Make Noise today announced MultiMod—their newest Eurorack-format synthesizer module, designed to expand the modulation potential of your modular synthesizer.

MultiMod as a CV Generator

MultiMod is an eight-output control voltage processor / generator, with a series of macro controls that impact each output to varying degrees. The most significant parameters for understanding MultiMod's general behavior are the Shape, Time, Spread, and Phase controls—so let's discuss each of them individually.

With nothing patched to MultiMod's top input jack, the module produces its own control voltages—acting somewhat like an eight-output macro LFO. It does this by "reading" a specific stored shape at each output. By using the Shape button, the user can determine the Shape produced at the outputs: rising or falling saw waves/ramps, triangle waves, sine waves, square waves, stepped random, and smooth random ("Ramplets"). The selected wave is used for all of the eight outputs. The Time parameter determines the amount of time it takes to "read" the shape—effectively translating to something like an "LFO frequency" control (complete with associated CV input).

Phase and Spread are where things get especially interesting. The Phase control allows you to introduce continuous phase offsets between the outputs—basically changing the current "read position" at each output, with a total range of phase shift weighted by the output channel number. So, for instance, you could use MultiMod as a so-called "quadrature" or "octature" LFO, providing identical output shapes and output frequencies, but with each output slightly displaced in phase. The applications could range from peculiar stereo panning and crossfading tricks all the way to the definition of multi-dimensional panning trajectories (including continuously variable elliptical panning in quadraphonic spaces, etc.). Using the Square shape, you could treat this like an unusual means of gate/trigger sequencing—triggering different voices or processes from each output independently, allowing for time displacement between processes. But, those are just a couple of ideas—I encourage you to use your imagination, as well :)

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The Spread control introduces changes to the frequency of each output—acting like a sort of macro-level multiplier for the established Time value. As with the Phase parameter, the Spread parameter's influence on the outputs is weighted by each output's channel number. With Spread at 12:00, all outputs will progress through "reading" the specified shape at the same speed as one another. With Spread clockwise from noon, lower-numbered outputs will move faster, and higher-numbered outputs will move slower (with output One being the fastest, and Eight being the slowest). With Spread counterclockwise from noon, the opposite will occur. The Spread control includes a CV input and attenuverter, while the Phase potentiometer simply acts as an attenuator for external voltages when a CV input is applied.

So, in this way, MultiMod can be thought of as an eight-output macro LFO, allowing you to impart significant changes across even quite large patches by interacting with only a small number of parameters. By linking all of the outputs to a few individual controls, you gain high-level control of many related signals—keeping things moving together, in a way, albeit somewhat differently from one another. This is a great tactic for adding a sense of animation to your patches without suddenly requiring you to mentally and physically keep track of the status of many otherwise independent CV sources.

The Reset button and gate input serve to reset the phase of all of the outputs—useful for resynchronizing signals that have gradually drifted apart from one another due to liberal use of the Spread parameter. The Tempo input causes the other significant parameters—Time, Spread, and Phase—to lock to divisions/multiples of the incoming clock rate, allowing for modulation and clocking effects that stay locked to a metric grid. Indeed, you could use MultiMod as a sort clock divider/multiplier, making use of its dedicated clock output and/or the eight modulation outputs.

So far, we've (very quickly) covered MultiMod's features when thought of as a CV generator; however, that's only half the story. Let's talk about what happens when you use MultiMod as a CV processor.

MultiMod as a CV Processor

When you plug a cable into MultiMod's In jack, suddenly, everything changes. MultiMod's general concept remains the same—but instead of each output reading from a fixed internal shape (like a sine wave or saw wave, etc), it instead reads from a buffer that stores a volatile record of the external input. That's a lot of weird words all in one sentence, so let's break it down.

When you send a signal into MultiMod, that signal is written to a temporary internal memory. Each output has the ability to read from that memory—and to do so from different positions, and at different speeds. This is very much like the way that MultiMod behaves when reading fixed shapes; but instead of that memory being occupied purely by a simple shape, it can be occupied with a record of any control signal that you like. This is a bit of an abstract idea, so let's discuss a couple of specific patch ideas.

