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Crackl

Inspired by Velvet Sunset by manual (the artist): a compact mono texture generator with three parallel “crackle” voices, shared shaping, and a single output.

Overview

Each voice routes a morphing oscillator through sample-and-hold noise modulation, then into a shared tanh-style drive. A modulo stage wraps the mix before sample-rate / resolution-style degradation and a master Out gain.

Use Crackl as a bed behind chords, as a percussive digital grit layer, or as a standalone noise instrument.

Panel layout (16 HP)

  • Top row: Drive, Sample rate, Modulo, and Out (master gain), each with a matching CV jack directly below.
  • Middle: per-voice Harmonics and Noise Mod knobs with CV.
  • Lower: vertical Freq sliders for voices A/B/C, Gain trims, and Freq / Gain CV columns.

Parameters

Freq 1 / 2 / 3 (0 .. 1, default 0.5)

  • Vertical sliders controlling each voice’s pitch mapping (normalized; mapped to high audio rates in DSP).

Noise Mod A / B / C (0 .. 1, default 0.1)

  • Depth of the per-voice sample-and-hold noise modulator.

Harmonics A / B / C (0 .. 1, default 0)

  • Morph amount from sine toward brighter/harder shapes (per voice).

Drive (0 .. 1, default 0)

  • Shared saturation before modulo and degradation.

Modulo (0 .. 1, default 0)

  • Positive fractional wrap amount applied after the mix.

Sample rate (0 .. 1, default 1)

  • Internal resample / hold ratio passed to the degrader. The knob is wired so that fully left = 1 and turning clockwise moves toward 0 (saved patch values match that orientation).

Out (0 .. 2, default 1)

  • Master output level after DSP.

Gain A / B / C (0 .. 1, default 0.5)

  • Per-voice level into the mix.

I/O and CV

  • Harmonics A/B/C CV, Noise Mod A/B/C CV: when connected, the effective value is clamp01(knob + CV * 0.2) (approximately ±5 V sweeps the 0–1 range with headroom).
  • Drive CV, Sample rate CV, Modulo CV, Freq A/B/C CV, Gain A/B/C CV: same knob + CV * 0.2 rule with 0–1 clamping where applicable.
  • Out: mono audio output (setChannels(1)).

Polyphonic CV cables use the first channel (getVoltage()), consistent with other Ambivalent Instruments modules.

Tips

  • Start with Noise Mod low and Harmonics at zero for smoother tones; push both for digital grit.
  • Modulo at zero disables the wrap; small values add subtle folding, larger values break the waveform into rhythmic patterns.
  • Automate Sample rate slowly for lo-fi sweeps; pair with Drive for more apparent energy.

Context menu

  • No extra menu items in the current build.