Absolutely. The names of the modules are best thought of as a shorthand, or as nick names. In this case it’s very much an answer to the beginner’s question of “wow, what does that do?” “It generates shapes.” If you answer the question “well it’s 28 analogue functions in multiplexed arrays” then the next question is still “wow, what does that do?!” So it’s perhaps less about describing function, more about communicating identity. You are totally correct that this module hides a lot of functionality that’s applicable in so many patches not related to shape generation.
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I really love to hear that. Thank you.
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It’s great for feeding the Y of a video source into Doorways → DSG3 → Marble Index’s opacity inputs for Porter Duff compositing. Not sure we can do the full Porter Duff patch with Gen3 quite yet or if it just requires more FKG-3s than I have to patch up. I’m still used to having the soft keyer broken out with Doorway.
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Reminds me of this, shape generator is a great nomenclature for quick understanding of the functions
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Any updates on DSG3 availability? Had an order from 1mos ago and received notice of some delays? Just checking. TIA.
We finished SMT / thru hole assembly for a large batch of DSG3 (double what we need to fill current orders) last week. They are in QA right now. Anyone still waiting will receive an update soon. ESG3 large batch starts next week when boards arrive. There have been numerous shipping delays this month costing us time, I appreciate everyone’s patience.
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Hey @creatorlars, any interesting teasers or previews of some Gen3 modules in development that we will see in the first half of 2023?
I had posted a similar question on the LZX Discord & someone pointed out the October 2022 Update post & thread, perhaps that would have been a better place for me to have posted.
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Swatch is ready to show.
Swatch is a 2-in-1 colorspace converter: RGB to YIQ + YIQ to RGB. The connections are normaled so you can get RGB in / out pass thru (but still patch in for IQ modulation, etc.) So it is both a dual converter and a luma/chroma modulator, by intent. I find it very fun to patch, and it gets into those “muddy pastel” regions that can be difficult to see in the RGB colorspace.
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As far as development path goes, we decided to split the “Color Wheel” functionality into 3 modular blocks, as it was far too much circuitry to squeeze into 12HP comfortably, and the component pieces deserved some additional exploration in the modular context.
The other two modules will be Angler (Polar-to-Cartesian converter/generator) and ART3/Complex Rotator (name change pending). These modular pieces will be able to be used in many ways outside of HSY modulation (as in Color Wheel), but that is one of their uses. Chromagnon will make a fine all-in-one HSY modulation effect.
So, Swatch can be thought of as the entry/exit points of an “HSY modulation patch.” The other two components being a rotator (for the IQ signals) and a polar-to-cartesian generator (to generate a Hue/Sat → IQ offset.)
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Cool, I have many questions!
Are all three modules 8 HP? Or is that TBD?
I’m confused by the Swatch panel layout. Looks like some outputs on the top left? Aren’t outputs on the right by convention?
What’s the purpose of the positive and negative I and Q patch points? AFAIK, I and Q are bipolar signals.
How does modulation work here? Patch RGB in at bottom left, modulate colors in YIQ space by patching signals in at top right?
In order to use other modules to process YIQ signals, one would need two Swatches, right?
Swatch #1 RGB to YIQ → other modules → Swatch #2 YIQ to RGB → Encoder.
I’m curious about this despite the fact that my initial experiment with colorspace conversion via 2x SMX3 didn’t give me the aesthetic results I was seeking.
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In this case, there are 2 separate functions on the panel, which is why it breaks convention. Function one (RGB in/YIQ out) is on the left, and function two (YIQ in/RGB out) is on the right.
What’s the purpose of the positive and negative I and Q patch points? AFAIK, I and Q are bipolar signals.
They are negative versions of the same positive inputs / outputs. The purpose? We need negative outputs of I and Q for some patch concepts. And in the case of the negative inputs, they provide a place to patch an IQ modulation source (in the case this is used as a chroma modulator with RGB in/out.)
In order to use other modules to process YIQ signals, one would need two Swatches, right?
Swatch #1 RGB to YIQ → other modules → Swatch #2 YIQ to RGB → Encoder.
No, it’s two separate converters. You’d just patch YIQ outs, then back to YIQ ins. So the above patch is possible with just one Swatch. You can think of YIQ in/out as like a “Send/Return” in a mixing bus.
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The polar-to-cartesian module will be at least 8HP. You can think of this module as a sort of quadrature/sinusoidal variation of Stairs, if used for wave shaping. Or it’s also a driver for patches in which you need to define angle/distance in vector space at high bandwidth.
