DIY Yarns (Black Magpie)

diy yarns, magpie panel

diy yarns, euro 12hp

courtesy of the circuit designer, certain synth module designs are now available via creative commons licensing

we are delighted to be able to offer these for the diy community

pcbs are made by synthCube in blue material with immersion gold finish

full kits include everything you need, with parts individually bagged and labelled

panels are designed and produced by magpie. 

Yarns is a MIDI interface offering up to 4 channels of CV/Gate conversion, and providing some of the MIDI message mangling features of Mutable Instruments' MIDIpal, including arpeggiator, euclidean sequencer, and a SH-101 inspired step sequencer.

Yarns provides 4 CV outputs and 4 Gate/trigger outputs, which can be assigned to up to 4 voices. In single voice mode, note, velocity, modulation and aftertouch (or other CC) CV are produced, along with a gate, a trigger, and a clock/reset output. In two voices mode, two channel of note, modulation or aftertouch CV are produced, along with two gates, and clock/reset outputs. Finally, in four voices mode, four pairs of CV/Gate outputs are provided.

The 2 and 4-voice modes are available both in a "polyphonic" and "multitimbral" flavour. The former receives chords from one single MIDI channel and dispatches them to the voices; while the later provides independent monophonic parts - which can be addressed to different MIDI channels, keyboard ranges, or even velocity levels. Various note priority modes (low, high, last) and polyphonic allocation schemes (voice-stealing, random, cyclic) allows you to fine-tune the CV/Gate conversion to your playing style. Each voice has a built-in digital LFO to interpret modulation wheel messages as a vibrato; can respond to pitch-bend messages; or can be smoothed with a glide/portamento control - no need for a dedicated module and patches to get the right response from a MIDI keyboard!

Each part can generate sequences either through an arpeggiator/euclidean sequencer combo; or with a SH-101 style sequencer with step-by-step recording, storing up to 64 notes. The module can sync to an external MIDI clock, and generate a clock/reset output at any subdivisions of the MIDI clock.

Other unique features include support for microtunings (either through standard MIDI message or from a selection of historical tunings or indian ragas), just intonation, and an "audio" mode which can transform one, two, or four of the CV outputs into simple digital oscillators