It is the one module from V1, that I am still missing all the time. It’s just a port of Audible Instruments Quad VC-polarizer, but in 4hp. It is very versatile, but small enough to not distract and fit anywhere.
It can be a mixer, attenuverter, offset, VCA, or even ringmod, and any combinations of those, 3-channel mixer with 1 vca, or attenuverter with offset and 2 channel mixer, etc… very handy to have in a small format.
I really would like to have this tonnetz-style module in Rack 2, affinites of thirds are harmonically very very powerful.
in the meanwhile I made some logic patches to play with, but a module would be much better!
Yes it was very nice - you can generate the same chords in different ways, of course, but it had the advantage of always sounding musical when scrolling through them, and very easy to find something nice.
Sooo… I added an expander to Kitsune called “Denki”. It provides CV input ports to control of the gain of the attenuator/polarizer; but it also adds some features Bandana didn’t have:
The module is completely polyphonic.
The module can offset and generate voltages from -10V to 10V.
The offset can also be affected by CV, with a dedicated input.
Inputs are normalled in pairs (1-2 & 3-4)
Two faceplate themes: “Vitriol” and “Plumbago”.
It can also amplify, like Bandana did and will only clamp when over +/-10V , not saturate, like Bandana did.
Kitsune and Denki are both part of the Sanguine Monsters plugin.
Denki will, honestly, take a while to drop in the library: I have other modules to be completed before the next release… and I need to write the manual; but… you can play with Kitsune and Denki by getting a Nightly build from:
Channel 1 is polyphonic and each channel has a different CV gain voltage, the Viz module shows the difference.
Channel 2 is monophonic and is offset by CV.
Channel 3 is generating voltage from the CV value.
Channel 4 is generating voltage with the Offset knob value.
If you’re looking for Bandana’s companion, Balaclava, it is based on MI’s Veils and my Sanguine Mutants plugin offers “Velamina”, based on Veils as well; but the 2nd version, so… you might also enjoy that Velamina does saturate, if you want to drive your signals like that
The plugin release with Velamina is already in the Library.
But… it’s bigger than Audible Quad CV-Polarizer now, my point for Bandana is that it’s only 4hp Audible is 12 and already a waste of space, and this looks like 16 now.
Also the functionality of Bandana suits me better - for me it’s the best functionality for a lot of common tasks in a very small format. There are some other small modules that replace different parts of the functionality, but I would prefer to just have this one module instead of a bunch of small mixers, attenuverters and VCAs. Not a big problem to work around, but just more convenient and space efficient.
My Venom VCA Mix 4 is close, but not quite there. The Quad VC-polarizer was one of the modules I studied when I was deciding what features I wanted for my VCA Mix.
It is 5hp instead of 4hp, and is missing one key control from Bandana - a level knob that is independent from the CV modulation. VCA Mix 4 has just one knob per channel that attenuates the CV if patched, or sets the level if not. Bandana has separate knobs for each.
Currently VCA Mix 4 can provide one mix as well as independent attenuverted channel outputs if the Exclude mode is activated. But I plan to add another Excluded Mix mode that causes a patched channel out to sum any unpatched outputs from above, so that functionality would be covered.
The Venom module has some extra features that Bandana doesn’t
The 5th Mix input with its own CV and attenuverter for the overall Mix. Or it can be used as a 5th VCA, or as a way of chaining multiple mixers together, etc.
The VCAs can be configured to be two quadrant unipolar, or 4 quadrant bipolar for ring modulation.
Options for exponential VCA CV response
Options for hard clipping and soft clipping (saturation)
Option for removing DC offset from the outputs
Attenuverters / amps can be configured for different scale levels.
The possibility of adding various compact expanders for customized mixing needs (panning, mute/solo, fade in/out, aux send/return)
Also, VCA Mix 4 is fully polyphonic. I’m not sure about Bandana and polyphony.
So the sizes are very similar, and they have a huge amount of use case overlap. But each has a few features the other doesn’t.
The Venom Mix series is really nice for a lot of mixing tasks, might become my new favorite to mix oscillators!
Bandana (and VC-Polarizer) are still only monophonic, as most of the Audible Instruments still are. A polyphonic adaption might be very nice, but would have to dynamically manage polyphony per output, when splitting the mixer, and find a way to mix mono and poly signals maybe…
If I didn’t have to worry about determining the polyphony count, this would be relatively easy. But the module(s) allow any input to determine the polyphony, so it significantly increases the complexity. The modules are already complicated due to all the options. So reluctantly I am abandoning the idea of extending the functionality for now
No worries. I just discovered the Exclude mode, and I think this means that together with a VCV CV-Mix or a second simple Mix 4 it can cover everything I want to do with it.
It’s nice to have the Bandana in mono again, although now I’m not sure if I should really start using it again, because it might get lost again… but it has become very easy to replace it - VCV CV-Mix was a very important addition to me, since it can do the most important tasks in a small format, together with a small mixer or VCA, if needed.
Best scenario would be if someone could make all the Audible stuff polyphonic, and then the VC-Polarizer could get another mini port. But it’s all good so far, Sanguine has the polyphonic oscillators and resonators, so everything is there already.