Hmmm. Iāve only recently begun to see the appeal of many of the Geodesics modules. Strange in appearance, but interesting in use, especially IONS and PULSARS.
An award goes to . . .
Geodesics
Sorry, I had to downgrade it to a silver star, because the terminology is needlessly ā¦ quirky. For example, the control labeled āPlanck Constantā is explained as āQuantizeā. If they simply made the label say āQuantizeā, that would save a lot of head-scratching. Also, that āEnergyā really means āRangeā, as in voltage or octave range (which is dependant on the state of āPlanck Constantā). āQuantum Leapā has nothing to do with quantizing, but it should.
@Olival_Clanaro : Youāre right. In the end, once you get acquainted with the ācode wordsā used for one module, other modules are somewhat easier to make sense of, so itās not a fatal flaw.
I had my doubts about the circular schemes of some of the panels being some sort of visual aesthetic choice (I regard the panel layout and labeling as the āfront lineā of documentation), but they make a certain amount of sense here, and saves quite a bit of real estate, compared to a straight left-to-right layout.
BTW, with VCVās āRandomā, Count Moduloās āSwitch 1-16ā, two of NSYTHIās āS&H/Eightā, and 15 of Stoermelderās āĀµMapā, I came up with a scheme for randomizing the values in the IONSā Steps. Saved that business as a Selection for use elsewhere.
Well itās been a year without a mention, honourable or otherwise, so Iām just going to leave these here in case they have been accidentally overlooked
Hmmm. They do look pretty good, given a quick skim, but I find that the best test is to actually use the modules and then see if I can easily find what I need to know. And ā¦ Iāve not tried to use them yet.
I donāt go out looking for documentation just to review it. I just stumble upon it as needed.
I am nostalgic for the days when you would buy, say, a 2400 Bd modem, and it came with a manual the size of the O.E.D.
I saw that there was a dual Sample & Hold module in the patch but, apparently, not sampling anything, since there was nothing plugged into then Inputs. So, I downloaded the patch to inspect it more carefully, and it still made no sense. I finally decided to RTFM and ā lo and behold ā for that module it clearly says:
If nothing is connected to an IN port, sampling for that channel is normalled to an internal white noise source with range 0-10V. Alternative options for the normal source noise type and range are available on the context (right-click) menu. The normal source selection applies to both channels.
good point. You know, you have been doing this āgold starā for about a year. It seems that there some devs who would like some constructive feedback on their attempts at documentation. But you havenāt been super forthcoming. Shy?
For at least one module (ā4X4ā), there is a ādefinition of termsā given near the top.
Most have something like what I would call āapplication notesā to get you started. I used to love that about books like the Texas Instruments āTTL Data Bookā.
The occasional block diagram.
Within Rack, the āright-click Info/User manualā link takes you to a page dedicated to just that module.
Um . . . It might be mistaken for volunteering to do the documentation?
Besides, even if asked for such feedback, it would have to be for plugins Iām likely to want to use, and Iād prefer to reply in a less public manner than in this forum.
What was I thinking? Of course Count Modula gets one.
/^M^\
I couldnāt believe I didnāt do this before. I needed to look up something last night, and noticed how much documentation there was. A 129-page PDF, with clickable entries in the table of contents.
So true, straightforward modules with incredible documentation, designed so smartly for VCV rack, I probably use an equal amount of BOG and Count Modula, because they say what they do and do what they say, then you find little treasures like polyphonic Chances and ADDR supplying polyphonic sequencing.
I read through Count modulas entire manual before even trying out the modules, when I was still learning about modular. It was an incredible help. I still find myself reading up on Modules I havenāt tried out yet.
All manually controlled inputs are also CV controllable.
Length, Hits and Shift have Ā±5V bipolar CV inputs with a knob for adjusting CV gain. The gain knob ranges from 0 to 1. After gain is applied to the control voltage input it is summed with the current knob setting.
parameter value = knob value + (control voltage input X control voltage gain knob)
Reverse and Invert have Schmitt triggered CV inputs that override the switch settings.
I love that kind of talk.
And the panel display & controls are easy to figure out. (I regard interface design as a species of documentation.)
BTW, I remembered these tonight when I was looking around for a percussion sequencer that was less pedestrian than usual. Instant jazz combo. Just add patch cords.
Another Gold Star* to . . . @StochasticTelegraph / Stochastic Telegraph/Mahlen Morris
Highlights:
At the end of each moduleās description, there are links to other (non-Stochastic Telegraph) modules with similar or related features.
On the FUSE front panels (because I consider the layout and appearance of the UI to be part of the documentation) there is a nifty little progress bar, with colours and shapes that remind you what STYLE setting is selected. If you hover over them, you get a numeric count-up and approximate percentage.
Also on the front panels - fairly verbose tooltips.
One thing I would change is to apply some offsets to the four scope traces in the FUSE screenshot so that they donāt overlap. Also reduce the vertical scales and increase the time.
Geodesics
They do look pretty good, given a quick skim, but I find that the best test is to actually use the modules and then see if I can easily find what I need to know. And ā¦ Iāve not tried to use them yet.
