Iāve just realised this is also true for the Osmoseā¦ it also doesnāt have any audio inputā¦
doh, I really didnāt need any more temptation on this 
one thing, Im trying to get my head around more generally here isā¦
what benefit does the Eagan Matrix gain from being within Eurorackā¦ or more specifically, how does CV (input) control benefit it?
whatās your thoughts?
for meā¦
-
a non-eurorack useful feature, is being able to hook up another mpe controller, the Erae Touch is staring at me begging
-
w/x/y/z
are these considered an āextra voiceā for a patch , or offsets for all voices? Im guessing the former, so that your modular could play a voice - which could be fun, albeit monophonicā¦
I think perhaps most fun I can see here is with the audio inputā¦ -
i-iv
almost feels like this is where its at ā¦ having your rack modulating a racks parameters.
I know these are at ācontrol rateā, but Id hope/assume these are going to be high resolution (10+ bit+) rather than 7 bit midi (though perhaps barrels support 14 bit midi ?) - either way, modulating/syncing from your rack is always going to add some interesting possibilities.
still no news on when orders (esp, in EU) might be completed?
It appears Schneidersladen (and I guess other EU suppliers) want the payment now for pre-orders, so feels kind of pointless if we are months away from shipping.
and frankly, if its not going to turn up before my Osmose (which Im guessing will be Dec/Jan), then Id probably wait till Iāve played with thatā¦ and see how that pans out with with my other MPE controllers.
You can casually sequence its parameters independently, with whatever control sources you might have available.
Itās considered the primary control layer for a monophonic voice.
(Weāre projecting polyphonic use cases, because thatās who we are. But thatās the part considered āextraā.)
Exactly. Human control through w/x/y/z, additional inputs (sidechains, LFOs, sequences, S&H, etc) through i-iv.
(You have an SSP, so you can already experiment with that idea. Itās fun; I can confirm that much.)
I believe those are paraphonic controls.
They can probably be configured within a given patch to route to individual voices, but theyāll be more useful and predictable the other way.
The barrels arenāt a bottleneck. At that point of entry, whatās received is an analog control voltage. Bits arenāt a consideration until you hit the DAC. (And then, youāre dealing with floating point numbers at whatever precision itās able to reliably produce. I wouldnāt expect noticeable stepping, but 10+ bits might be unrealistic.)
I guess the key hereās that MIDI is converted to whatever theyāre interpreting CV as. CV is never translated back to MIDI.
To someone considering the EaganMatrix rack, here are my ideas, based on using the Continuum:
If I were to get this module, Iād either set up a controller, or a generative sequencer and some modulation, as my CV source, and use the EaganMatrix rack first as a mono voice. Iād start with:
-Pitch CV to EaganMatrix x input
-Timbre CV to y
-Volume CV to z, envelope or continuous pressure not velocity
-Gate to w
And then Iād just start flipping thru presets on the rack, with the editor open on a laptop (in the now-default simplified āperformance viewā rather than the full complex matrix view that you see in most videos). i-iv inputs will be quite different for every patch, but itās usually pretty self explanatory between the labeling and patch notes in the editor (which is live, so if you change a preset on the hardware, or an input changes value, youāll see it reflected in the editor immediately).
Then, when I found a preset I liked, Iād glance at the editor to see which synth parameters the inputs i-iv are controlling for that preset (and how theyāre scaled, are they continuous values or discreet steps etc. In the default simplified editor view, this is very straightforward info to parse), and then Iād try plugging some appropriate sources for those functions into the i-iv inputs.
Then, Iām thinking there will be a bank of audio processing presets arranged especially for the module, so Iād try those using an external Euro voice thatās patched into the EM rackās analog audio inputs. Iād keep my favorite x, y, z & w sources patched in for this. My starter arrangement, suggested at the top, is just my idea of an āinitā setup, but xyzw can be assigned to everything in the matrix, including to act on the audio inputs.
