MFB - Bass-522

The Bass-522 creates powerful kick drums. The module comes equipped with potentiometers for pitch, attack and decay parameters. Furthermore, there are a pitch envelope and a noise generator. Trigger and CV inputs complete the circuit.
Bass-522 responds dynamically to incoming trigger signals. In detail, attack, decay, pitch and volume are influenced by the voltage strength. Besides sequencers and MIDI/CV interfaces, the circuit can also be played using a drum pad, piezo element or dynamic microphone.

Bass-522 is based on circuit designs of the instruments MFB-522, Tanzbär and Tanzbär Lite. For using the drum voice in a modular environment, some extras were implemented.

Available parameters
Tune: Adjusts the pitch of the module. (35 Hz to 60 Hz)
Pitch: Controls an envelope, which influences the pitch over time.
Decay: Varies the length of sounds generated by the module. (Two seconds at most.)
Ton: Damps the attack noises.
Noise: Adds white noise.

All parameters come not only with potentiometers, but CV inputs as well. The only exceptions are Ton and Noise, which share one control voltage connector. A jumper decides, which parameter is influenced.

The dynamic trigger input is adjustable in its sensitivity. At completely clockwise position, 0.1 V are sufficient to activate the module.

Bass-522 supports the serial data protocol M-Bus. With the help of a suitable MIDI/CV interface or sequencer, M-Bus allows the user to send control commands to compatible modules without any patch cables at the front of the modular system. Several circuits can be daisy-chained via small wires. M-Bus works twelve times faster than average MIDI setups. In detail, Bass-522 responds to the following signals:

• Trigger and velocity (Note #35 or #36, depending on the corresponding Jumper’s position.)
• Tune (CC17)
• Pitch (CC25)
• Decay (CC33)
• Ton (CC42)
• Noise (CC49)
• Noise decay (CC57)