Keyboard tracking with Pittsburgh Waveforms

Mother-32, DFAM, Subharmonicon, Grandmother, Matriarch
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zooloomuzik
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Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2016 7:00 am

Keyboard tracking with Pittsburgh Waveforms

Post by zooloomuzik » Thu Jun 30, 2016 7:16 am

Hi,

first post, total newbie to modular synths, go easy on me please.

I have my mother 32 in a 2 tier rack and I'm slowly adding modules to rack 2, I have a Pittsburgh Modular Waveforms oscillator which I want to use to compliment MOMs single oscillator. problem is I can't get it (the Waveforms) to track properly past about 1 and a half octaves.

I have the Mothers KB output patched to the Waveforms 1V/Oct in and then the Waveforms Saw wave patched to Mothers external audio in, I tune them perfectly but as I said, they don't track past about 1 and half octaves.

Any clue as to what I'm doing wrong?

Many thanks for your help!
Z
MacBook Pro (macOS Sierra), Ableton Live, Moog Minitaur, Moog MiniFooger Drive, Roland Aira - MX-1, System-1, TR-8, TB-3, Roland JU-06, Korg Volca Bass, Korg Volca Keys, Akai MPX8, Elektron Octatrak, Social Entropy Engine (Hardware Sequencer)

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conspiracytherapist
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Re: Keyboard tracking with Pittsburgh Waveforms

Post by conspiracytherapist » Fri Jul 01, 2016 6:28 pm

Hoping someone can answer this — I posted about the same problem on the previous post: http://forum.moogmusic.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=25760
Moogs: Voyager, Sub Phatty, Mother-32, DFAM, MF103 Phaser, MF104M Delay, MF105M MuRF, MF107 FreqBox, MF108M Cluster Flux
Music: http://soundcloud.com/conspiracytherapist
Computer: MacBook Pro, Ableton Live 9 + Push 1

zooloomuzik
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Re: Keyboard tracking with Pittsburgh Waveforms

Post by zooloomuzik » Sat Jul 02, 2016 3:07 am

Well I read on muff wiggler loads of mother users with the same problem. Some rather clever sounding folks said its a design flaw. Maybe that's why Moog are being quiet.

Anyway there is a fix but you have to spend money. Get a buffered multiple. I got the intellijel buff mult yesterday. Problem solved.
MacBook Pro (macOS Sierra), Ableton Live, Moog Minitaur, Moog MiniFooger Drive, Roland Aira - MX-1, System-1, TR-8, TB-3, Roland JU-06, Korg Volca Bass, Korg Volca Keys, Akai MPX8, Elektron Octatrak, Social Entropy Engine (Hardware Sequencer)

MarchOfTheMachines
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Re: Keyboard tracking with Pittsburgh Waveforms

Post by MarchOfTheMachines » Wed Aug 10, 2016 4:47 am

I've just bought a used Pittsburgh Modular Waveforms for my eurorack and had exactly the same tracking issue. To resolve it, there's a tiny brass screw on a blue plastic mount on the side of the module that adjusts the cv tracking; 10 minutes of finely adjusting that screw while playing octaves on my keyboard (with a guitar tuner displaying the resulting pitches) had the module tracking exactly the way I wanted it.

Synthesizer Patel
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Re: Keyboard tracking with Pittsburgh Waveforms

Post by Synthesizer Patel » Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:43 am

I have a Waveforms. I'm a modular noob too. What exactly are the symptoms? Does the Waveforms play at a different octave or something? I have been playing synths for several years now and I still do not fully understand the term "keyboard tracking."

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rplktr
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Re: Keyboard tracking with Pittsburgh Waveforms

Post by rplktr » Thu Aug 18, 2016 12:37 pm

The symptoms are that tracking is flat. This is due to impedance mismatch of Mother's KB out and MULT outs with what external 1v/oct often expect. I had this exact same problem with an Intellijel Dixie. The solution is to buy an external buffered mult module and route 1v/oct through it. This workaround worked fine for me.

Somebody on MuffWiggler claimed it's due to bad factory calibration but the procedure he described didn't help me. Maybe you'll be more lucky, give it a try: https://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewt ... 09#2298909

rsholmes
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Re: Keyboard tracking with Pittsburgh Waveforms

Post by rsholmes » Sat Mar 16, 2019 2:05 pm

I experienced a similar problem; I have been expanding my M-32 with a few Eurorack modules, and I found the Befaco VCO which tracks at 1V/Oct perfectly went out of tune by about 15 cents per octave with the M-32 KB CV into the Befaco's V/Oct input. Measuring the KB CV output showed it was near 1V/Oct when not plugged in to anything, but plugged into the VCO it sagged to (as I recall) more like 0.98 V/Oct, pretty much exactly enough to account for the mistuning.

Some Googling turned this thread up, and so I ordered a horstronic buffered multiple kit and built it. Unfortunately it doesn't fix the problem. The M-32 CV sags when plugged into the buffered multiple too.

The good news, though, is this multiple's outputs have trimmer pots to adjust the gain. So I intentionally miscalibrated one of the outputs for slightly higher than unity gain, just enough to compensate, and now the VCO can track the keyboard CV properly within a couple cents over +-3 octaves. It's a kludge but it works.

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