Hi Caustic thanks for the reply mate. It makes perfect sense. Especially the bit about not really needing to tune it if you can’t tell it is out of tune. It actually might be in tune, just not “in tune” to everyone elses “in tune”. LOL. I also checked the connections on the rotary switch and it all looked fine. It was late though so I might have another look sometime.
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The important thing to do here is have fun. Most of us are doing this as a hobby, and hobbies should be fun and not stressful.
Most folks use modular more for bleeps and bloops, and dont always strictly make traditional songs anyways (its kinda a meme at this point).
But that’s not always the goal, hell, one could argue if you wanted a perfect machine to make music, you can do that with software. We all do this for different reasons, just find yours and have fun!
Sounds are a long set continuous values of frequencies. Tuning systems are just ways of making them discrete. The way this stuff works is, say you have a reference pitch of A4 (fourth octave A) is 440 Hz. An octave higher is a frequency that is 2x the frequency. So A5 would be 880 Hz, and A3 would be 220Hz.
12 tone equal temperament (12-ET) is the common tuning system most people are familiar with. It takes each octave, and it divides it into the 12 notes we know and love. That’s your semitones.
This is not the only way you can divide up tones, not by a long shot. In fact, 12-ET divides the octave into 12 parts, but the ratio is on a logarithmic scale. You may or may not know this, but the human ear perceives pitch as a logarithm of frequency. 12-ET accounts for this, and allows for comparing two adjacent pitches which sound a specific “distance” apart more consistently.
For example, the C major chord [C-E-G] and the F major chord [F-A-C] only have one note in common, however, if you played those notes in sequence, they would both sound similar. It’s literally because the similarity that is the perceived is the distance between each note as you play it.
Interestingly, the chips we use in this module (the CEM3340 or the AS3340) operate off of a 1v/oct setup. This means that the pitch of this thing goes up an octave when you feed +1v, and goes down when the voltage is -1v. When you use a keyboard or similar to control with 1v/oct, it divides up the keys into intervals of 0.0833… volts for semitone spacing. If you use something like the baby 8 step sequencer or similar, you are tuning in a voltage thats way more granular, so it might be ever so slightly ‘’‘off’’’.
That being said, if you want to pitch this thing to a specific tuning, im sure we can help. If not, make the bleeps, nobodys going to judge you here.
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Bleeps and Bloops with some drums and random other stuff is the way forward me thinks. Talking about bleeps and bloops I have got a random evolving patch going that sounds pretty good. Going to record it for a while and see what happens.
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Hello Guys,
i completed my first 1222, but it constantly switches rapidly through the octaves (i guess) instead of working properly. I think it has something to do with the Arduino i’am using (Joy-It Arduino Nano V3), but i don’t really know.
I used Sam’s code and the TX LED is blinking constantly, other than in his video.
Here’s a short video of my VCO (sorry for the vertical allignment, didn’t have any space for proper recording). The Octave Switch also does nothing.
If anybody knows what’s wrong, that would be great. I already completed some modules and whe only one that’s missing is the “main” one.
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The sound look strange
For rotary switch,
have you a good 4V ref ?
Gnd on pin 1 of rotary ?
look here for the rotary wires
for calibrate :
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The arduino only picks up the sound and tries to estimate its note, it can’t(*) affect the sound in any way.
(*) but we have seen other impossible things happen…
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I measured several things, turns out the trimpots might have broken now, but that doesn’t explain the behavior for me, because it was the same when i first switched it on as it is now.
I have an LM4040AIZ 5.0 (as explained over here 1222 Tuner VCO Module fixes/improvements - #42 by Steve) and L7808 CV instead of the 7805, as suggested.
I get these Voltages at the moment,
R42: 4,98V & 11,80V
CNTR: 1: 11,80V - 2: 5,61V – 3: 5,61V
And something completely out of place, 1: -7,12V – 2: -7,29V - 3: -7,29V
at the TRK Trimmer.
The Octave Switch by the way, is completely fine. Pins go all the way from 0V to 4V.
TP1 Voltage is good, i had something between 3,97V and 4,01V.
I don’t know, if you say the randomness can’t come from the Arduino, because it only picks up the sound and displays it, but doesn’t switch anything then i have no idea what’s actually wrong.
hmm i guess the steps to try are.
-remove arduino until working
-swap the opamps out if you have spares to test
-check solder joints again especially ones that look to be connected to the GND copper mesh. these take longer to heat up as there is more metal and are 7 times out of 10 the problem.
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It almost sounds as if you are feeding the VCO(cv in or 1v-oct) with random voltage or maybe a loop of charging and discharging capacitor.
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It certainly doesn’t sound happy. Maybe you’ve gotten a new variant that goes with the 1114 module, the 1223 VCO GRR ;).
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Thanks for the suggestions! And the 1223 VCO GRR made me laugh this morning. 
So here’s some minor good and really bad news: I reflowed several stuff and than it worked, made the nice real clicking noise. I turned the CNTR and it did what it’s supposed to, than i turned TRK, and a litttle more…aaaand nothing. Dead. No Lights no anything. The Arduino, if i put it back in, doesn’t even turn on. The only Lifesign i get now, is the little “sweep” noise when i turn off the VCO.
All three Pins of the TRK Pot now have -7,20V. The Resistor left of these Pins ( R25) has no Voltage at either pin. Does that mean anyting? The Reference Voltage is 4,00V.
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That’s a lot of problems at once !!
When this kind of issue starts piling up, I usually take a voltmeter, put it in continuity mode, and I check every single connection ( following the circuit schematic) . I often end up finding a short.
You can also remove all the TL072-074 and the As3340 and see what happen once it is plugged in.
Then you can check +12, -12 are applied where they need to be, etc…
It will be a long hard road outta hell (great song btw)
Good luck!
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My shortcut for shorts and joints in general is having tested the components I move section by section, lay on a load of flux and reflow everything.
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Hello guys,
i have made progress, this one VCO is still not functioning (need tools that arrive soon), but i have two working.
What i don’t understand, is it supposed to make a constant noise? Like in the calibrating video, okay, that makes sense. And yeah, both are in tune and working. But, please tell me: am i missing something?
Do you not put something into CV and than the 1222 should be quiet until you press a key, or activate an LFO or something?
No. A VCO always oscillates. To control volume you feed it into a VCA.
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Like @analogoutput said, a VCO product a constant signal, you need to use a VCA to trigger the sound only when you press a key , for this is good to use an Envelope Generator
CV IN are to control the Pitch (tune)
Also here a VCO description (and other modules 
)
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Thanks, I was looking for that topic. I moved it to the FAQ category.
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Yes, great. It’s my first modular, so while i get some of the functionalities right, i didn’t have a clue about that, haha.
Now, embarrassment over, here’s a tiny little soundcheck:
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sorry i found out the components are not that expensive