin and center pin is Unipolar mode OV to 10V On PCB v1 0 1 the jumper is labeled 5V and 0 10V Factory default is Unipolar mode f Fire on unmute jumpers Each channel has a jumper to enable Fire on unmute mode These jumpers are 4 located in between the two PCBs above the buttons Installing the jumper enables the _ Fire on unmute mode for that channel In this mode turning the On button from off to on will fire a quick pulse into the Reset jack This will reset the waveform This is useful for using the
9. ave a steady high gate handy so you can simply plug a cable into the Reset jack and leave the other end dangling or plugged into another channel s Reset jack A reset pulse will occur when you plug a bare cable in and you have entered Floating Reset mode Bottom trace is Ping clock Skew is being modulated manually Reset is being held high to put us in Floating Reset mode Notice how output does not always start on the Ping Floating Reset mode might not be noticed by a casual user but it does have some important though subtle uses For example the QPLFO will slowly drift off time with an external Ping in Floating Reset mode Often this is not desirable but for some works of music this is an interesting perhaps crucial element Another use for Floating Reset mode is if you want to modulate the phase by changing Skew instead of giving Reset pulses This will completely avoid any sharp re syncing that would occur if you changed phase with Reset triggers Since the automatic reset at the Reset Lock Point or Ping is disabled in Floating Reset mode you are free to twiddle skew without any attempt by the QPLFO s to sync you back to a clock As the output changes period when its Skew is modulated the result is that after you are done turning Skew the output will have a different phase Skew modulation suspends automatic resetting re syncing unless you tell it not to This feature happens automatically in the background and is not n
10. ecessary to understand even for advanced users Normally when no skew modulation is happening the output will be reset automatically when a ping is received or the Reset Lock Point occurs see What exactly is Reset section An interesting feature of the QPLFO is that this automatic resyncing resetting is disabled if Skew is actively being modulated e g you are turning the Skew knob This is similar to Floating Reset mode but it only lasts as long as Skew is changing value Why When you turn the Skew knob it might take you a fraction of a second or so to turn the dial During this fraction of a second the waveform is changing shape while tracking the Knob Since it s changing shape it s also changing period and phase Trying to re assign phase while phase is changing is counter intuitive and results in weird artifacts double hits and false starts It s better to reset re sync when you re done changing the shape So by disabling the automatic reset feature while Skew is being modulated the QPLFO feels more friendly and it just does what you think it will do As soon as a Skew Page 7 _ holds steady for a fraction of a second the auto reset is re enabled and it will snap back in sync at the next Ping or Reset Lock Point Delving further into the nitty gritty of timing you can override this feature _ Let s say your patch requires resyncing 100 of the time on every beat without compromises and at the same time you want to modul
11. ew curves 10ms trigger pulse Quadratic root curve pluck Cubic root curve pluck Square root curve pluck Skew at lt 200mV 7 00 Skew at 300mV 7 25 Skew at 400mV 7 30 Skew at 500mV 7 35 Ramp up Skew at 600mV 7 40 Triangle Skew at 5V 12 00 Ramp up Skew at 10V 5 00 Skew changes the waveshape in real time The full range of the Skew jack is 10V The Skew knob provides offset for the jack For maximum modulation range turn the Skew knob all the way down if you are plugging in a positive only modulation source Likewise if your modulation source is positive and negative you will get maximum modulation range if you keep the knob towards the center These are just rules of thumb always trust your ears At 0 Knob at CCW or OV on the jack the output will be a 10ms trigger pulse This is useful for clocking other devices drum modules clock divider multiplier etc With Skew turned up just a hair there will be a near exponential falling curve Turning it up a tiny bit more it will morph into a linear ramp down curve From here to 100 the output stays linear the skew will smoothly transition from ramp down to triangle to ramp up One interesting feature is that the QPLFO won t switch to the trigger or expo curves unless Skew was near 0 before the start of the curve Modulating Skew with an external CV Output in red top Skew CV in blue bottom Ping jack and Ping button The QPLFO can use e
