Moog Music | 4 years ago
This video explores using Grandmother’s sample and hold circuit to create randomized envelope modulation of the filter.
Sample and hold (S/H) is a classic electronic circuit commonly used in synthesizers that features a signal input, a gate input, and an output. In practice, a continuously variable signal will be applied to the input, then every time the gate input receives a gate, the circuit will sample the value at the input, send that value to the output, and hold the output at that value until a new gate is received. This allows for many different applications, such as generating a stepped-random voltage from a noise source, creating gate-synced modulations, transforming smooth LFOs into stepped waveforms, analog sample rate reduction, etc.
Grandmother’s S/H circuit is actually set up to always generate stepped random voltages; this means that Grandmother’s noise source is hardwired into the S/H signal input. The S/H gate input is normalled to the modulation oscillator; this means the random signal will always be in sync with the modulation oscillator, and also enables the modulation oscillator’s sync input to be used to gate the S/H for synchronized movement with your playing, arpeggiations, or sequences.
Random voltage is a very powerful tool on a synthesizer, and can help to add some movement and surprise to your patches.
Learn more about Grandmother: https://www.moogmusic.com/products/grandmother
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