CV to MIDI converter!

• 24 hp
• 2.8 inches Depth
• Requires 5V

The inverse of a MIDI to CV converter, the rs300 is an eight-channel, user-programmable CV to MIDI converter which will allow for the translation of analog voltages into MIDI NOTES or midi data for any of the 127 MIDI controllers.

Now you can use your Analogue Systems Modular Synthesizer to play or control any MIDI instrument!

This device has 8 programmable inputs and one midi output. Each of the 8 ins can be user-assigned through a front panel LCD screen to any of the 127 midi controller numbers so that analog voltages be used to control midi instruments via their midi implementation charts. This alone is quite liberating, as it breaks you free from what I see as the two big misses on all analog modeling instruments - the lack of control modularity -and- the inability to transmit most of the controls signals they can generate out of the of the instrument to others.

The RS300 erases all that. Imagine having filters sweeps synced to pans on not only one instrument, but many - all at the same time. Envelopes longer than those each machine is capable of generating. Random control of anything you wish. Audio range A.M. Non -linear control. - there are a billion possibilities.

This type of control is nothing new to analog machines. The Doepfer A-192 has allowed you to do this for a few years, and it allows for twice the inputs (16) as the new Analogue Systems device. There is one distinct difference between the two which however which, for the time being, puts Bob WIlliams' new gizmo that a football stadium ahead of the Doepfer offering: Channel 1 can be assigned to generate midi on/off messages!

Your RS-300 can be used to not only control a midi machine, but play it as well. This is a big deal. It was possible using Doepfer equipment, but required the purchase of their keyboard controller board, a soldering iron, a clugey interface and some solid design knowledge to get it working and while it did well for a limited range of notes, full polyphony was a bit of a core and a hardware nigthmare. The RS300 does this without thinking.

While I was playing around with this thing, I got an analog sequence going and used that to play a Voyager. Worked like a charm and the tracking was perfect when the same sequence was routed through a quantizer and applied to the 1v/octave freq input of an Analogue Systems oscillator. Think of the possibilities. Keep in mind that if I had wished, I could have recorded this sequence as a midi track in Cubase, or DP, or Protools, where is could be stored for future use.

Because of the unit's LCD screen, you don't need a computer in between the two for easy programming. To me, this is as equally of big of a deal as its ability to generate midi notes. No Sounddiver template, no Mac/PC madness, no hassle. You can get it up and working with two patch cables from a cold start.

I've used the A-192 extensively and have grown to appreciate what this type of control is capable of. If you've heard Electrolux, its littered with this as 98% of the sound on that piece was generated on a SuperNova Ii, although the added analog control had almost everyone fooled..

Now with the added feature of easy generation of midi notes I'm really going to go nuts.