12. hen channel is On Advanced Ping and Reset inputs use comparators so any waveshape can be used for triggering audio waves complex LFOs even the QPLFO itself e Trim pot on PCB allows for adjustment of comparator threshold value Fire on unmute jumper per channel e When this optional jumper is installed pressing the On button to turn the channel on will reset the LFO e lf the jumper is not installed factory default pressing On will unmute the LFO without resetting LFO runs in the background when muted Bipolar Unipolar jumper e Setting jumper to Bipolar makes the outputs 5V to 5V e Setting jumper to Unipolar makes the outputs OV to 10V e One jumper controls all four channels One shot mode Reset jack can be used to trigger a one shot envelope if the external ping clock is stopped See section below for detailed discussion Floating Reset mode Holding a high gate on Reset jack allows the waveshape to run freely without automatically re syncing to the ping clock A bare cable plugged into the jack causes a high gate Connects to other modules using ribbon cables e Outputs can connect to the 4ms VCA Matrix or the 4ms SISM or the Toppobrillo Mixiplexer e Normalization of ping jacks can connect to the 4ms Quad Clock Distributer Dimensions 12 HP Eurorack format module 1 57 40 mm deep Power consumption 12V rail 89mA max with 5V Source jumper selecting external 5V 154mA max with 5V Source jumper selecting inter
13. her each QPLFO Ping jack is normalized to the corresponding channel output on the QCD Whatever tempo each QCD channel is running at the QPLFO channel will run at the same tempo Plugging into the Ping jack will override the QCD connection so the two units can still be used separately More detailed information will be found in the QCD manual Master Clock SET TRIMPOT TO MAX 5V Quad VCO FMing It might not be hard to find four things to modulate with the QPLFO but if you need something to try out the following patch creates an endless variety of complexly changing sounds Run the outputs of four VCOs into the inputs of a VCA Matrix If you only have 3 VCOs or even 2 the patch will still work Run the VCAM outputs into the FM or 1V oct inputs of the same four VCOs try to keep them in the same order A gt 1 B gt 2 etc Pick four different CV jacks on the VCAM and plug in the outputs from the QPLFO At first try to avoid the CV jacks that feed a VCO back into itself A1 B2 C3 D4 these are less interesting As the LFOs cycle the VCA Matrix creates different permutations of VCOs FM ing each other Mute unmute LFOs and VCAM channels at will and play with the VCAM attenuators Since this can quickly get out of control try keeping the four QPLFO channels synced to a master clock see Tempo Syncing patch Using the plucky skew setting gives intense percussive effects and triangle skew is nice to slowly bring in a sound Modulati
14. ither a tap tempo or an external clock and it switches between them automatically Tapping a tempo with the Ping button enables the tap tempo circuit and the Ping button will flash to the tempo of the internal clock As soon as an external signal is recognized on the Ping jack the internal tap tempo clock is turned off and the Ping button will displaying the signal on the Ping jack To re enable the tap tempo circuit tap in a new tempo One shot mode See Your first QPLFO patch section The key to this mode is to set a Ping time then let the clock expire which stops the LFO without muting the channel You can fire the One shot with the Reset jack If you re using tap tempo just hold the Tap button down for 2 seconds This tells the QPLFO to stop the internal tap clock To avoid double triggering or weird intermediate tempos you may want to tap the tempo immediately Top output one shots before holding the button down for 2 seconds thus we recommend Tap Tap Bottom Triggers into the Reset jack Hold If you re using external clock stop the clock upstream or unplug it or mute it with a VCA for example The QPLFO will notice that the clock is stopped and force the output to stop However the timing from the ping will be remembered Note you can mute the channel and still give it a ping tap This prevents any output while you are setting up the one shot timing Unmute the channel when you re ready to start firing rese
15. l time For most of the range the waveshape will be linear rise and fall But when Skew is at 0 the output will be a sharp attack with sharp drop off similar to an expo curve technically it s a quadratic curve If you nudge Skew up just a hair it will output a linear Ramp down sawtooth shape At center it will do a Triangle wave All the way up you get a Ramp up shape Now try sync ing the QPLFO channel to an external clock Plug a clock or anything into the Ping jack Maybe an RCD or SCM output or the output of another LFO or cycling envelope or a VCO at a very slow speed The Ping button will light up when a signal is present on the jack and will switch from running at your tap tempo to the incoming clock s tempo ANY SIGNAL gt Next let s play with Reset Plug a manual gate trigger or a really slow clock into the Reset jack Reset The LFO will start over each time it receives a signal on this jack See below for a technical description of what Reset is actually doing Now try a fun trick modulate Skew of one channel with another channel s output Set the red channel tempo to about 1 3 cycles per second Tap the blue channel s Ping button once Listen to the red channel make 8 cycles and then tap the blue Ping a second time Plug the blue channel output into the red channel Skew CV jack Turn the red channel Skew knob all the way down Turn blue channel Skew to triangle center You should be hearing
