Erica Synths EDU DIY Sequencer: 5 steps to modular music
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Erica Synths has released the latest in the EDU DIY series of educational Eurorack modules. This time we’re building a 5-step Sequencer.
EDU DIY Series
I’ve been closely following this excellent series of modules from Erica Synths and Moritz Klein. In fact I’ve been live streaming my builds of each module as they come along. The format tends to be that we spend one evening learning about the module from the well-written manuals and building the core circuit on a breadboard. On the next evening, we solder the kit together and test it. So far we’ve covered the VCO, VCA, Envelope and the Case and power supply to put it all in.
Erica Synths EDU Kits rack
And now it’s time to make some tunes with the Sequencer.
EDU DIY Sequencer
A 5-step sequencer? That’s unusual and intriguing. The hand-illustrated manual will take us through the concepts of analogue sequencer design. This will include creating a loop with an internal clock generator and wiring up control voltage connections. You’ll need two breadboards for this project as the circuit is a bit too chunky to fit onto one. But that’s also going to help us visualise the circuit better and have a less fiddly time.
The notes or CV levels are set by the 5 knobs. There’s no quantising so the pitches will be a bit freeform which is the nature of analogue sequencing. Each step has a Gate switch which determines whether that step will fire a gate signal or not. A handy switch lets you bring the step count down to 4 or 3 steps and another switch restricts the CV range to give you a more controlled sequence of pitches. As the Sequencer has an internal clock there’s also a Rate knob to control the speed.
For the CV connections, we have a Clock input that overrides the internal one and a Clock output for routing the Clock to other places. The Reset input sends the sequence back to step 1 whenever it receives a pulse. Finally, we have the Gate and CV outputs that will control a VCO and envelope to run our sequence. You can, of course, plug them into anything.
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The Sequencer kit costs a very reasonable €65 and is available now. I’ll be doing my build-along live stream probably next week but please subscribe to my channel in order to receive a notification.
Previous Builds
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- Erica Synths EDU Kits rack: Erica Synths
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