Yeah, totally get the “can’t do everything at once” thing!
Definitely agree that deprecating the old sync standard is a very good idea. As well as the general push to remove product redundancies (with the exception of more standalones, and thus more inputs & outputs — which is actually a super useful redundancy!).
As far as Cadets, I guess I’d argue for keeping the still-relevant ones around (Hard Key, Fader, Multiplier, Scaler, etc.), if it’s not too much trouble. But, I don’t know, maybe those barely sell enough to warrant it? Kind of imagine it is just a trickle with those guys. Then again, I do also see people talking about buying multiples of them, so…?
A lot of cool ideas and sweat have gone into Expedition Series, we’re not leaving them in a grave or anything. If you’ll notice, the modules going out of production are the most expensive ones – the reason for this is that these are the modules which have the biggest impact on our ability to stock everything and still match demand. In 2018-2019 we have had Visual Cortex, Memory Palace and Vidiot all competing with each other for entry level customers and splitting our resources, creating a continual stress and hustle load around here that I’d like to remedy. If there are customers who feel frustrated that they aren’t able to continue plans for expanding their Expedition based systems, I definitely understand that and want to create the right environment for you.
I definitely do not want to see our products selling for list or higher than list pricing on the secondhand market. That’s completely contrary to the spirit of why we try not to overprice these things in the first place! So meeting demand is critical, for the good of everyone.
Stocking the Cadet PCB/Panel sets is a breeze, we have a great logistics/ERP system that’s maturing finally. So no worries there. We can keep those Cadets around. What is working for us with DIY products is that we don’t sell kits or offer builder support. “I lost a capacitor on the floor” customer support e-mails or trying to debug someone’s DIY build utterly destroy any margins we make on DIY projects, so making the PCB/Panel sets cheap and available is a way of making the build the DIY’ers responsibility. And that means we can offer affordable resources and more of them.
I would love to put more resources into documentation and theory when it comes to these new “core set” releases. By splitting the designs as both production and DIY, documentation efforts are a dual investment, which helps.
As a beginner who’s not used any of these two modules Passage and Triple Video Fader look sort of similar to me.
Can anyone explain what functionality seperate them and where do they overlap?
TVFKG is a triple crossfader with comparators, so like a voltage controlled switcher/video mixer. Passage is a utility gain/bias adjustment utility. So like an RGB color corrector with brightness and contrast. One way to use them together would be to have a Passage feeding each side of the TVFKG, then you have a video mixer/keyer with a color processor on each input.
Passage has more in common with Video Blending Matrix than it does with TVFKG.
TBC2 is our highest priority project in both development and production until it’s in everyone’s hands. Anything that needs to be done to make that happen is happening before anything else.
The only reason we’ve announced Chromagnon now is to offer an explanation for why we’re pulling Visual Cortex and Vidiot out of production for the time being (it was necessary to line the dates up to where we fulfilled backorders for those products and discontinued them on the same date.) As evidenced by the lackluster preview of an incomplete faceplate, we’re mostly occupied by TBC2!
Only reason we’re announcing the Visionary reboot modules now is to provide a path for anyone concerned about the lack of Color Chords (VBM mk3 is effectively Color Chords mk2), the lack of Marble Index (TVFKG mk3 is effectively Marble Index Mk2) and the lack of Prismatic Ray (Dual VWG is effectively Prismatic Ray mk2.) The Visionary reboot is about providing a limited core set we will maintain as longstanding fixtures of the product line.
We can put a new preview monitor on the dev calendar – Liquid TV needs a redesign, and we want color RGB input options and our own system for alternative monitoring, like histograms, etc. We’re just not ready to announce any more active projects than we have to right now. It’s possible the Automata instruments will include displays.
To me, a display on Automata instruments seems like an unnecessary power draw for those who don’t need it. If every Automata instrument has multiple outputs, it wouldn’t be that hard to have an external preview monitor of some kind. If you just need a rough idea of the signal, you can get a rearview monitor for a car that costs less than $20. If you need something detailed, stuff like Blackmagic monitors can fill that gap.
