Voice Allocator / Note Hocketing / Analog Shift Register

Shifty is a combination of four sample and hold stages, a sequential gate, and a sequencer controller. This collection of functions allows for some inspiring and useful utility applications, such as clock dividing, or controlling up to four voices with intricately evolving melodies or chord changes.

One of the primary uses for Shifty is to take a monophonic sequence source and route each new note of the sequence to up to four different synthesizer voices in a specific pattern. In this way you can create pseudo polyphonic sequences, since each voice can be triggered to play and sustain while the next voice in the sequence gets triggered. Another term for this is hocketing.

The other main application of the Shifty is to function as an Analog Shift Register. In this mode each new gate input received causes the current set of pitches to be shifted to new output locations as a new one is added and the oldest one is replaced. This can be an interesting way to create chords that are up to four stacked notes when used with a pitch sequence source that has a harmonious series of notes (e.g. a pentatonic scale works really well). Even just using two of the outputs will yield very interesting melodic interplay and is an excellent way to make a simple sequence much more complex and interesting.

In a more basic way the Shifty could be used as a simple Sample/Track and Hold module, a clock divider, or as a sequential gate.

Features:

• Voice Allocation Mode alternately routes incoming CV and gates to up to four voices
• Shift Register Mode stores four incoming CV values and sends it to voices sequentially
• Choice of four different voice order directions:
• In Voice Allocation Mode (VOICES 2-4) the direction switches are for FORWARD, REVERSE, PINGPONG and RANDOM
• In Shift Register mode (SR) the directions are FORWARD, REVERSE, PINGPONG (via Reset) and RANDOM.
• Manual GATE button for sampling/tracking and advancing the sequence
• Manual RESET button and jack
• GATE input can be configured to act as a track or sample and hold via toggle switch
• Pitch input can sample or track pitches in the range of 0-10V
• Pitch outputs are driven by a precision quad DAC to avoid voltage droop
• Firmware is updateable by USB so if there are some interesting alternative modes of functionality or special features we will be open to adding them.