Technical Details A-100


	Technical Details A-100

The Principles of Voltage Control

What makes analogue synthesizers (and modular systems in particular) special is that the important parameters of the sound sources (VCO, noise, etc.) and modifiers (VCF, VCA, etc.) can be altered not just by hand, but by voltage control.
This principle was turned into reality by the "father of the analogue synthesizer", Robert Moog, who produced the first commercially available synthesizer in the sixties. It gives vast flexibility and the potential to make sounds that have never been made before.
Fig. 1 shows the principle of voltage control, with examples of control voltages affecting a filter (VCF) and an oscillator (VCO).
In the case of the VCF, the parameter which is being voltage-controlled is the Cut-Off Frequency fc. The amount of control voltage input present changes the cut-off frequency, and thus the frequency of the signal that the VCF lets through - see the shaded area in the diagram.

Fig.1: The principles of voltage control

In the case of the VCO, it’s the pitch which is controlled by a voltage: an increase of 1 volt corresponds to an increase of one octave in the pitch.
With a sudden change of voltage, the pitch changes suddenly, while with a smoother, continuous change, portamento is created.
As well as modules which can be affected by voltage control, there are other modules like the ADSR and LFO which themselves produce voltages to control other modules.
Usually, these modules need a Trigger Signal to bring them into action. For instance, a GATE Signal, corresponding to a key being pressed on a keyboard, can set off an ADSR, which then puts out its variable voltage "envelope" to affect other modules.

Fig. 2: The envelope generated by an ADSR

Signals in the A-100

In the System A-100 there are three types of signal:

Audio Signals

Control voltages

Trigger voltages

Audio Signals are produced by the sound source Modules (such as VCO or NOISE), and lie in the range from -5 V to +5 V (10 VSS). The System A-100 can also let you use external Audio Signals (e.g. Microphone, Electric Guitar, Keyboard).
To interface satisfactorily, the level of external Audio Signals must be brought up to the A-100’s operating level.
Module A-119 (External Input), is ideal for this job, having among other things an internal pre-amp, and two inputs of different sensitivity.
Control voltages, as produced by modulation sources like the LFO and ADSR, are from -2.5 V to +2.5 V (5 VSS) for the LFO, and from 0 V to +8 V for the ADSR.
Trigger or Gate Signals, which start a process or function, are typically from 0 V to 5 V, with the trigger occurring as the leading edge of the waveform shoots up from 0 V to 5 V.
These definitions of the various signals, and the distinctions between them - sound sources and modulation sources - are right in principle, but a modular system like the A-100 often makes a mockery of them. In a modular set-up, all of the modules produce voltages, and can be used as control voltages or triggers, thus blurring the distinction between the various types.
For example, the output from an LFO can be used as an audio signal, as a control voltage for a VCF or VCA, or as a trigger signals for a sequence.
It’s just about true to say that anything can be modulated by anything else, so that a modular system gives the musician extraordinary flexibility and individuality.

Power Supply and System Bus

The A-100’s System Bus ,i.e. the bus board(s), supplies power to the modules. The A-100 modules need the voltages +12V and -12V - some modules additionally +5V (e.g. A-113, A-190-1). The voltages +12V and -12V are supplied by the A-100 Standard Power Supply (see A-100 accessories). This power supply is built into the basic frames (3HU and 6HU) and has a max. current of 1200 mA for both +12V and -12V (for old systems or frames manufactured before 2006 even the old power supply with 650mA only may be in use). If one of modules used in the A-100 system requires +5V (e.g. A-113, A-190-1) the +5V low cost adapter is used to generate the additionally required +5V (see A-100 accessories). In this case the required current @+5V is taken from the +12V line. Of course there has to be a sufficient current reserve at +12V.


A-100 bus board	A-100 power supply	5V adapter

Important note: A-100-modules have to be connected only to original A-100 bus boards or 100% compatible bus boards of other manufacturers ! Particularly it's not allowed to use bus boards with polarized pin headers (bowl pin headers with code gap). These force the user to connect the bus cable in a certain direction which may be the wrong one ! This will destroy the module and the warranty is void ! In the A-100 the colored wire of the ribbon cable marks -12V and this wire has to point to the bottom under all conditions !

If you want to run only one or a few modules the A-100 Miniature Power Supply may be used instead of the A-100 standard power supply (see A-100 accessories). It supplies max. 200mA@+12V/-12V and additionally 50mA@+5V. We also offer the A-100 Miniature Case with built-in A-100 Miniature Power Supply.


