Zeno's Paradox
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A clock divider with plenty of divisions.
Can also be fed with audio.
Divides down to over a billion (1,073,741,824).
Overview
This module was very much inspired by Arthur Ganson's "Machine with Concrete", pictured below. This fabulous sculpture involves a motor driven chain of reducing worm drives, ending with the last shaft set in concrete.
After building clock dividers for a couple of Arp 1613 sequencer clones, it seemed that it might be fun to chain some ripple counter chips to take the divisions a little further.
When the module is used as a clock divider, it can be useful as a method of generating timed events that happen occasioanlly, or very occasionally.
The module can be used as a sub oscillator if a clean audio rate wave is fed into the clock input. The input can be any repeating wave shape, and will produce a series of square wave outputs, each one octave below the other.
Feeding other audio sources (drums etc) into the clock will produce crunchy lo-fi oddness from the outputs.
Patching white noise into the clock input produces a series of increasingly filtered noise sources at the outputs.
A clock signal input at a frequency of 1Hz causes the last LED to flash about once every 34 years. Chaining two modules with 1Hz in the first input causes the last LED to flash after around 37 billion years. 3 modules = around 39 quintillion years, 4 modules = around an undecillion years (1,329,227,995,784,920,000,000,000,000,000,000,000).
The clock input can however respond to frequencies up to around 18kHz, creating a good range of useful activity across the outputs.
Features and controls
CLOCK IN: Accepts any audio or CV voltage crossing a threshold of around 1V.
RESET IN: Resets when the leading edge of a gate or trigger is detected.
MANUAL RESET: Push button to reset / hold.
OUTPUTS: 30 in total, each at half the frequency of the previous.
Technical details
Width: 14HP
Depth: 35mm behind 2mm thick panel
Current @ +12V: 225mA (all LEDs on)
Current @ -12V: 16mA
Output level: 7V
Purchase
Cost of one module is GBP £190 plus a flat rate of £20 shipping worldwide. No extra shipping if you buy multiple modules in the same transaction.
Shipping is fully tracked and will require a signature. Shipping will be to your registered PayPal address.
All packages are shipped with a total insurance value of £250 unless a higher value is specifically requested before placing the order.
The future
The Nervous Squirrel 5U modular started back in 2008, and contains some unique module designs that are currently being converted to Eurorack. It is hoped that 5U and Buchla 4U formats will also follow.
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