Uploaded February 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
My submission for the Hardware Jams “Seven Cables” Weekend Challenge.
Wow this one was tough! It normally takes me more than 7 cables to patch a single voice, so I had to get creative for this one.
Using filter pinging, meant that I could get a playable note without using a VCA or Oscillator and thus reduce the number of cables required down to 3. One for CV to the filter cutoff, One for a trigger to the audio input of the filter, and one for output. By sending the gate to the audio input of a filter that is set very close to self resonance you can trigger it to resonate for a short time and select notes using the filter cutoff. This left me with 4 cables to use. The output from the pinged filter is a pure sine wave so I used an additional cable route this through an overdrive to give the sound a bit more character and then used this 4 cable patch as my bass sound.
3 cables to go..
I used 2 of them for an effects send/return from the mixer to a distortion module so I could add varying amount of distortion to the instruments.
And the final cable was used to connect to my kallimba which has a contact microphone in it. This was multipurposed as a kalimba, a microphone and a kick drum (by tapping the back of the kalimba)
And then this rather silly jam was born…
This week’s challenge prompt:
Greetings Jammers. It is definitely about time for a technical Weekend Challenge. So, in homage to our Anthem we would like you to give yourself an earworm and hum "wiring audio MIDI and power" to yourself all weekend.
Just kidding.
The Challenge is as follows: We want to see you use EXACTLY SEVEN audio, MIDI, CV or Gate cables - any combination of these will do, creative solutions encouraged.
We don't care about the power cables. We also don't care about any cables that are involved once the sound reaches your mixing desk or recording system or whatever. We are only interested in the cables you use to connect your instruments together to make this jam.
Lyrics
════════════
I’m gonna patch it up
A seven cable challenge couldn’t stop me now
I’m trying to figure out
What to use or more importantly how
A kalimba with a contact mic
That will see me through
And I’m looking at this big red knob
Wondering what to do
And the message coming from on high says leave it alone
———
Don’t want to hear excuses
Grab your seven cables and give them hell
Grace wants to hear about it
Where did you plug them, oh please do tell
And when it comes to evening on Monday
We’re gonna stream it to you
That might not be what you want to hear
But it’s what we do
And a feeling coming from my bones says this is home
Always Learning
════════════
I'm a strong believer in continuous improvement and always trying to learn something new. This week I was able to revisit pinging the Frequency Central State 700 filter and make a couple of improvements to get the cv tracking a bit better.
My DIY Eurorack Synth Rules
══════════════
I aim to meet the following criteria when adding modules to my synth:
◦ I must have constructed it.
This can be a kit or from scratch but I must have soldered it
◦ The audio signal path should be analog.
I'm trying to avoid digital modules so I can learn more about analog electronics
◦ Learn something new
Try to learn something while constructing the module. Learn about the circuits, experiment with different signal processing options. Be creative.
◦ Have fun
My submission for the Hardware Jams “Seven Cables” Weekend Challenge.
Wow this one was tough! It normally takes me more than 7 cables to patch a single voice, so I had to get creative for this one.
Using filter pinging, meant that I could get a playable note without using a VCA or Oscillator and thus reduce the number of cables required down to 3. One for CV to the filter cutoff, One for a trigger to the audio input of the filter, and one for output. By sending the gate to the audio input of a filter that is set very close to self resonance you can trigger it to resonate for a short time and select notes using the filter cutoff. This left me with 4 cables to use. The output from the pinged filter is a pure sine wave so I used an additional cable route this through an overdrive to give the sound a bit more character and then used this 4 cable patch as my bass sound.
3 cables to go..
I used 2 of them for an effects send/return from the mixer to a distortion module so I could add varying amount of distortion to the instruments.
And the final cable was used to connect to my kallimba which has a contact microphone in it. This was multipurposed as a kalimba, a microphone and a kick drum (by tapping the back of the kalimba)
And then this rather silly jam was born…
This week’s challenge prompt:
Greetings Jammers. It is definitely about time for a technical Weekend Challenge. So, in homage to our Anthem we would like you to give yourself an earworm and hum "wiring audio MIDI and power" to yourself all weekend.
Just kidding.
The Challenge is as follows: We want to see you use EXACTLY SEVEN audio, MIDI, CV or Gate cables - any combination of these will do, creative solutions encouraged.
We don't care about the power cables. We also don't care about any cables that are involved once the sound reaches your mixing desk or recording system or whatever. We are only interested in the cables you use to connect your instruments together to make this jam.
Lyrics
════════════
I’m gonna patch it up
A seven cable challenge couldn’t stop me now
I’m trying to figure out
What to use or more importantly how
A kalimba with a contact mic
That will see me through
And I’m looking at this big red knob
Wondering what to do
And the message coming from on high says leave it alone
———
Don’t want to hear excuses
Grab your seven cables and give them hell
Grace wants to hear about it
Where did you plug them, oh please do tell
And when it comes to evening on Monday
We’re gonna stream it to you
That might not be what you want to hear
But it’s what we do
And a feeling coming from my bones says this is home
Always Learning
════════════
I'm a strong believer in continuous improvement and always trying to learn something new. This week I was able to revisit pinging the Frequency Central State 700 filter and make a couple of improvements to get the cv tracking a bit better.
My DIY Eurorack Synth Rules
══════════════
I aim to meet the following criteria when adding modules to my synth:
◦ I must have constructed it.
This can be a kit or from scratch but I must have soldered it
◦ The audio signal path should be analog.
I'm trying to avoid digital modules so I can learn more about analog electronics
◦ Learn something new
Try to learn something while constructing the module. Learn about the circuits, experiment with different signal processing options. Be creative.
◦ Have fun
