#1

Since I mentioned Meng Qi yesterday in another thread, I figure I’d ask about other users’ experience with these three modules.

I’ve watched the videos, read what I can find, but if anyone has used these and has some more personal experiences and opinions, that would be great.

Regarding the Voltage Memory in particular, assuming you have a Rene, a Pressure Points, and a Grid (I do), what has the Voltage Memory allowed you to do differently and productively than the other three?

With its six pages and six gate outs, I had the immediate idea of patching each out in to each in on a Just Friends to play it as a six note monosynth in Plume mode…could be fun.

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#2

I recently got a Voltage Memory and have been enjoying it very much. I’ve used it as a touch controller, sequencer and arpeggiator. I like having the ability to ‘play’ a sequnce in to it using Custom Sequencer mode. The arpeggio is a lot of fun as well.
The Voltage Memory only puts out six gates when you are using it in Gate Sequencer mode if I’m not mistaken. Otherwise, the six outputs deliver voltages as programmed in the pages, and you have single gate/clock out.
I also have a Rene. The Rene is a lot more flexible with respect to trigger/gate control, and it does have quantized CV out. Writing this< i just thought of sending one of the gate outs to the VM external clock: haven’t tried that yet.
I use VM and Rene together, each sequencing different voices in my modular.

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#3

Thanks for that; very helpful!

I like that idea of the Rene and VM together. That could be pretty neat.

A fair amount of what I saw in the half hour video manual seemed novel, or different enough from other options to warrant considering one. I’m just not sure if it’s different enough. There’s a used one for sale locally to boot, so that’s a bit of an enticement.

In regards to Just Friends and the six outs, gate only is fine in this case, as all ‘tuning’ would be done at the module itself.

Aside from that, six CV outs with a single gate could be pretty neat too.

I dunno…I guess I could buy it, try it, and if it ends up being redundant, sell it. Not quite as salable as a Maths though!

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#4

I just got a MengQi lines after playing with it briefly at a friends. I am looking to dynamically mix and route signals. I noticed that when I use my bare hands it does add a lot of jitter to control voltages. When I use anything non-conductive it is very clean. Any other owners can confirm this is expected? My hunch is it very much is normal but wanted to check.

Sidenote: looking to pair it with pressure points and brains to interactively route the stored voltages to make more dynamic sequences, etc.

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#5

The body is electric. :grinning:

#6

I guess depending on the application I’ll have to figure out how to keep that electricity at bay then :slight_smile:

#7

I have mostly a MN SS but with a VM in the place of a pressure points, sometimes I miss the MN inmediacy, cus the VM output values only can be edited in ‘‘manual mode’’ this means you cant alter the values of a certain output while in sequencer or arp mode, only when used like a touch controller.

But, besides that, Rene, VM, wogglebug and tempi make the absolute madness killer combo for your sequencin needs, really really grows with you, deep as it gets.

#8

I had a VM for quite some time, sold it and later regretted selling it.
Though the reasons that lead me to sell it are still kind of valid. My main gripes with it are basically these:

  • it’s one of those modules that I can either use in a very limited way or need a cheat sheet for
  • I really missed the lack of pressure sensitivity
  • the lack of a “slew” setting for the outputs

But to be more specific this is how I was using it:

  • as a keyboard to play pitches on the modular. This was my main use and the reason I got it in the first place. I like the idea of having something physical to interact with and the VM ticked a lot of boxes. In this mode I was using only 1 or 2 of the outputs, and as mentioned earlier, having pressure (and maybe another parameter that one can control independently from the pads) would have made this so much more interesting.
  • as a way to move between configurations of a patch. This is was think the main point of the VM at its inception. It’s very useful and the 6 outputs really give you enough options to do complex things with it. That’s the part I miss more I guess.
  • as a sequencer. There’s not a lot of sequencers that give you 6 parameters per step (except of course the Teletype!). The only limitation of it being that the 6 parameters are not 6 tracks, so you can’t trigger them independently.

I guess the thing is that the VM was born as a way to store and recall voltages (as the name implies) and then, with time grew into being various other things: keyboard controller, sequencer, arpeggiator, etc.) This of course explains some UI oddities and feature limitations in some of the modes, and also why the whole UI might feel a bit convoluted at the beginning.

Despite of all of this, I would still buy one again. I’m also looking at smaller, more keyboard oriented alternatives, but it has to be said that the VM has a very “playable” size, which is important, since the capacitive surfaces don’t offer as much tactile feedback as something like a piano keyboard, and hence they are hard to use at small sized imho.

#9

Oh and if anybody needs a cheat sheet for the VM, I had made one for myself. It’s not complete (it focuses on what I was using most at the time) but might still be helpful. You can find on our website here:
https://www.papernoise.net/papernoise-cheatsheets/ (make sure do download the PDF. It’s been layouted to print out as a DIN A6)

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#10

Here’s an easel idea I’m tossing around, wondering how feasible it is. I’m thinking that I could put a fixed voltage through one of the LPGs and open the gate with the Voltage Memory.

What’s the verdict with the pressure sensitivity? Are others finding that it didn’t have the range they were looking for?

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#11

Any other experiences with the Lines module?

I’ve got some Amazon gift money and they have one…

Thanks!