In what could possibly be seen as an intentional effort to confuse the masses and keep everyone on their respective toes, the good folks at VF make for you this offering of an analog state variable filter. Wait. Hold on. An SVF. In 2024. Don’t you mean resonant wave folder? Or perhaps Adaptive Neural Buffer? Or some sort of embedded app that runs an authentic copy of Rebirth, but with incorporated CV control of the vintage 303 emulator’s resonance? No? Just an SVF? Is it at least based off a component-accurate replica of some rare vintage French or Japanese thing? Or is it a clone of this one popular thing, but
cheaper and with that one additional feature I wrote you about? What about another Ripples, but like, quad? No? Then what the hell damn guy – what’s the deal!?

No deal. It’s just a filter that came by way of a couple projects of necessity converging into one solid stream that made sense to put out into the wild as a build your own adventure as well as a complete package for assorted VF completionists and well-wishers. That said, here’s how it came about:

Project of Necessity 1: For those down with my entire thing, you might recall that one of my DIY things out there is a Eurorack conversion of the Ciat-Lonbarde Duber filter. You may also recall that I later
offered a revision to said filter to make things slightly more accurate, as well as slightly more appealing to those outside the periphery of the cult of Blasser. While I was doing that, I also took a quick trip into the deep reeds to figure out what made this filter unique and what can further be done to convert this critter from a stand-along bandpass intended to be played with worms and steel wool to something that could be equally at home with the boom-bap. Through these efforts, the entire power section was reworked from a 9v unipolar to a +/- 12v bipolar – meaning less crunch and more headroom – whoopee! Next up was the realization that once you strip the unipolar quirkiness our of the way, the filter topology is relatively straightforward – so adding high and lowpass outputs was a given. Likewise, the switch was a serendipitous suggestion from a friend – at least in my wacky world of filters, I only ever end up using one of the several outputs on the beast so why not offer the same – less jacks, smaller footprint, etc. Always a good thing when one of your rules of construction is to keep things through hole for the sake of the DIY scene. So up for high, down for low and bandpass in the middle. Finally, while the Duber is a dual resonant bandpass filter, there’s nothing stopping us from splitting the circuit into a single filter. I mean, it’s modular, so if you really want to replicate, just smack two of these together and mix the signals on the output. So yeah, that’s part one.

Project of Necessity 2 came by way of the day job where I was tasked to develop a modular synth building workshop that would yield a fully functional one voice instrument. Yeah, I know, working for the man. Keeping in mind that time would be limited and there would be a learning curve, I’d need a filter that could demonstrate multiple types of filtration, but also have a modest parts count, ideally with components that can take a slight level of abuse without going kablooey. Seeing as the previous trip into the weeds produced something relatively close to these specs, the question was how to adapt this beast to fit the proverbial picture – and the easiest way to do accomplish this would be to rework the CV section. In the CL Duber, CV processing comes by way of nests of transistors pulled from Serge designs. Fun and freaky, for sure, but transistors can be temperamental. However, seeing as the previous modifications left me with an available OTA channel, why not replace the dual Serge-inspired CV control with a single traditional VCA and call it a day? Which I pretty much did and hey, mischief managed – and in a compact 8 hp package to boot.

And that’s pretty much the gist of it. It’s small, sounds good, and is a relatively decent build. Does it cover territory that countless other builders have already covered? Sure, but that doesn’t mean it’s not special. Hell, when you put it that way, it almost sounds sort of honest and wholesome. So I guess there’s also that. Care to check it out?

And now onto questions.

First up, the name. Obviously not a pun in Spanish like all the rest. So it goes. I thought I had a theme going, but this one just kind of landed. Here’s what’s up. As I live in a super-nerdy science town, one of the rainy-day activities we’re prone to patronizing is the Museum of the Earth – which is a pretty cool pile of fossils considering the local geologic record had us as a prehistoric shallow sea – meaning oodles of trilobites all around the omni-abundant slabs of shale. Dinosaurs… not so much. Though there is a Mastodon skeleton, so it’s not all ancient proto-lobsters. As it happens, I was at said locale one day (which is obviously rife with the term “Ordovician”) and happened to remember my first encounter with said word which was the first time I mounted a show in a gallery. I was an intern at a NYC art spot called the Tank and the piece was called “Reimagining the Ordovician Gothic: Fossils From the Golden Age of Spam” – kind of an abstract title for sure, but the gist of it was that it was a collection of thousands of pieces of “spam poetry” – which, for those that don’t remember, were strings of strange phrases and words tacked onto various unsolicited emails in the pre-Google era, designed to circumvent primordial spam filters. The ting is, some of the stuff was outright amazing – like generative cut-up poetry from the depths of the Twilight Zone. Of course times and technology changed and now we’re stuck in a post-industrial hellscape where all things digital are market-driven generative garbage, but hey, in those kinder, innocent times, maybe just maybe man and machine shared a common interest in the poetic arts – which at least in one case manifested as a band dedicated entirely to “spam poetry” (or spoetry) – later on they became a Cardiacs cover band, which is equally ok in my book. So yeah, there’s the name. Restraint obviously referring to the filtration and eventual elimination of unwanted information. So also poetic? Either way, cool name, right?