Lars, I believe in the past I’ve seen you say that you’re not super attached to the 3U eurorack format and have only stuck with it because it’s what the largest group of people uses. Going forward, could you see LZX moving away from it entirely and focusing on just standalone instruments? Kinda sounds that way if there are ideas of every Automata instrument having its own display as well as many other functions that, assumingly, will take up a loooot of rack space. in the long run, I imagine it would save money to just have a standalone enclosure rather than build essentially a tiny eurorack case for every module?
I’m really excited to show our solutions to all of these design challenges! Most of them have been sorted out over the past two years in the continual development discussion which is ongoing around here; generation 3 is just about hitting the brakes and making it real after lengthy research into solving case and power issues, and tons of listening!
I love the EuroRack format! But EuroRack power supplies have been a massive thorn in the side of the community. I’d like the gear to perform much better, which means we have to take responsibility for doing our own power without relying on the quality of an external supply. In the process, we’re going to make sure all the gear can power off either a EuroRack supply or a DC barrel input.
If your case runs out of juice, the DC Distro module (which will be very cheap) is a way to distribute 12V in to DC barrels in the rear.
If you’re starting fresh or setting up a new case, you won’t need a EuroRack supply at all. Passive rack + DC distro and you’re good to go.
And if we include displays on the Automata series it will be for a few hundred more reasons besides just video preview.
Oooh ok, the DC distro module makes a lot of sense to me now! That’s so awesome, turning any passive rack into a rack suitable for LZX makes the concept of building your own rack out of whatever you have lying around a lot more feasible. We are in the golden age of video synthesis.
Effectively though, you’re not wrong! We are moving our more complex designs to standalone instruments. We can give you a lot more power, functionality, and flexibility for your money when it comes to advanced analogue and digital processing that way.
It’s just that all the instruments are also EuroRackable! EuroRack started as a modular synth format, but it has evolved into something more like a micro-sized 19" rack standard. The community wants to be able to rack up any gear in sight, especially if it is patchable. There’s been tremendous demand for both EuroRack versions of Vidiot and standalone versions of Memory Palace.
We save so many resources by not having variations on products which end up splitting our cashflow. We make all of this more accessible by taking a more holistic approach to the more expensive modules as well. An “all accessories included” approach is going to be best for everyone. Sync will just work. Power will just work. And form factor can go from desktop to EuroRack with 4x user accessible screws at any time.
The “true modular” modules, in the sense of a modular synthesizer, will focus on being even more accessible to purchase and easy to use. We hope it helps you guys build huge systems without killing your budgets.
This split approach to instruments vs. modules is carefully engineered to maximize what we can offer your gear budget while still avoiding redundancy.
I use a lot of lzx and one of my fav modules is Marble index. what I like most about it is cv opacity input control on channels a/b , which operate in negative or positive , I can plug a key generator of video in to opacity cv and make some insane looking stuff not possible with other modules. I guess what I am saying is when you do design a new mixing / compositing module to replace the functionality of Marble Index I would like to see more focus on cv inputs for compositing layers , and not so much focus on colorizing section or lots of knobs but just more focus on cv inputs and layers and blend modes. afaik the VBM and TVFKG don’t really seem to have many cv ins right ?
It looks like the TVFKG is a mixer with key generators built in ? but for me the cadet hard key gen or doorway or topogram or polar fringe are perfect for controlling a mixer such as marble index without needing a key gen function in the mixer itself. I actually love polar fringe so much that I just got a second one
You will be looking forward to the Automata RGB instrument! It will inherit everything related to advanced color mixing and blending modes. TVFKG will be a lower cost alternative and general utility based problem solver. And, as mentioned above, once we’ve stabilized our production cashflow there will be resources to put some of the Expedition modules back into production if that’s what the community would like to happen.
