LZX Show & Tell, lzxpcb-fpga12 / ESG3 review

Thanks for the answer and explanation Lars. I look forward to the community polling and possible utility modules to come. I’d love a TBC2 in every case but that’d be a costly move. Fun, but too rich for my blood.

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Thanks for the answer and explanation Lars. I look forward to the community polling and possible utility modules to come. I’d love a TBC2 in every case but that’d be a costly move. Fun, but too rich for my blood.

Oh that’s certainly not the expectation for large, multi-case systems! I imagine a 12HP sync distributor module is a good idea, and that we try to fit any legacy conversion/adapter needs into that one module. It would be the module you put in any “expander case” that does not otherwise include something like TBC2. The size of folks’ cases and what modules they are distributing sync to are all factors that come into play in the design of this, and we need to poll for user needs in this area before arriving at a final answer.

TBC2 makes a good “crosspoint” between systems mainly due to the internal dual channel upscaler/downscaler. (Have we mentioned yet, that you can upscale and downscale between any of the 15 SD/HD video formats, with different formats on the input channels?) So, for example, if you have a case with an SD system/device interfacing to a case running as an HD system/device, the TBC2 is exactly where you want the sync to come in and be distributed from.

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@creatorlars , I agree with @337is . It would be really useful to have a utilities module that provided the HD versions of the Visual Cortex sync generator outputs as well as the raw HD H and V ramps. It would be great to sync oscillators to those signals as well as process them with the modules I enjoy using. In addition, the module could have front and rear sync RCA. There might be even more space for other features, like a multiple. I feel like that would be a good way to integrate the Gen3 modules with compatible video modules. It’s great to hear that something like this module is somewhere on the horizon.

Maybe call it the LSD3, Legacy Sync Distributor :slightly_smiling_face:

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Yes – effectively this is a variation of DSG3 and could be implemented with a new control board for that module. Instead of two shape generators, you would have a bunch of fixed output ramps, and HSYNC/VSYNC could be among them, as well as a front panel sync input. So a bit less powerful than DSG3 in terms of combinatorial capabilities (no input proc capabilities), but it would support a similar workflow to Visual Cortex – and provide a lot more patchable source connections. A “Gen3 Frontend” as ESG3 is the “Gen3 Backend”?

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@337is Or maybe you were thinking something simpler? A passive RCA pass-thru connector panel is easily something we can offer if that’s what’s needed.

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This simple pass through would be a boon but am curious about the possibilities you mentioned too. Some sort of super utility module could be useful. I wasn’t joking when I said I could have a Bridge and Passage multiple times in every row. A Bridge with RCA mults front and back would do work. Offsets/attenuators combined with that would be even dreamier. This sort of signal traffic director for any signal between cases and between front and back of house. A synced mult is endlessly useful to me. Luma to 6 Bridges finds applications in my system. Pack those 12 HPs six ways to Sunday to help me setup meaningful trunk lines in each case, row, whatever. Rambling I know, but even though I despise HDMI, it gets one thing right by carrying ALL THE SIGNALS. Anything that can help centralize and move our various signals from where they are to where they need to be would be helpful.

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Pack those 12 HPs six ways to Sunday

I think there’s what I have in my head as the “voltage lab” module, like this, or it’s a type of module, that embraces high density of raw patchable function blocks. An extension of Bridge/Arch really! Into the more functionally dense 12HP gen3 stack format. Another very Gen3 way to do things is to do a multi-mode function block or array of some kind (for example, a logic function with 8 logic modes on a rotary switch.) It will be fun to workshop some ideas like this. That conversation can begin with what people already like about Bridge and Arch and how we could improve on those.

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I feel having an abundance of core source connections will allow of the integration of modules that I already own and love, like the Synontie wave shaper, The Prismatic Ray, etc. If I were to use the DSG3 just to make raw ramps, I feel like would be under using that module. I’m thinking of module that combines an HD sync generator with a few core video ramps and RCA front panel sync. This could be used in tandem with a TBC2 in a multi case or 6U x 6U travel clam-shell style case so that one isn’t forced to keep all of the sync reliant modules in one of the cases.

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We discussed this some today, and I think the idea is clicking with us – we like the idea of this as a “System Reference Module” – by definition, it’s meant to provide unmodifiable reference ramps, reference HV sync pulses, etc for distribution throughout the system. And also the perfect place to put the system’s external sync connection as well.

The main difference between how we’ve done modules like this in the past, is that the “reference module” has always been a required module (usually as the system’s sync generator), and now – due to a node based sync architecture (many modules can both receive or generate sync) we have decoupled that.

Ultimately the effect of that is that the “reference module” can fully embrace it’s own role or identity, uncomplicated from the demands of a module that every system is required to include.

This segues into the “wall of angles” concept I’ve been all about doing at some point, too – we can have a large variety of ramps of different angles and slopes, to uses as references throughout the rest of the patch.

The main thing is I want all of these combos to not only be valid, but interesting system build options, without any dead ends or redundancies:

  • ESG3
  • TBC2 + ESG3
  • System Ref Module + ESG3
  • System Ref Module + ESG3 + TBC2

And I think in context that all works in a way that I wasn’t expecting, that I quite like.

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  • System Ref Module + Visual Cortex :star_struck:

A bunch of the Sync + Ramps outputs like on the VC panel’s top left and right, would be very useful.

Call it the Angles + Ramps + Sync 3

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I also agree that a bridge arch combo is really powerful. I love them together and most of the time I leave some parts of them pre patched when I start a new patch. Normaled outs from some sections into others ins, would be a nice addition for gen3 version. For example the gamma processor from arch to the fade in bridge. Or the mixer from bridge into the rectifier in arch.
What I also like a lot in those modules is the invert switches, where with a small click, your patch changes completely.
Such a module could be like the ‘maths’ of videosynth.

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DSG3 is trying to really be what you’re describing (but only one possible incarnation of it.) It’s really a patchable analogue logic mix function, like Arch, where each of 4x input channels has not just a single invert switch, but several processors that can be enabled or disabled without changing the patch. (So lots of patch variety with simple IO.)

But I can see many other forms this could take, including something based more on a normalization scheme.

One thing we’re trying consider a lot is variety of approach. Some modules focusing more on “patch programming”, some modules focus more on “tuning and modulation control”, some modules focus more on “multi-modal switched signal paths/functions”, etc.

So I anticipate, with utility functions like summing, mults, mixes, voltage procs, etc we try not to encapsulate those in single modules with only one approach to them. It’s the identity of user control concept that gets encapsulated instead. So we can have something patch heavy or switch heavy or knob heavy, all of which are different workflow based approaches to common building blocks.

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Hooray for discoveries through discussion! Always energizing for me.

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