BEFACO Motion MTR Molten Modular User Manual
- June 3, 2024
- BEFACO
Table of Contents
Motion MTR Molten Modular
MOLTEN MOTION METER
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. It’s the sort of thing that could help out
in any patch. So, thank you for your purchase and support and let’s get into
the Molten Motion Meter.
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 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 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. 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 three 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. If you unplug outputs 1 & 2 they
will find themselves summed at output 3. So it’s suddenly become a 3-channel
audio mixer or a 3-channel mixer of modulations. You can take channels or a
3-channel mixer of modulations. You can take channels 1 or 2 out of the
equation by patching their output. So you can have channel 1 doing some audio
metering while channels 2 and 3 combine for some interesting modulation.
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. busiest patch.
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: CV ATT – plug in the CV output of an envelope intended for the
filter cuto ; leave the output unpatched.
Channel 3: CV ATT – this is open to all sorts of possibilities but patch the
output to the CV input on the filter’s cuto .
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 set to zero you can control the amount of envelope going to the
filter with channel 2. And then you can use channel 3, with nothing patched
in, to o with nothing patched in, too set the envelope as it plays set 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 e
ective. 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. interactions are being visualised and fed back to you.
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.