mlten modular Motion Meter Three Channel Signal Visualiser with Attenuators Instructions
- June 10, 2024
- mlten modular
Table of Contents
mlten modular Motion Meter Three Channel Signal Visualiser with
Attenuators
Hello! I’m Robin and welcome to the Molten Motion Meter. I’m thrilled that you’ve decided to give my little module a go. It has been so exciting working with Manu and his team at Befaco to bring the first Molten module to life. What started as a cascade of zany ideas boiled down to something I believe to be elegant, beautifully simple and above all useful. It’s the sort of thing that could help out in any patch. The original 3U MMM has now been joined by the awesomely horizontal 1U MMM. The functionality is the same except the 1U has an extra channel. So, thank you for your purchase and let’s get into it. The Molten Motion Meter (MMM) is in essence a visualiser of voltage. It came from my desire to connect visually with the modulation I was patching and hearing in my rack.
MODULATION
Plug in some modulation from an LFO or envelope and the MMM will visualise the voltage in a halo of LEDs around an attenuating knob. The knob can scale your modulation down from +-10V to nothing with the LEDs always showing the outcome rather than the input. It’s probably the most beautiful CV attenuator you’ve ever seen! The LEDs display the level and movement of the voltage both positive (purple) and negative (orange). And you’ve got three (3U) or four (1U) of them, but there’s more.
SWITCH
You’ve probably noticed the switch at the side of each channel. This switches between three Motion Metering modes: Audio, CV Attenuation and CV Attenuverting.
- Audio : Plug in an audio signal and the display becomes a VU meter with green, yellow and red LEDs. Use the knob to change the output level.
- CV ATT : Plug CV in, attenuate with the knob and see the voltage displayed in delicious purple and orange.
- CV INV : A just as delicious inverted version.
OUTPUT
All channels have their own output and you can use them all independently.
However, we’ve also worked in a little bit of normalisation to give some
interesting mixing possibilities. The last output (Out 3 on the 3U and Out 4
on the 1U) contains a mix both visually and in the signal OUT of all channels
that do not have their output patched. Plug in an output and that channel is
removed from the mix. So it can become a 3 or 4 channel mixer, a mixer of
modulations or a combination of both. You can have modulation being visualised
and attenuated through one channel while the other channels are being mixed to
the last channel’s output. Just remember that any channel that’s not got its
output patched will appear on that last channel.
MY FAVOURITE PATCH – FILTER CONTROL ROOM
The following usage of the MMM brings the biggest smile to my face. I use it to take control of an oscillator running through a filter. All my tweaking and filter performing is done on the MMM where I can see and hear exactly what’s happening, even in the darkest room and the busiest patch. (Brackets indicates 1U version)
- Channel 1 : Audio – plug in the audio output of your filter, and then patch the out to wherever the filter was originally going to. This gives you level control over the output of the filter and also a clear indication that it’s making sound.
- Channel 2 (3): CV ATT – plug in the CV output of an envelope intended for the filter cutoff; leave the output unpatched.
- Channel 3 (4) : CV ATT – this is open to all sorts of possibilities but patch the output to the CV input on the filter’s cutoff.
So, as your sequence plays and the envelope fires you can control the level of the oscillator with channel 1 and see that reflected in the VU metering. With channel 3 (4) set to zero you can control the amount of envelope going to the filter with channel 2 (3). And then you can use channel 3 (4), with nothing patched in, to offset the envelope as it plays with the filter. Alternatively you can patch in an LFO to keep that envelope moving. You can try other things too like another sequence, the output of a Turing machine or Sample & Hold which are all wonderfully effective. You can also invert the envelope with a switch giving unexpected variations. All the time your actions and interactions are being visualised and fed back to you. And with the 1U version you’ve got a whole other channel to play with. You might find yourself needing a Molten Motion Meter for each of your filters. Sorry about that! I hope you have as much fun with this module as I do and thanks again for picking one up. In the meantime, go and make some tunes.