On the artwork, for those willing to squint and believe me, it’s a wizard fighting a dinosaur. Because of course it is. Just for that reason alone you should probably get this thing.

Business Stuff

Price for this guy is $119, which includes shipping and handling (whatever handling actually is). Hopefully that’s a decent approximation of utility and value in the current hyper-capitalistic price-gouged inflation  fest that is our contemporary global economy. I’m doing all that I can to keep things as affordable as humanly possible, but until the dust clears and those in a position to profit over human misery have been brought to knee, I at least have to cover expenses. However, please keep in mind that each one of these is lovingly built by hand and while we’ve spared no expense on quality, we have spared expenses on marketing, packaging, merchandising and other general business necessities. In other words, don’t expect a neat box with a glossy zine promoting other products or an interactive DVD where you can compare models, etc. We went this way intentionally in order to provide you, the public, with an affordable, quality module without up-selling you on the fluff. What can I say, we’re practical weirdos who stand behind an honest product and would rather not subject you to a sales pitch. Why? Because after over two decades of being firmly entrenched in the world of diy experimental music, it’s all we know. Maybe one day this will change, but until that watershed moment, we’re still here to offer you honest gear at an honest price and write about our singular endeavors in the collective third person.

If you decide to take the plunge, we ship priority mail from Ithaca, New York, typically from the mail room of a large research institution that dominates the general economy of said town, for anyone really into specifics. In the case of international orders, we’ll do whatever we can to get it to you in a reasonable amount of time with tracking attached – but kindly remember that this decade is currently defaulting to perpetual toxic weirdness, so patience is probably a good thing to muster. Either way, I’ll do what I can to get things to you in a sane and reasonable manner.

Media

Example 1: As is tradition, this is what it would sound like when you plug it into only VF stuff.

Additional Info

• Power is provided by the usual ribbon cable (included) – red stripe down into the shrouded header. Power draw is minimal – probably less than 100 ma, positive and negative.
• As with all audio electronics that have exposed circuitry, I am in no way am responsible for electrocution, injury, loss of life, etc. due to misuse of this product, act of angry deity, etc. I trust that you’ll do the right thing in the end and not do something foolish like lick this or perform in the bathtub or something, but hey, gotta cover my backside.
• Depth is also minimal – definitely skiff-friendly.
• Width is 8 hp. Maybe a little small for those with larger hands, but hey, it gets the job done.
• Finally, as with all our products, this one comes with our usual blanket, all-encompassing, non-expiring, totally transferrable “if we can fix it, we will” guarantee. I build solid and stand behind my wares, but in the event that something happens, I’d like to think I have your back. Just don’t do something asinine like melt it into a block of styrofoam or douse it in lucite. That might complicate things. Just frame that one and put it on your wall. Whatever you did, the story is worth more than the object.
• Finally finally, if any questions come up, please feel free to get in touch. We’re people persons – honest!

DIY

Oh hey, so dig this: Considering that this particular module was inspired by another open source, freely-available design, I’m paying it forward and making the files available for you to build your own without having to funnel money through me. Here’s the link, but please be mindful of two things: 1.) I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about builds, but this is DIY – if you do it right, it works, but if you have a question about every step, kindly know that there’s a mountain of resources available on the interwebs that can lend a hand – some better than what I can offer considering the number of obligations I’m typically juggling for most the year. and 2.) don’t be a jerk and repackage this design in some sort of cockeyed attempt at prioritizing someone else’s forays into post-capitalism. That’s… not how this works. But hey, now that those caveats are out of the way, enjoy, kids!

https://github.com/vauxflores/Electronics/tree/master/Eurorack/Ordovician%20Restraint