A-100 Miniature Power Supply	A-100 Miniature Case (with built-in A-100 Miniature Power Supply)

The A-100 system bus also carries the internal control signals GATE and CV. Some remarks concerning the usage of the internal CV and Gate lines of the A-100 bus:

The A-100 system bus

The A-100 system bus also carries the internal control signals GATE and CV. Some remarks concerning the usage of the internal CV and Gate lines of the A-100 bus:

The main function of the bus is the power supply of the A-100 modules (-12V, GND, +12V and additional +5V for a few modules)
in addition a CV and Gate line are available
some modules can pick-up the CV signal (e.g. A-110, A-111-1, A-111-5, A-143-4) from the bus depending on the jumper setting on the module
some modules can pick-up the Gate signal (e.g. A-140, A-111-5) from the bus depending on the jumper setting on the module
but most of the A-100 modules have no access to the CV or Gate signal of the bus
other modules may work as transmitter for the CV signal to the bus (e.g. A-190-1, A-190-2, A-190-3, A-185-1, A-185-2) depending on the jumper setting on the module
other modules may work as transmitter for the Gate signal to the bus (e.g. A-190-1, A-190-2, A-190-3, A-185-1, A-164-1) depending on the jumper setting on the module
pay attention that only ONE transmitter for CV and only ONE transmitter for Gate are allowed (otherwise modules may be damaged)
but several modules may pick-up CV or gate from the bus (e.g. four A-110 and three A-140)
using the internal CV and Gate lines of the bus is optional (one may also patch the required connections via the sockets at the front panels)
but using the internal CV and Gate lines may simplify the patching at the front panels (e.g. if several VCOs have to be controlled by the same CV, in this case the A-185-2 is recommended as CV transmitter to the bus, the A-185-2 allows also common octave switching and common frequency modulation of all VCOs as well as CV summing, e.g. from a sequencer and CV keyboard or Midi-to-CV interface)
both the CV and the Gate line can be interrupted in the middle of the bus board to establish two different CV/Gate areas. For this the corresponding jumper (J1 and J2 in the above picture) has to be removed.
A special CV/Gate bus connection cable A-100BC is available. This cable can be used to connect the CV and/or Gate lines of two different bus boards. To connect the two boards the pin headers J1 and J2 of the two bus boards may be used. But it is also possible to connect the corresponding pins (INT.Gate or INT.CV) of other unused bus connectors (labelled 1...14 in the above picture).


pin headers used on the bus boards and the modules (unboxed, without bowl and without code gap !)	female sockets (pressed to the ribbon cable that are used to connect the modules and the bus board)
connectors used for the A-100 bus connections

If you want to run single A-100 modules without using our bus board, power supply and frames here is the pin-out for module's bus connectors.

pin out of the module's power supply connectors

Both the 10 pin and the 16 pin version of the bus connection have available the standard power supply (-12V, GND, +12V). In addition the 16 pin version of the bus connection has the three signals +5V, CV and Gate available at the module's connector (e.g. CV is used at the standard VCO A-110 or Gate is used at the envelope generator A-140). Modules that make no use of these additional signals normally use only the 10 pin version of the bus connection.

Pay attention that applying other than the described voltages or changing the polarity will result in the module’s instant destruction !

If you use the A-190 MIDI-/CV-Interface in your system, when you press a key on your MIDI keyboard, the gate and CV1 signals from the A-190 will be sent via the INT.GATE and INT.CV to all modules on the bus. The INT.GATE and INT.CV signal busses can be split into two equal halves by removing jumpers J1 and J2 (see Fig. 3), so that for each whole bus, you can have two separate CV/GATE subsystems.
If on the other hand you’d like to have the same internal CV and gate available on two busses at once, you need to link the two together, with the special CV/gate leads, the A-100 BC.

This is how you go about it:

Remove the A-100 from the electrical supply.
Remove Jumpers J1 and J2 from the upper (see Fig. 4) and lower system bus boards (see Fig. 4).
Replace the jumpers with the special CV / gate leads, A-100 BC (see Fig. 4).

A Make absolutely sure that you connect the leads correctly, joining up the upper INT CV with the lower INT CV, and the upper INT GATE with the lower, to avoid possible damage when you switch back on!

Fig. 4: Making a common INT.CV and INT.GATE signal path between the upper and lower busses.

If you use more than one frame we reccomend the A-185 Bus Access module to interconnect CV and Gate between different frames. This module enables the access to the system bus (CV and Gate) with active regeneration amplifiers for CV and Gate signals to compensate voltage losses which may occur if only passive connections are used.

Fig 5: Making a common system bus when using different frames

Important in case of A-190 use:

If you want to control the A-100 system bus with the A-190 module you have to disconnect the internal connection of the A-190 to the system bus (for details see A-190 user's manual).

Interconnecting modules

For connecting modules to each other, you need mono miniature jack (Æ 3.5 mm) patch leads. You can obtain patch leads from us in different lengths and colors: 30cm, 50cm, 80cm and 120cm. For details see A-100 accessories.

Integrating the A-100 with MIDI

To link the A-100 into a MIDI system, you can use one of our external MIDI interfaces like our MCV4, MSY2 or Dark Link. The A-100 systems has the the MIDI interfaces A-190-1, A-190-2, A-190-3, A-192-1 and A-192-2 available.

For example the MIDI-CV/SYNC Interface A-190-1 has the following outputs available:

CV 1 (for pitch control, 12 Bit)
CV 2 (any MIDI-Controller, 8 Bit)
Gate
Clock
Start / Stop

The A-190-1 is able to transmit pitch control CV and gate information on the INT.CV and INT.GATE busses.

The A-192-1 CV-to-MIDI interface enables the conversion of A-100 control voltages into MIDI controller messages (e.g. Theremin, Vocoder, A-119 envelope, Random, LFO usw.).

Analog sequencing can be provided by A-155, MAQ 16/3 or Dark Time.