Detachment 3 » Archangel Features

ARCHANGEL: Analog Sequencer and Touchplate Controller

Features

Touchplate Keyboard

Archangel has a 16 pad touchplate keyboard which can be used separately or in conjunction with the sequencer. Pitch output can be one of sixteen pre-programmed scales.

Touchplates

[Archangel Touchplate] The plates themselves are a generous 19mm wide by 40mm high (0.75" x 1.575"), large enough for the most demanding digits. They use a unique digital capacitive sensing mechanism which overcomes the limitations of previous touchplate technologies. Each plate is pressure and vertical position sensitive.

Sequencer Control

When the sequencer is in Key Address mode, each touchplate accesses the corresponding stage above, and will start the transport when the sequencer is set to Stop At End mode.

Parameter Outputs

[Archangel Keyboard Outputs] There are four outputs for the keyboard: One gate and three CV outputs. These are pitch CV, pressure CV, and position CV. Pressure and position outputs are 0-5V.

Keyboard Scales

[Archangel Keyboard Scales] 16 Keyboard scales can be selected by the Key Scale switch. They include all musical modes, various harmonic scales, and several specialized scales. The modes are arranged so that each scale is only one degree different from the adjacent scales, to encourage experimentation in a performance situation.

Sequencer

The core of Archangel is a 24ppqn resolution sequencer which runs from 5 to 350BPM.

Sequencer Outputs

[Sequencer Outputs] There are six outputs for the sequencer: one output for each row (A-D), a stage 1 trigger output and a clock output which runs at the same rate of the stages. The other three outputs are explained below in the Sequential Switch section.

Transport Control

[Sequencer Transport] Archangel can be a sync master while sending MIDI and DIN sync out, and will slave to both MIDI clock and DIN sync. Transport can be controlled via the front panel, the stage one input, the touch keyboard in keyboard address mode and external sync when slaved.

Miscellaneous Inputs

[Sequencer Inputs] There are several inputs to control the sequencer from external synthesizers:

Advance is a trigger input to advance the sequence one stage.
Stage one is a trigger input that immediately returns the sequencer to stage one.
Direction inverts the direction when high.
Row shift advances the internal sequential switches by one.
Address is a 0-5V CV input which selects the current sequencer stage when in voltage address mode.

Stage Addressing

[Sequencer Address Control] Each sequence stage can be addressed directly via the touch keyboard, or via an external 0-5V control voltage on the address jack. The external CV will automatically scale to the number of stages set with the stages knob.

Stage and Sequence Length

[Sequencer Length Controls] Stage size can be adjusted from 1/32^nd note to two bars, including several triplet and dotted lengths. Sequence length can be adjusted from 1 to 16 stages.

Stage Directions

[Sequencer Direction Control] There are 5 stage directions. These are forward, reverse, alt one, alt two and random. Alt one and alt two are pendulum modes, with the alt one doubling the first and last stage in the sequence. Random is not displayed in the list and indicated by all 4 LEDs unlit.

Stop/Loop Modes

In stop mode, the sequence plays through once and then stops. Only when the transport is re-engaged will it reset to the first stage in the sequence begin playing again. Loop mode continually loops.

Sequential Switch

There are three sequential switches that multiplex the 4 rows of Archangel - a single 4:1 switch which is output on the ABCD jack, and two 2:1 switches on the AB and CD outputs. The switches are automatically advanced each time the sequencer wraps back to the first stage, or when a trigger is applied to the row shift input jack.

Quantizer

Archangel's sequencer also has a 2-octave quantizer which operates on all sequencer outputs.

Quantizer Modes

[Quantizer Mode Control] Two quantizer modes are available. In chromatic mode, archangel will output a two octave chromatic scale. In key scale mode, the scale is set by the keyboard scale knob.

Transposition

The quant. add input allows you to shift the sequencers around musically without leaving the current scale because the input is summed with the sequencer rows before the quantise operation is performed. This allows the Archangel to be used in a conventional song-oriented context if desired.

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