Playing the Slim Phatty with a CV keyboard

[PIANODENTIST]

Hello there,

As of a few hours ago I am finally a moog user. After 2 decade using Korg and Roland and yamaha I have finally made the jump with a slim phatty and have to say it is amazing.

However, I am trying to play the slim phatty using the keyboard of my Roland SH101 which has 1v/oct CV and gate outs. But when I plug them into the slim phatty and play them, the pitch is much much higher than the keys on the sh101. Like 2 or 3 octaves!

Weirdly, even when I have a dummy patch cable in the Pitch CV in of the slim phatty, playing the synth with a midi keyboard gives the same much higher notes and the octave switch (on the slim) makes no change to the sound.

The midi keyboard and the octave switch on the slim are fine generally. It only seems to be an issue with pitch cv in connections.

Thank you.

[enossified]

With CV pitch control, what pitch is played when the CV is 0V can vary from one synth to another. On synths with keyboards, almost always the lowest key generates 0V (ground).

Do you have access to a voltmeter so you can check the pitch voltage output by the SH-101?

Welcome to the wild and wacky world of CV It's not a standard the way MIDI is

[Portamental]

^ As he said.

When you have a dummy plug in the CV jack of the Slim Phatty, you are sending an extra 5 volts to the buss voltage, that is 5 octaves higher. You can tame the voltage with an expression pedal when playing the Slim from a midi controller. Actually, the LP has a buss voltage, not sure about the Slim but the 5 volts is a certainty.

For the SH-101, you can play through a CP-251 (you'll want one soon) and lower the pitch using a negative offset voltage from the mixer. The CP-251 will perform all sorts of other good tricks for you too

CVs are so much more fun than programming Midi CC's

[EMwhite]

I'd be curious to hear how the SH-101 measures from a Pitch CV out perspective (as asked above), but also how your Slim Phatty tracks to incoming voltage.

You might find that it works well or you might find that it's a nightmare (eg doesn't even track properly across a single octave, let alone 3). As Portamental said, you could use some CV add-ons to increase/shift/attenuate voltage. It's a tricky balancing act but considering the standard of 1V/Octave, this means that a .0833 of a volt is the equivalent of a 1/2 step, a base voltage that differs, or something short or slightly higher than this will become audibly noticeable rather quickly.

Lots have been written about accuracy of Midi->CV converters and the better ones out there (such as the MP-201) allow for fractions of a volt adjustment; in your case you simply want to have CV control so there is no Midi in the mix; you'll get there but it's going to take some experimentation, measuring, and voltage augmentation.

Have a look here for some basics (you may know this already): http://www.experimentaltvcenter.org/vol ... tem-manual

[misterpete]

hmmm.... this has not been an issue with my Slim ~ sounds more like it's a calibration/firmware/other problem specific to the OPs particular phatty — or simply an octave or transpose in/out setting ...perhaps?
if it was mine I'd call or eMail tech support — good luck!

I'd be curious to hear how the SH-101 measures from a Pitch CV out perspective (as asked above), but also how your Slim Phatty tracks to incoming voltage.

You might find that it works well or you might find that it's a nightmare (eg doesn't even track properly across a single octave, let alone 3). As Portamental said, you could use some CV add-ons to increase/shift/attenuate voltage. It's a tricky balancing act but considering the standard of 1V/Octave, this means that a .0833 of a volt is the equivalent of a 1/2 step, a base voltage that differs, or something short or slightly higher than this will become audibly noticeable rather quickly.

Lots have been written about accuracy of Midi->CV converters and the better ones out there (such as the MP-201) allow for fractions of a volt adjustment; in your case you simply want to have CV control so there is no Midi in the mix; you'll get there but it's going to take some experimentation, measuring, and voltage augmentation.

Have a look here for some basics (you may know this already): http://www.experimentaltvcenter.org/vol ... tem-manual