And then, Iād open up the full matrix view of the editor, and explore modifying existing presets, and then making my own.
Anyway, based on the Continuum, thatās my mental model for how Iād proceed with the rack, if I didnāt have the Continuum. I donāt see a need for both at this time, though Iād rather have the rackās analog vs the Continuumās digital audio inputs.
On some patches itās really nice to smoothly vary the y input in just the right way that brings out the acoustic instrument quality of the sound. On another patch x and y together make up a harmonic layout, so y is mapped out as discreet harmonics of each x value, while x is still continuous pitch spectrum. There is a patch where y sends one of only two values, switching at its midpoint. Thereās a patch where x isnāt assigned to pitch. There are patches where z does volume and brightness and who knows what else. There are patches that sound completely different depending upon whether you play z (or sequence it) with a percussive envelope shape vs a smooth and gentle touch. I mean itāll sound like a drum if you finger drum it, and itāll sound like a stringed instrument if you ease into it, on the same preset. So, itās not as simple as x means this, y means that, always the same. And even when they do mean what they often mean, the shape and scale of the CV can make a patch sound like a 2 different patches. So, if you switch controllers or a different sequencer, even if you keep the same assumptions (x=pitch, z=volume shape etc), you might wonder why your patch sounds different. Thatās probably why.
The EaganMatrix manual is available via download from the Haken Audio website. The descriptions of the synthesis modules are an interesting read. Itās not the most comprehensive manual - but itās a pretty unusual synth. There is a basic subtractive architecture available through the matrix, and you can stick to very basic control formulas, if you want to be boring. Or you could use a simulated mouth for formants - thatās there too. Speaking of which, Iāve said enough for now.
Got a shipping notice today for my module. Woohoo!
oh, wow, Im jealous!
is this direct from Haken?
Ive been keeping an eye out on Schneidersladen (as I need an EU distributor)
but still no date !
Yes. Direct from Haken.
come on ā¦ we need sound 
ā¦and waves and noises, and music!!
Iāll shoot some video later today or tomorrow.
Well hereās me noodling around with a few presets. Roli connected in Eagan editor on a PC. Additional modulation cv from the joystick. Camera audio. No, I am not Loopop.
Modulation with CV is way better than trying to use MIDI. There is seemingly no slewing on the MIDI control of the macros. Very coarse-no interpolation.
can you use 14 bit midi?
Not that I have found. The MPE response is fine, itās just the MIDI control of the other realtime controls. In a way the MIDI implementation is spartan. Destination CC numbers are preset. They did recently add MIDI program & bank change to the spec. I will try a MIDI to CV converter and report back. As this is their first time making an instrument without an integrated controller, I am not surprised that the MIDI implementation is minimal.
yeah, though I guessā¦ its kind of assumed if your using this eurorack module, then CV is going to be your thing 
I guess my expectations are the line ofā¦
being able to use with MPE controllers and get nice smooth resultsā¦ (albeit I expect tweaking as all MPE controllers are different)
being able to use CV to get smooth modulation.
for the rest, I guess the rest of midi, itād be more to just to dial in sound parameters rather than modulationā¦ though still, some slew/smoothing would be nice.
I was just trying to map the sliders on my Seaboard to control the macros (formally barrels). Not that useful. Maybe we can get 14 bit or some slewing eventually.
For the Haken products with regards to 14-bit CCs, see the Haken manual and the web site regarding āMPE+ā. The MIDI spec is ambiguous, and Haken Audioās scheme is more robust and precise: LSB and MSB are always sent in pairs, in that order. The trick is getting other controllers to follow the same convention.
In my case, I donāt think the controller can send 14bit, so that is moot. I can probably reprogram specific programs to slew the response curves. Lotās of other avenues to explore even without this MIDI control data. I do own a Continuum as well, so I have experienced the high resolution of that instrument. Thanks for your thoughts.
I canāt stop the feeling that a continuum mini is the better value. There is one more controller attached to it, which can be used for some extra funā¦