Castle tips & tricks

hello
does anyone want to share his tips with castle modules? Especially with the quad gates and multigate. i don’t know how to use them. thx

1 Like

multigate:
Here are 2 patches I just made. I hope you have all featured Cadet modules.

first start with this basic patch: (leave out the yellow feedback patchcable first.)
logic%20patch1

try all outputs of the logic gates. switch 'm up to get other color configurations

play with the frequency controls and the patch the feedback path (yellow line)
Next, try modulating the oscillators with more sources, like a Ramps + another VCO or feedback from the logic gate. Use the Processor to temper/invert the modulations

You should see colorful intersecting shapes.

You can also use the Video input module instead of a VCO. this gives very cool options, like masking .
See my posts : Cadet / Castle gallery for examples of this.
https://community.lzxindustries.net/t/cadet-and-castle-gallery/250/3

Next:
logic%20patch2

twist all knobs to get to know this patch. the feedback paths make funky shapes.
play with the frequency of all oscillators, cv inputs, Processor knobs etc.

7 Likes

i’ll post some more later. (with fewer modules) .and the adc

1 Like

@reverselandfill thanks for sharing!

Very interested in the castle series. In fact, I wanted to order them all but I see the clock vco is out of stock.
Do any castle modules require the clock vco?

Caslte Clock isn’t required for any, it’s just another form of VCO. If you have Prismatic Ray, or VWG those would.

you can also mod the cadet vco to get a squarewave. (just add a jack. see the cadet modding thread)

@pbalj : is a squarewave needed to clock the shiftregister / counter or would a triangle wave work too?
does the quadgates module need a clock too?

thx for sharing. i now understand the way it could be used. i ll try that this week end.

triangle wave would work. castles have 0.5v comparator thresholds, so any signal that goes above 0.5 will work, including cameras, ramps, etc.

1 Like

if you have a video input module, try that too. this helps with understanding what it does!

Okay, think I have a ~reasonable~ handle on the Castle stuff now, after reading through everything on here and watching the long demo video you did, @pbalj.

The questions that remain for me (since I am trying to do more with less): the RST input on several modules, that expects a horizontal sync signal, yes? Which comes from either Visual Cortex or a Cadet Sync Generator? Are there other modules (or workarounds) that will provide that expected sync?

And what happens if you have no input there?

Or if you input a different signal? I imagine it falls somewhere on the spectrum between “possibly interesting complexity” and “noisy/glitchy garbage.” Is that a fair assessment?

When I use the RST (reset) input I usually use syncs with it. The sync can come from Visual Cortex or Cadet Sync. Depending on what other video stuff you have there may be work arounds to getting proper sync in to the RST inputs.

If nothing is present in the RST inputs the modules will act as normal. For instance if using the shift register and you shifted data past the right edge of the frame it would carry over to the left side of the frame next line down. If you used a sync pulse then the data wouldn’t carry over to the left side of the screen.

If you use something other than a sync pulse, such as a camera signal, or a synthesized pattern then the results are usually pretty interesting, such as using the RST on the Counter to start from 0 every time a diamond pattern went over 0.5v.
Counter might be the glitchiest module without an RST input. Unless the counting falls on some even ratio of the sync rate the results can be flashing glitch type patterns. With a reset pulse the counting would always start at 0.

4 Likes

Oh, man, liking everything I hear!

Getting excited about the possibilities of using Castle outputs as alpha channels for Marble Index.

1 Like

Castle ADC and DAC patch

the idea is to recolorize the B&W video input. Use a camera for best results.
I have finished my second ‘dual ADC’ panel, so I could finally try this trick.
Adjust the brightness and contrast + ACD pots for setting this up.

The 3x ADC and DAC can give you 9 layers of overlapping color mixing. You can get close to ‘full color’, or go wild with heatseeking images . re-order the DAC inputs for even wilder ‘paint’ effects. This is a very good basis for extreme feedback stuff. see last picture.

Add video VCA’s in between to get voltage control over all brightness values :slight_smile:

-sorry about the screenpics. I still have to install my new videograbber.

11 Likes

I am sending myself mad trying every multigate/counter combo to get this lovely repeating pattern from a triangle/diamond ramp. It’s from Phil’s castle patching session on youtube (link below), but the stream cut out juuuust before he put this together. It kind of looks like a staircase/stairs/frequency multiplied pattern, but it doesn’t look like he uses one in the patch.

The finer details in the still photo look to me like it’s an H ramp + mirrored V ramp (presumably from Visual Cortex) run through a Castle Counter. (There might be something else in play too to get the vertical chunkiness?) I think that should get the repeating patterns that are increasingly offset over half the screen and then decreasingly offset. I’m less sure about how the chunky color bits are done, because I think there are several ways to do it (at least just based on that still).

2 Likes