LZX - War of the Ants

War of the Ants is a wideband texture generator based on the characteristic noise of Zener diodes. The spectral components of the horizontal, vertical and low-frequency source material can be modified and filtered separately. The result: Elegant to abstract textures.

At its core, War of the Ants is a wideband signal generator, which produces white noise using Zener diodes. Results are not only emitted directly, but also fed to texture and animation processors. In detail, the following features are available:

• Two manually adjustable and voltage controllable filters, matched to horizontal and vertical frequency ranges. Both circuits can be used as high-pass or low-pass. Thus, noise produced by the module may be sharpened or blurred. Thanks to a signal input and output per filter, the processing stages can also be used for external video material.
• A density parameter with potentiometer and CV input determines the ratio of black and white in the final output texture.
• A saturation amplifier allows you to transform evenly weighted grayscale noise into clipped or compressed versions. – Great for producing “television snow”.
• Two sample & hold circuits, locked to frame and horizontal sync rate, create low frequency animations and vertical spectral components. A lag speed potentiometer alters the smoothness of the results.
• All signal and control paths are able to process high frequency, video rate voltages.
• Each CV channel is equipped with an AC/DC switch and an inverting level attenuator.