Anima has been a blast, but was a little too big for my case - in good working condition and has been treated well!
Anima is a dual voltage-controlled segments generator. It can
be an AD or an ASR enveloppe, an LFO, a Digital Oscillator and even
more. Breath life into your modular patches with continuously evolving
sonic modulations.Anima is a dual voltage-controlled segments generator.
It can be an AD or an ASR enveloppe, an LFO, a Digital Oscillator and
even more. Breath life into your modular patches with continuously
evolving sonic modulations.
Anima draws its roots in the “west coast” analog function generators and updates them in the digital realm.
This take allows for extremely precise 1V/Oct tracking (10+ octaves)
when in cycling mode, and for the control of the rising and falling
segments (aka attack and decay) curves without affecting timing + a few
more tricks.
Anima has three basic modes of operation:
AD, the module takes any signal as an input, turns it into a trigger
to launch a rising segment (attack) and a falling segment (decay). The
length of these segments are defined by Attack and Decay knobs. They are
independent of the input signal.
ASR, the module takes any signal as an input and turns it into a
gate. The attack phase is initiated at the rising edge of the gate, the
voltage is then sustained during the length of the gate before starting
the release phase (controlled by Decay knob).
Cycle does not rely on an incoming signal. It loops the rising and
falling segments according to their lengths. Long lengths will result in
slow, low frequency oscillations (max 80s). Short lengths rising and
falling lengths will go to audio speed (up to 2kHz). An incoming signal
can reset the cycle, to reset the LFO or sync the oscillator.
The 1V/Oct input turns Anima into a very capable digital dual
oscillator - when in cycle mode - with two types of frequency modulation
and voltage controlled waveform crossfading. Cross patching is highly
recommended for harsh mayhem synthesis!
The 1V/Oct is also useful in “envelope mode” to shorten envelopes
when an oscillator pitch gets higher thus recreating the behaviour of
acoustic plucked instruments.
The Curve parameter goes well beyond the usual Lin/Log control. It
morphs smoothly between several curvatures (including the classic log,
lin and exp) without affecting the rising and falling times.
When
tweaked in envelope mode, Curve opens up new performance possibilities.
Changing the length of a segment is not always the solution. Modifying
the curve shifts the emphasis of the envelope for nuanced phrasing.
When Anima oscillates, one can think of Curve as a waveform
crossfader. The speed and symmetry of the oscillation is set with Attack
and Decay. The form of the oscillation is shaped by Curve.
Controls (per channel)
Curve (from log to lin to exp with bell and notch in between)
Attack (from 0.5ms to 40s)
Decay (from 0.5ms to 40s)
Dedicated attenuverters for each control
AD / ASR / LFO switch
Unipolar / Bipolar output switch (0/+8V or -5/+5V)
1V/Oct input (tracks 10+ octaves)
EOC output (5ms trig at the end of decay/release phase)
Technical characteristics
Digital high precision core
USB port for future firmware updates / variations / hacks
As usual with Ritual Electronics modules, each control has its
dedicated attenuverter allowing for precise control and automation.
For maximum versatility each channel of Anima has an output polarity
switch, making it 0 to +8V in unipolar mode or -5 to 5V in bipolar mode,
suitable for audio or bipolar CV generation.