Lets say you want to use MultiMod for one of its simplest purposes: what if you want to use it as a signal multiple, to send one output to many destinations? It's pretty easy: set Phase to zero, Spread to noon, Time to zero, and Shape to an ascending ramp. In this scenario, whatever you patch to the input will be sent instantaneously to all outputs. It's worth noting here, perhaps, that MultiMod is optimized to precisely maintain 1:1 amplitude matches between input and output—so it can be used much in the same way as a buffered multiple. It will accurately recreate 1V/Oct pitch control signals, which perhaps is one of its most interesting use cases.

That being the case, let's talk about the idea of using MultiMod to process/distribute a 1V/Oct sequence. Let's say that you have a sequencer with a single CV output, but you have three oscillators. Send your sequence CV to MultiMod's input; choose three outputs and connect them to your oscillators' 1V/Oct inputs. The Time control will act like a sort of delay time control between your input and MultiMod's outputs, impacting all outputs equally. If you introduce the Phase control, you'll introduce a time delay between each of the outputs: suddenly, all of the outputs will change at different times. This can produce a wide range of effects—and might serve similar purposes to the kinds of tricks people commonly do with analog shift registers or "polyphonic adaptors," dynamically allocating a single pitch CV source to many destinations (though to be clear, MultiMod is quite different in function—it simply has a somewhat similar affect in this application).

In this example, if you alter the Spread control, you'll get the variations on the same sequence at each output—but they'll all run at different speeds relative to one another. This...is a pretty mind-blowing possibility. So, I'll blow your mind further: if you switch to different "read shapes" by using the Shape button, you can read through the module's memory of the sequence out of the original order. The falling saw shape will seem to read the sequence backwards—triangle and sine shapes will read back and forth—the square shape will produce somewhat sample & hold-like effects; the random shapes will scramble the sequence, reordering your pitches in an unpredictable fashion. This is huge: MultiMod becomes a way of taking in control voltages—even precisely tuned control voltages—and producing many linked, but distinct related outputs.

One exciting use case would be to run a keyboard or other pitch-oriented control source into MultiMod's input, using MultiMod to control a series of voices that loosely follow your playing: think Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band, but achieved through very different means. It's a quick, effective, and downright inspiring way to turn your modular system into an ensemble that follows you; and what's more, you can use voltage control to determine how tightly they follow you, or how likely they are to drift apart from one another. By using the Hold button or gate input, you can effectively "freeze" the current contents of the internal memory, allowing you to play with the displacement of the individual voices without needing to continually provide new information at the input—like a sort of control voltage sampler. (Indeed, at relatively fast Time values, the Hold input can also act somewhat like a sample & hold or track & hold.)

Indeed, many of MultiMod's most mind-bending possibilities hinge around its use as a means of displacing 1V/Oct pitch control information in time. But of course, that's only one possibility: you could send any signal into the input and get many time-displaced, scrambled, and otherwise re-interpreted "copies" at each of the module's outputs. This could be gestural control information from a joystick; it could be the output of a sample and hold; or, it could even be an audio signal (as exemplified quite remarkably in Sarah Belle Reid's overview video, embedded above).

The most important takeaway is this: if you want to generate a wide range of control voltages with minimal input, or if you want a way to impart change across many aspects of your patches without needing to keep track of the parameters of many individual control sources, MultiMod is probably a quite interesting and inspiring place to look.

The New Universal Synthesizer System

We have discussed only a handful of potential uses for MultiMod—and we trust that, as they make their way into more users' hands, we'll discover that it can facilitate an enormous variety of new and inspiring ideas.

One final note—in a recent interview on the Sound on Sound My Life in Modules podcast, Make Noise founder Tony Rolando share some thoughts about MultiMod (albeit not by name). He refers to it as being the first module in a forthcoming series of modules that Make Noise calls the New Universal Synthesizer System (NUSS)—implying that NUSS offers means by which to manage complexity/multiplicity in novel ways. Now seeing MultiMod, we can begin to piece together a picture of what an NUSS ecosystem might look like. Indeed, the Channel Index Output (the CV output just above the Channel 4 output) purportedly produces a signal meant to be used in conjunction with other forthcoming NUSS modules—essentially producing specific CV output levels depending on which output is highest at any given time (e.g., it produces 4V if the fourth output is highest, 7V if the seventh output is highest, and so on). This is only a small breadcrumb, though, and we haven't yet seen other hints as to what the future of NUSS will hold. Of course, we eagerly await more information.

In the meantime, we'll happy accept MultiMod for what it can do right here and now: it provides an unusual means of generating and managing complexity—providing possibilities that I am sure many, many musicians will find deeply inspiring.