and am not getting anywhere pretty fast looking to control a Slim Phatty with an A4.
I’ve got a Connector cable 1/4" stereo to 1/4" mono x 2
stereo end is connected to the A4 CV A/B output
2 mono ends are connected to the SP CV Gate and CV Filter
CVA is set up in the A4 to control Gate
CVB is set up in the A4 to control val line
he CV track on the A4 is chosen, but playing the keys = no sound.
I’ve tried running audio out from the A4 (and the SP)…but no luck.
(I have run a midi controller (QuNexus) to control the SP with no problems.)
D, thanks for that bit. I’m noo to this and every nugget of info is appreciated.
So, my wheels are still spinning on this. I’ve tried a different connector cable, and have also tried controlling a MiniBrute with the A4, but I don’t seem to have hit that proper CV set-up sweet spot yet either.
I do know you have to watch what kind of cable are actually coming out of split stereo TRS cable that you plug into CV/A/B, C/D…meaning, you need to make sure they are indeed insert cable type that’s coming out because some of these TRS Male to Y-splits simply only do a simple split of exact same mono signal coming from each cable.
Hopefully you have two cables coming off that state ‘TIP’, ‘RING’ on each and most of these types will actually have a small tag around each Y-cable indicative of which is which. If you are doing the Minibrute, you will need to probably get a simple 1/8" Mono Male to Female 1/4 TS Mono adapter (cheapest at American Musical Supply for $1.95 each…Hosa Brand) AMS site was down for maintenance so here’s a link to Musician’s Friend of an albeit more $$ but adapter is correct for minibrute http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/hosa-mono-1-4-f–mono-mini-m-adapter-jack
I gleaned that info from my many searches and saved info from the electron-users/former forum. Hope this helps.
Here’s what I firstly acquired that works but was a bit pricier than second set I got from Hosa brand off ebay, but does offer higher EMI/RFI protection and is twice as long as latter cable I also acquired hereafter:
Hosa STP-201 3.3ft. 1/4 TRS Male to Two 1/4 TS Males
$6.55
Hope this helps and forgive me if you indeed have correct cables and in no means meant to insult your knowledge/intelligence; just sharing and passing on what have learned thus far as I too have a Minibrute and a Waldorf Pulse+ for cv track mayhem and this info had me at an impasse until doing plethora of searches on former forum with it’s rather abbreviated search parameters, but still was able to compile a rather unorganized MS Word Doc to supplement my printed out A4 Manual that I will organize better once I get my studio put back together after some changes and if I find it satisfactorily easy to navigate, will post it in Sandbox for anyone’s perusal.
Thanks to you both - I’ll be picking up a different set of cables to rule out lousy physical connections. I appreciate your time helping me out and will report back for fellow noob sake.
Alright, so it looks like the brand new Y cables I was using were in fact the issue.
I picked up a pair of Kirlin 1/8" stereo to 1/4" mono (x2) - which seem to work - along with a pair of Hosa Insert cables 1/4" stereo to 1/4" mono (x2) which also seem to do the trick.
Thanks again everybody for suggestions above.
I’ve got f/u question (of course!)
Is it the case that there’s normally a good amount of tweaking CV settings in the A4 for pitch control?
Glad it’s working for you now! YES, it’s the nature of control voltage and you may have to try between Voltage and S-Trig in the A4 set-up menu because although my Pulse+ user manual suggested “V-Trig”, it so happens the Pulse+ can do either one, like the A4, and was S-Trig that worked.
Realize this as well: Although you can save this setting in the A4 and should, if the analog synth(s) you are controlling are indeed VCO’s as opposed to DCO’s, it goes without saying but am anyway, you will need to allow that VCO synth to have proper warm-up time to become stable as far as tuning, etc. The Minibrute indeed needs warm-up time as well as Korg MS20 mini, as they’re true VCO synths. Digitally Controlled Oscillators do not need any warm-up time.
Mine is not hooked-up right now as have everything apart to make a more ergonomic set-up for my needs. Hope this helps to some degree and so glad your new cables are correct ones.
I personally would not have minded paying a little more for A4 to have two sets of Y cables included, along with proper/known to work 1/8" adapters for the 1/4" ends, had they been included in box.
You can further tweak your cv/gate connected synth once you have things really close by using that synth’s fine tuning, but also good to have another sound source to compare like C4 to make sure it’s not semi-tone off augmented/diminished;)
Hi,
From your opening post i get that you didn’t connect a ‘pitch CV’. Forgive me if I will explain the obvious hereafter, otherwise this may be useful info for you:
To play an external synth over cv/gate you will need at least 2 signals:
1: (pitch)Cv = signal that says what pitch a note is
2: gate. =signal that says when note starts and ends
-Configure cvA to be ‘pitch 1v/oct’
-Configure cvB to be ‘gate’ , ‘V-trig’ and ‘5 v’
Now connect cvA to ‘pitch cv in’ on the SP
Then connect cvB to ‘gate cv in’ on SP
Place a few trigs on the CV track of A4 and press ‘play’.
Now the sp should be playing notes.
If you expected to hear the SP through the output of A4 then ‘remember to connect SP ‘audio out’ to A4 audio in A’ and to turn up the level of ‘ext in A’ on the ‘ext in page’ of the FX-track.
If nothing happens try switching the 2 cv signals going into sp. You will harm nothing.
Note that you can play a key on SP, but also note that A4 will not record notes played on a synth connected to A4 by cv/gate: cv signals are one-way communication only. Therefore the synth will play back notes from the cv-track, but cannot be used to record notes onto the cv-track
Just want to add a few things…
Moog is notorious for not running at exactly 1v/oct, so you might need a tweak or two.
I use little phatty to control A4 via midi and cv track to minitaur. I also have midi connected to minitaur for lfo sync (clock messages only not notes). Din connections not usb.
Tried to cv control minibrute with A4 then to minibrute cv outs to microbrute but mini doesnt echo cv. As such, have reverted to midi for them both. Same channel, fat sounds. Micro audio out to mini in = double the oscillator power.
If you try to control minibrute via cv, you migt have some issue with the pitch not “lining” up. You need to hit a C on mini then hit C on A4 in the same register to get them to align.
Arturia defines this as “absolute mode”. Talked to their tech support…
Pain in the arse.
Its nice for the A4 to do cv for guys like us. Baby steps into modular and this is a good place to start.
I’ve been trying to get my MOOG sub phatty going too. Just got it working but wondering why in the screen shots and Manual when you select V/Oct the second line says Middle C… Mine says Note 1 then requires a voltage, then note 2. What am I doing wrong? I’ve been googling this for a while so please forgive me if I missed it somewhere.
that’s because you’re reading an old manual and using the newest OS.
Not sure about the phatty, but for my eurorack I think I set C1 to be 0V and C3 to be 3V (or maybe it was C6 to be 6V).
Im in a situation where im trying to do the same, but with a old ms-20. Just bought it yesterday. The way i understand it, are things a bit different with Korg stuff. The signal is inverted or something. Does anybody know how i should set the A4 up with a Korg ms-20?
