Tiptop Audio Z4000 Voltage Controlled Envelope Generator NS (8HP)

Full Description

Flexible Envelope Shaping

You can take control of very short envelope times. The first 50 percent of the knob's rotations are useful for creating snappy envelopes with minimum times without popping or clicking sounds. This gives you finer adjustment of very short envelope times from milliseconds to one second.

This scaled design allows you to take advantage of fast transients, giving you a wide range of adjustability to work on or around the artifacts that fast transients can often add to the envelope's character. You can fine-tune the controls to get that perfect snap or click from a fast, snappy envelope, or you can retain a quick response and slowly tune-out that clicking artifact.

The second 50 percent is ideal for longer sounds. You can go from seconds, to minutes, all the way to infinity when the release is set to max.

You can also get further fine adjustment of the attack segment. There's a switch that changes the slope from exponential to logarithmic for even further sound shaping. You'll also be able to create legato notes when using a classic keyboard interface thanks to its retrigger input.

You'll find small attenuverter and deviator rotary knobs. These are used for offset, mirroring and clipping of your envelope signal.

Manually Set or Use CV Control

It's also useful for when you want to integrate other modules. You can set the envelope generator under control voltage from other modules which is useful for when you want to have more control over oscillators, filters, and more.

Segment Voltage Control

Each of the four segments in the Z4000 are controlled by voltage. The unit has an effective voltage input range for each input between 0 and 5V. However, higher voltage levels or negative levels will not damage your Z4000. The incoming CV is summed up with the internal voltage provided by the segment control knob, so if the Decay knob is set to maximum for example, a CV input will do nothing, as there would be no headroom left.

Attenuverter & Deviater

The Tiptop Audio Z4000 uses an attenuverter. This attenuates and inverts voltage, meaning at 50 the Z4000 will output no signal. If you turn the knob clockwise, the envelope will become a positive voltage, whilst counter-clockwise will turn it into a negative voltage. An indicator LED will provide information on those states, with it either being unlit, red, or yellow.

The envelope signal also passes through another CV processor circuit known as the Deviater. This adds static voltage to the signal, and is a mathematical analog function of summing. This static voltage can be set to negative (counter-clockwise) or positive (clockwise).

When summing the static voltage with the envelope voltage, a lot of interesting things can happen. These include offsetting, mirroring, and clipping. The Deviater also includes a CV input, allowing you to inject even more static signals or dynamic signals into the analog "calculator."

Retrigger Input

The Z4000's retrigger input can be used to retrigger the envelope, even if it's in the ON state. This provides an accent effect to the new note that has been played. The retrigger input has multiple other uses however.

For example, using pulses other than the gate input signal will give an extra cycle of the attack segment. This can be incredibly musical and deliver interesting results. Using clock dividers or any other pulse source is a great way to experiment with the Z4000's retrigger input.

New Design

The Z4000 NS also sports a fresh look, with a newly designed faceplate, input connectors, rotary knobs, and colour scheme.

Features

• Newly designed faceplate, input connectors, knobs and colour scheme
• Very snappy envelope generator
• Set ADSR manually or under control voltage
• Exponential and logarithmic attack curves
• First 50 percent of rotary ADSR control – finer adjustment, goes from milliseconds to one second
• Second 50 percent of rotary ADSR control – goes from seconds, to minutes, to infinite
• Manual trigger button
• Retrigger input for creating legato notes
• Offset, mirror and clip your envelope signal with attenuverter and deviator rotary knobs

Specifications

• Size: 8HP
• Depth: 28mm
• Current Draw: 34mA @ +12V, 18mA @ -12V