Hi Jaak,
despite all your good intentions and warnings, I find myself irresistibly attracted to the whistling-resonance-syndromeđ
I tried modulating the cutoff control via the step LFO, which is nice if what I want are R2D2 bleeps n bloops.
But I really would like to have it âsing in tuneâ.
I patched my Korg SQ1 to the CV input, but for some reason the range of notes I can get is rather limited⌠
Is there something I can do to improve the chance of generating a melody via CV?
1 Like
There is not. We calibrate the left and right channels to eachother using C3 and C8 as a reference point but the CV jack is not scaled to 1V/octave so it canât be tuned via CV.
Have you tried using the internal synth engine on Sparks with the SQ-1? You can just plug the MIDI OUT jack straight into Sparks using an 1/8" to 1/4" inch adapter and get pitch-perfect melodies.
3 Likes
Aaaahh⌠I see. Maybe via midi cc?
I certainly plan to use the inbuilt midi synth, itâs just that the singing filter thingie caught my heartâs attention 
MIDI CCâs might get you closer to singing melodies but it might not be perfectly in tune. MIDI CCâs are 7 bit (aka sorta low resolution) while the knob controls on Sparks are 13 bit (pretty high resolution). So the CCâs will step between various frequencies but they might not be mapped to notes.
Also the analog filter controls arenât temperature compensated so the notes heard might vary from session to session depending on the temperature in your studio and how long Sparks has been powered on.
You can try it though! 
3 Likes
I decided to try this out using an EHX 8-Step control the Cutoff, and it kind of works, but tuning each step is really fiddly, and the pitches drift capriciously over time.
https://soundcloud.com/pedal-nonsense/kinotone-sparks-with-ehx-8-step
I had Sparksâs LFO controlling the Resonance in a very narrow range, so you can barely hear what Spin is doing. I had had it set up to be more pronounced, but I turned up Resonance so I could hear better for tuning and then I forgot to turn it back down. Another of lifeâs little regrets.
2 Likes
TOTALLY dig it!!
Bravo!
Is there any reason why my SQ-1 canât generate that kind of rangeâŚ.?
2 Likes
Thanks!
Iâm not familiar with the SQ-1, so I can only guess. If you had the CV range set to 1 or 2 volts the pitch range would be limited, and if you had it set to 8 volts it would be beyond what Sparks is designed to handle, so youâd need to make sure the range was set to 5V. But if itâs not that, I donât know what the issue is.
2 Likes
Iâll need to do some testing with my Zoia when it comes back from its TLC vacationâŚ!
1 Like