CTRL: A Flexible, Precision Interface for Analog Synthesis

This paper provides a new interface for the production and distribution of high resolution analog control signals, par- ticularly aimed toward the control of analog modular syn- thesisers. Control Voltage/Gate interfaces generate Control Voltage (CV) and Gate Voltage (Gate) as a means of con- trolling note pitch and length respectively, and have been with us since 1986 [3]. The authors provide a unique custom CV/Gate interface and dedicated communication protocol which leverages standard USB Serial functionality and en- ables connectivity over a plethora of computing systems, including embedded devices such as the Raspberry Pi and ARM based devices including widely available Android TV Boxes.
We provide a general overview of the unique hardware and communication protocol developments followed by use case examples toward tuning and embedded platforms, leverag- ing softwares ranging from Pure Data (Pd), Max, and Max for Live (M4L).