The affine/complex rotator module will be at least 12HP, and like Chromagnon will have unipolar and bipolar input modes (so can be used with unipolar ramps or with bipolar vectors, etc.) For this module it’s important that it has direct access to all points of the Affine matrix, but we haven’t settled on the layout yet.
The point of the three modules is that they provide a patched out and expanded version of circuitry existing in Chromagnon already – this helps us in many ways on the development/production side with Chromagnon, and also offers a less abstracted interface to the underlying functions (which adds power, in the modular patch context.)
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This is absolutely fantastic. Incredible stuff. LZX continues to amaze me. You have taken this tech and art to yet another level. Absolutely love the concept behind the product line. Standalone / high level instruments and patched out / expanded modules of the same circuitry / logic / functionality. Addresses needs of different users and use cases. Great educational value, too. Peel back the curtain of a high level instrument like Chromagnon, learn how it works, expand creative options.
So, to reiterate. Because that is how I best comprehend, by repeating back what I think I learned.
The trinity of Swatch, Angler, & ART will be at least 28 HP.
Typical use scenario for Swatch:
Patch RGB into the lower left of Swatch. That’s converted to YIQ and comes out at upper left. Send to whatever other modules you wish. Return modified YIQ to Swatch inputs at upper right. Patch RGB outputs at lower right to an encoder or whatever other modules you like.
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Yes, we could call that the “Hue Colorizer/Modulator” patch. Another variation would be to swap out the Polar-to-Cartesian converter directly with a quadrature oscillator, like Baja or Syntonie VU006. This variant could be called a “Hue Rotator/Animator patch.” Or you could set up a vector mixing bus with Proc or similar, and have both at the same time.
Here are a few ways you can use Swatch all by itself:
- A Chroma inverter (patch IQ- outs to IQ+ ins) for RGB images
- A Chroma modulator (patch external modulator to IQ- ins) for RGB images
- A patch-wide conversion interface (you could convert a source to YIQ, run your entire patch in the YIQ colorspace, then convert back to RGB for the encoder.) In this sense, Swatch is an expander module for whatever decoder/encoder IO path of your system.
- Direct YIQ pattern synthesis (using some sort of quadrature oscillator into IQ inputs and some sort of ramp/shape into the Y input)
- In a more abstract sense, if you have any patch where you are interested in finding ways to extract meaningful modulation paths from a color image, having both RGB + YIQ channels available at the same time introduces some meaningful contexts. For example, modulating Stairs with IQ channels is going to be quite different from modulating it with RGB channels.
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Thanks! I was referring to the patch-wide conversion interface function. But of course there are lots of applications! I didn’t even think of the chroma inverter function.
Epic stuff. If I put too many exclamation marks here, my post will get flagged. But just imagine a wall of capital letters and exclamation marks, because that’s how I’m feeling right now.
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I think I had “how do all 3 modules do HSY modulation” stuck in my head still. To dismiss anything unclear about my reply: Your patch example is correct, and demonstrates you understand the signal flow perfectly.
More Swatch trivia:
There are two sets of RGB outputs – unclamped RGB and clamped RGB (white & black level clippers on all channels.) Since the YIQ colorspace has regions outside of valid RGB ranges, the clippers remove content that might mix weirdly with a downstream fader or composite. On the other hand there may be cases where you want to intercept RGB pre-clipping.
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Yes, that was one thing I understood from the panel layout. 
The ability to control the mapping from the square IQ space to the RGB range is essential. Sometimes it’s good enough to just limit the values. But if the incoming IQ signal is too hot, and we want to preserve all its data, we need to attenuate that somehow, hence the need for unclamped output.
Regarding voltage ranges, are you mapping I and Q values directly to voltage? I.e. -1 to +1? If so, am I correct in concluding that the unclamped RGB values can exceed 1V?
The transformation follows the matrices for NTSC 1953 YIQ as described in this Wikipedia article:
So assuming RGB is 0 to 1V scaling, I is +/-0.5957V and Q is +/-0.5226V.
So if you’re driving the IQ inputs with Proc’s +/-1V bias control for example, you’d have a saturation range from 0% to 170%-190%.
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This is exciting - I found Mapper to have a bit of a steep learning curve, to generate more than just rainbow vomit, and it’s slowly made its way in to every patch now
Even without the details of the other two I’m keen to explore further!
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