DIY Trigger to DIN-Sync Box

Building a small passive adapter to control DIN Sync devices with triggers from your modular or other voltage sources, like Expert Sleepers’ Silent Way.



I’m years late to the game, but in case you haven’t already got something like this, here’s some encouragement to build your own trigger to DIN-Sync adapter. It’s as simple or as fiddly as you want to make it and the results are worth it: using Silent Way’s Sync Plugin has allowed me to teach my old Roland dogs a new trick: swing.





DIN-Sync devices need a minimum of two command voltages (+ a ground reference) to work: a clock and a run command. See the Wikipedia entry on DIN-Sync for a picture of the relevant pins. How you connect these will depend on what you chose to build. You could use sockets, as I did, or, for example, cut the end off a DIN-Sync cable and solder jacks to the wires in question. Don’t forget to connect the ground between the two. Here are some close-ups from the adapter os from ES made.



The box I built has three outputs. These are just passive multiples. I use an old Expert Sleepers ES-3 which has no problems driving two instruments; I doubt a third will be a problem. As DIN-Sync expects 5V triggers, i.e., the sort of voltages our modulars generate, you could also run your 808 directly from an analogue source. Just bear in mind that your clock needs to be running considerably faster for things to work as expected, e.g., 24 pulses per quarter note.

Silent Way CV Input - Digital Ghost Tracks

Ever wanted to record CVs to your DAW? Expert Sleeper's latest 'Silent Way' plug-in makes this possible.

'CV Input' brings Buchla and Subotnick's Ghost Tracks method into the digital age. The plug-in can handle bipolar CVs (LFOs etc.) and the 'recovered' CV can be output live or recorded for rearrangement or further processing.

To get the most out of 'CV Input' you'll need a DC-coupled Ring Modulator although for unipolar CVs (envelopes etc.) a standard linear VCA will do.

In beta testing, I tried a Doepfer A-133 VC Polarizer, Cwejman VCA-2P and the DC-coupled ring modulator in my VCO-2RM. The latter gave me the best, most accurate results. The A-133 is a good, cheap option but the lack of centre-indent on the manual offset pot made it tricky to zero the output precisely and meant the returned CV was asymmetrical. The VCA-2P was not as accurate because its 'linear' mode is in fact semi-logarithmic. Os at Expert Sleepers suggested that a calibration function to address these issues might be a possible future update.

So, does it work? The short answer is a resounding yes!

The caveat is that you might need to spend a few minutes setting up the plug-in for your system, but this is swift and painless. For example, you want to find the 'hottest' carrier level your audio interface can handle and balance that against the strength of the modulating CV to avoid clipping your VCA or RM. Then you will need to use the 'scale' knob to get a 1:1 match between 'original' and 'recovered' CV. Bear in mind that you might need a negative scale to counteract any anomalies in your system.

Here's a short clip featuring three tracks of one VCO following the same bipolar random CV. For each successive 'harmony' track I adjusted the decoder's scale.



Nice one Os - now all we need is a pitch to CV converter!

For more Silent Way tips and tricks read this post.

Expert Sleepers Silent Way

Relax, it's in tune ...

I've been using Expert Sleeper's Silent Way to control my modular for the past two weeks. This is a flexible and fast-growing suite of plug-ins which generate control voltages. Like MOTU's Volta, it also features an oscillator calibration routine.

Getting your most troublesome VCOs to track perfectly is just one benefit of DAW-based CV generation. Here are some other ideas:

Gate Delay



Two voice patch, panned left (initial gate) and right (gate echo). Logic's Delay Designer was used to create three clean, tempo-sync'd taps. First you'll hear the four-note sequence 'dry', then with the gate echos triggering voice two. In both these instances, the initial gate steps the analogue sequencer. In the last two measures I used the echos to clock the sequencer.

Envelope Echo



Similar Idea, but using Silent Way to generate an envelope rather than a gate.

LFO Mash



Processed LFO to VCO pitch. First dry, then bit crushed, then quantized using Logic's Grooveshifter, then both.

Pitch Wah



Pitch CV slewed with Logic's Auto Filter. The filter was modulated by its own LFO. First unprocessed, then wah'd with a quarter note triangle, then burbled with a sixteenth note random/ S&H.

Thanks to Expert Sleeper Os for getting me thinking about processing CVs.