ARCANE is a generative synth that lies somewhere between a synth, a sequencer and a drum machine, depending on how you interact with it.

It is based on an authentic Yamaha YM2413 FM chip; the one used in some arcade coin ops, MSX and in the japanese version of the Sega Master System.

To control it it has 6 potentiometers and 3 buttons. The pots are:

-TEMPO. It controls the tempo/speed.

-BASE REGISTER. It determines if the machine is more musical or glichy. Better left it around 3 o'clock position for more musical results. Turning it to the center and left side produces more noisy/glitchy and chaotic outputs. You have been prevented!

-INTENSITY. The higher this pot, the more amount of notes and percusions sounding. This is a very playable way of alter the generative composition by transitioning between the simple and complex sound patterns.

-SEQUENCE. It let you browse between sequences. Turn it to select random patterns.

-DISPERSION. the higher this pot, the most registers that we are writing on the chip, so the sequences get more complex and chaotic. This and intensity are a very playable pair and both are related. Once you tuned something that you like, try to do variations playing this pot and INTENSITY one.

-COMBINATION. It multiplex, demultiplex and recombines sequences, keeping the output related but always fresh and different. At minimun it produces a 16 step sequence. At maximun it produces a 8 steps sequence. Between is where the magic happens, and it recombines and produce generative patterns via bitshifting and logic operations of the sequences.

It has 3 buttons, Left, Right and Reset. Reset is located in the arduino and is self explanatory. If you have been playing in the BASE REG pot center/left side and it has turned too chaotic or noisy, just put BASE REG pot around 3 o'clock and press reset. It will come back to more musical landscapes.

Left and Right buttons are to be determined as the firmware is still in development.

It has Clock In and Clock Out so you can synch it with external gear. To accept external clock set TEMPO pot at minimun.

It comes fully assembled and ready to play or as full kit or the PCB with the programmed microcontroller (Arduino Nano) with the firmware of your choice. You will have to source the rest of the BOM.

You can listen to some demos on soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/juan-carlos-urena/sets/arcane-demo https://soundcloud.com/juan-carlos-urena/sets/arcane-loop-1