Make Noise - Plexiphon

The Plexiphon is another Make Noise / Soundhack collaboration, with entirely new code by Tom Erbe written specifically for Make Noise's digital hardware. It's a stereo spatial texturizer that moves continuously between reverberation, multi-tap echo and the wide, slightly indefinite territory where those two words stop being quite enough. There are no modes to switch between, no algorithms to jump across — the entire space is open from the panel and under voltage control. Some of the most interesting results are neither reverb nor echo, but something in between that pulls hidden character out of whatever you feed it.

The control that orchestrates this is the Plexus. It simultaneously sets how many feedback paths the algorithm is using and how tangled together they become. Size then determines the temporal relationship between those paths — at one end of Plexus it behaves more like delay time, at the other more like room size, and in between, things smear, bloom and repeat in ways that don't quite have a single clean name. Diffuse and Color shape how the texture evolves over time: softer or sharper, darker or brighter.

Couple and Skew handle the stereo side. Couple moves from isolated dual-mono behaviour through to a fully interlaced stereo field, while Skew lets the two sides shift in inverse or tandem across Plexus, Size and Color — so one gesture can either pull L and R apart in opposite directions or push them together. The Send gate input decides when audio actually enters the Plexus, which makes dub-style throws and rhythmic feeds very simple to patch: cut the input, let the tail ring, bring it back in. There's also an envelope follower at the CV output, so the Plexus can talk back to its own controls or out into the rest of your system.

A spatial processor for echoes, rooms, smears, stereo movement and those lovely in-between places that Make Noise and Soundhack have always known rather well.

Features:

• Stereo spatial texturizer by Make Noise and Soundhack
• Continuously morphs between reverberation, multi-tap echo and hybrid spatial effects
• Modeless operation — no mode switching, full voltage-controlled access to all settings
• Plexus control sets the number and entanglement of feedback paths
• Size sets the temporal relationship between paths, behaving like delay time or room size depending on Plexus position
• Decay control for shaping feedback intensity and spatial length
• Diffuse parameter for softening or sharpening the texture over time
• Color parameter for darker or brighter spatial behaviour
• Couple controls stereo interaction, from dual-mono separation to fully interlaced stereo
• Skew offers inverse or tandem control over Plexus, Size and Color across L/R
• Send gate input (normalled high, patchable) for dub-style echo techniques
• Envelope follower at the CV output for re-integration into the patch
• Stereo in, stereo out with mono-sum normalizations on inputs and outputs