Yesterday I finally took the time to put the end to my Ring Modulator project. I had all parts in the house from the beginning of February this year but never came to it. After a very friendly offer of getting the faceplate professionally punched (at no cost!). I just had to finish it now!
The background of the project: Being used to the gritty sound of the Ring Modulators at the Sonology BEA5 studio I thought it was nice to get something similar. The A114 four quadrant multiplier from Doepfer is just a bit too clean for me. And the Make Noise Mod Demod a bit too pricey for my liking. Besides that it is not being produced anymore. So I ended up at Ken Stone. Ken makes the excellent Real Ring Modulator boards. Passive technology that thereby can be integrated in all known modular systems that are available on the market today. Besides that, at the very cheap $30 price per board I did not have to think long to order two. Within a week they arrived.
What and how are the boards used?
I have 2 CGS Real Ring boards set up in the Modem set up. I used switching Cliff connectors that I obtained from Doepfer to do the switching magic. This comes down to having either two Real Ringmodulators or one Real RingModem, depending on the inputs. In short: If I plug in to input X & Y on the top unit I get the RingModem output at the output of the bottom unit. If I decide to plug in the output of the top unit I have 2 seperate Ring Modulators. The working of this is set up like the Make Noise Mod Demod module.
I love how these boards sound. There is so much more harmonics compared to the Doepfer module. The only downside I have to mention is that the passive circuit eats up some of your signal level. This can be quite something if you use the Real RingModem set up. Fortunately enough amplification after the output poses no great problems. (note: Doepfer is about to release some very cheap basic amplifier module, looks like a perfect companion to this project)
I have recorded several test runs with the module. Let’s hear some noise!
First of all the straight test. A sine wave from the A111 modulated with a sine wave (at audio rate) from the a145 LFO. I have used the A145 instead of the sine from the A110. The A110 just does not output a proper enough sine wave for this test. The A145 does fine in the audio rate. Results:
And of course the CGS Real Ring Modem Single Sideband modulation
Btw. I have compensated the level difference of the different modules and set ups. These tests are more concerned with the textural content of the signals.
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Second test uses an A111 sine wave, its frequency is modulated by an A147 sine wave. This is Ring Modulated by an audio rate sine wave from an A145 that I sweep by hand (no audio file). The results sound like this:
And again, the dual CGS Real Ring set up that makes the CGS Real Ring Modem Single Sideband modulation
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Finally some harmonically more complex material.
An A111 sine wave that has its frequency modulated by an A147 sine wave ring modulated with a Wasp filter (LP) white noise sweep. Results are:
And the single sideband modulation version CGS Real Ring Modem
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Please be aware that the Single Sideband Modulation examples are just added as a bonus. These should not be used to compare the Doepfer against the CGS sound. I must advise to read on the backgrounds of single sideband modulation at the above provided links of Ken Stone’s Ring Modem and Make Noise’s Mod Demod module. The A114 vs The Real Ring files are however a straight comparison.