16. nal 5V 5V rail 65mA max with 5V Source jumper selecting external 5V not used with 5V Source jumper selecting internal 5V 12V rail 73mA max Page 2 Your first QPLFO patch The QPLFO is a different kind of LFO than you might be used to Rather than setting the speed with a knob and or CV jack like a traditional LFO the QPLFO sets the speed by using an external clock or tap button To do anything with the QPLFO you first need to give it a Ping Let s get started with your first patch 1 Start by tapping in a tempo on the red channel just press the top Ping button twice Instantly the button will flash to your tempo and keep running Ping 2 Press the On button and it will light up orange When this button is off the channel is muted no output The Ping button will continue to flash even if a channel is muted so you can see what tempo it ll be when you unmute it 3 Plug the OUT jack into something you want to modulate try the pitch of a VCO or run one VCO into a VCA and then into the FM of another VCO and use the QPLFO to open up the VCA When the On button is lit up notice that the LED by the OUT jack will also be flashing The brightness of this LED follows the signal of the output 4 Play with the Skew knob and listen to how the waveshape changes Notice how the total frequency or period of the output does not change Technically Skew sets the ratio between the rise and fall times without changing the tota
17. ng Skew slowly is also great Quadrature LFO There s several ways to generate quadrature with this quad LFO module A The most clever method uses the QPLFO by itself This method takes advantage of the trimpot on the back of the QPLFO which sets the threshold voltage for the Ping and Reset comparators Adjust this trimpot so the threshold voltage is 5V all the way up assuming you are set to Unipolar outputs 0 to 10V Now patch channel 1 s output to channel 2 s Ping input channel 2 s output to channel 3 s Ping and channel 3 s output to channel 4 s ping Tap a tempo on channel 1 or use an external clock The four channel outputs will be 90 degrees out of phase from each other in quadrature you need to stack mult the outputs for channels 1 3 B Another way is to first make a quadrature clock and then feed that into the QPLFO s ping inputs There s various ways to make a quadrature clock An A 151 or other sequential switch is and easy way just run a steady high voltage into the common O I jack and patch the four I O jacks to the QPLFO pings Clock the A 151 as normal Or you can use an RCD that s re flashed as a Triggered Gate Sequencer Also an A 152 provides quick quadrature clock outputs by using Dig Outs jacks 1 4 and patching jack 5 to Reset C Another way is to use the Reset jacks This method doesn t give perfect 90 degrees but it does allow you to feel out the desired phase difference and change each channel s ph
18. t pulses Next To fire the one shot send a pulse into Reset jack A manual gate module works great for this Or a quick hack is to plug a bare cable into Reset it will fire a one shot envelope if the other end of the cable is unplugged You also can touch the bare end of the cable on some metal the nut of the jacks for example and it will fire each time Doing this isn t pretty but it works in a pinch and or can be a great space saver for small systems Clocked Reset Multi shot mode Set up the ping tap timing as described in the One shot mode patch The QPLFO should be unmuted but not running Now plug a clock into Reset The length of the output waveshape will match the timing obtained from the ping or tapping but the frequency of the output will match the frequency of the Reset Thus you can fire short bursts with a pause silence between pulses Hint If this output is inverted you will obtain a trapezoidal wave whose shape is set entirely by clock timing Top multi shot output Bottom Clock on the Reset jack Page 6 What exactly is Reset What is the Reset Lock Point Can do clock phase shifting with the QPLFO W Bottom trace is ping 20ms period First four waveshapes start on the Ping Then a reset pulse is applied about 8ms after a Ping This defines the Reset Lock Point 8ms after each Ping Subsequent waveshapes all start on this Reset Lock Point Reset Lock Point Reset on the Q
19. ves always start at a point to the right of each ping s rising edge This feature is a critical difference between the QPLFO and other traditional LFOs Note that the Reset Lock Point is relative to the ping If you change the ping time by tapping in a different tempo or changing the speed of the external clock the reset will stay the same in terms of length of time not in proportion of time So if you give the QPLFO a reset pulse 500ms after the ping the LFO will always start 500ms after the ping even if you slow the ping time down If you change your clock speed ping time to faster than 500ms then the reset time will be meaningless and by default it will be set to Oms in phase with Ping This is a quick way to clear the Reset Lock Point speed up your clock then slow it back down again Another way is to give a reset pulse at the same moment as the ping either manually or plug the ping clock into the reset jack Floating Reset mode Holding a gate high on the Reset jack tells the QPLFO to stop resetting re syncing your waveshape on each Ping or Reset Lock Point This is called Floating Reset mode because the LFO will not reset to a specific lock point Nothing else changes in Floating Reset mode the Ping is still actively creating the timing of the output if the ping clock stops the output will still stop and if the ping clock speeds up or slows down the output will still soeed up or slow down In a small system you might not h
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