Plankton Electronics ANTS! User manual

ANTS!
PLANKTON ELECTRONICS

INDEX
WARRANTY ................................................................................................................................................................ 2
ABOUT THIS MANUAL................................................................................................................................................ 3
OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................................................................. 3
TERMINOLOGY ........................................................................................................................................................... 4
compatibility ........................................................................................................................................................ 4
POWER ........................................................................................................................................................................5
FIRST STEPS...............................................................................................................................................................5
BASICS........................................................................................................................................................................8
NORMALLED SYSTEM...............................................................................................................................................12
MIDI ............................................................................................................................................................................14
OSCILLATORS............................................................................................................................................................17
LFOS ..........................................................................................................................................................................23
VCF............................................................................................................................................................................24
ENVELOPES...............................................................................................................................................................27
VCAS.........................................................................................................................................................................30
NOISE ........................................................................................................................................................................32
MIXER .......................................................................................................................................................................32
SAMPLE AND HOLD...................................................................................................................................................33
AND GATE .................................................................................................................................................................35
HACKING...................................................................................................................................................................36
THE END ....................................................................................................................................................................37
SPECIFICATIONS ......................................................................................................................................................38

2
WARRANTY
Plankton Electronics warrants this product to be free of any defect in the
manufacturing or materials for a period of one year from the date of
purchase. This warranty does not cover any damage or malfunction caused
by incorrect use – such as, but not limited to, power cables connected
backwards, excessive voltage levels, or exposure to extreme temperature or
moisture levels.
The warranty covers replacement or repair, as decided by Plankton
Electronics. Please, contact our customer service for a return authorization
before sending the module ([email protected]). The cost
of sending a module back for servicing is paid for by the customer.
Plankton Electronics implies and accepts no responsibility for harm to
person or apparatus caused through operation of this product.
As an open-source product, we encourage to mod and hack it, but we will
not provide any assistance on how to do it. Any malfunction caused by a
mod will not be covered by this warranty.

3
ABOUT THIS MANUAL
This manual has been written with the synth newbie in mind. It’s a synth
manual but at the same time a tutorial and a basic synthesis manual. We
recommend to follow it step by step with the synth in front of you.
If you have any comments, write us to: [email protected]
We will be happy to receive them.
This manual has been written by:
Àlex Ballester
PLANKTON ELECTRONICS
May 2017
www.planktonelectronics.com
Manual version: 1.3
OVERVIEW
ANTS! is an analog patchable synthesizer. It is designed to work as a
modular synth, connecting patch cables to generate sounds, but at the
same time it can work without the use of cables. These pre-patched
connections (normalled connections) make the synth an (almost) ready to
play 2-osc analog mono-synth. By plugging a patch cable into a normalled
input, the normalled connection is broken so you can experiment with new
and weird sounds, basses, leads, drums, pads, self-generative patches and
happy accidents.
ANTS! is transparent: there are no layers, no double functions, no storing.
Everything is in front of the user* and it is very simple to use: you just need
to connect the outputs to the inputs. At the same time the 51 patch points
and the 25 potentiometers give you the option to design complex patches
and sounds. The possibilities are endless.
* The only hidden aspect is the internal routing of the machine, the normalled
system. ANTS! is already prepatched inside to make it easy to use. If you want to
know more about this feature jump to the NORMALLED SYSTEM chapter.

4
TERMINOLOGY
In this manual, we will use some words that may confuse you if you are a
newbie in the synth world.
CW: Clockwise. --- e.g. Turn the RATE potentiometer CW ---
CCW: Counter clockwise. --- e.g. Turn the FREQ potentiometer CCW ---
Pot: potentiometer.
NS: 'Ninja Star'. It is a device used to split the signals. Often we want to
send a signal to more than one destination. This is done by using a passive
splitter like the 'Plankton Ninja Stars'. You are free to use other devices, like
stackable cables, or other splitters. An ANTS! pack come with some Ninja
Stars ready to use.
NINJA STAR
Compatibility
ANTS! uses 3.5mm mono jack connectors. All the voltages are compatible
with the EURORACK standard. Oscillators offer +/-4V of signal output and
work with 1V/Oct inputs to play it musically. We encourage exploring the
possibilities offered by playing the synth together with other eurorack
modules, controllers, sequencers and MIDI and analog keyboards.
A MIDI keyboard or controller connected through the MIDI TO CV converter
can control the synth. At the same time any keyboard or step sequencer
with analog CV and GATE outputs can be used to control the machine. You
can use more than one controller, or just play the synth without any
controller. Test all the possibilities!

5
POWER
ANTS! is powered with 12Vac. A power supply is included with the synth.
Please, use only the provided power supply. Using the wrong power supply
can cause malfunction or even damage the unit.
Connect the power supply to the
power connector of the left
labelled as '12Vac'. Notice that the
3.5mm jack is for the MIDI cable.
FIRST STEPS
Before reading the manual , we think you’ll want to start making sounds.
Connect the power supply to the ANTS! and set the potentiometers as show
below. Connect the VCA2 OUT to your mixer, amp, or FX unit (be careful
with the levels). Now push the AD ENV1 MANUAL button. You should hear a
bass like sound.
* Note: the transparent knobs are not used in this patch. Their position is not
relevant.

6
Now you are hearing the XTOSC·Y through the filter (VCF) and the VCA.
Both, VCF and VCA, are controlled by the AD ENV1. We will see more about
this routing later in this manual.
Change the RATE knob of the XTOSC·Y and play triggering the envelope. You
should hear the tone changes. Play with the FREQ, Q, ATTACK, RELEASE and
PWM controls.
Take your time to explore and play.
****************************************************************
Connect the XTOSC ·X SQUARE OUT to the AD ENV1 TRIG input like this:
Notice that the XTOSC ·X switch is activated (pressed). This activates the
LFO mode. The LED must blinks ON and OFF. Now the synth should sound
at a constant rate defined by the XTOSC ·X RATE. Play with it.

7
Connect a wire from S/H OUT to XTOSC·Y V/OCT. Look at the
potentiometers position:
ou should hear how the tone changes at each step as a result of the
random voltages generated by the S/H .
Play with all the activated parameters. Tips: Change the VCF mode to HP,
move the XTOSC·Y PWM CCW and move ATTACK, Q and GLIDE CW. You will
note that some small changes in knob position may affect the sound
dramatically. If you find yourself in a place where there is no sound at all
come back to the last picture configuration.
At this point you can:
1. Continue reading the manual and learn how the synth works. Jump the
'BASICS' chapter if you're already familiarized with modular synths.
2. Experiment, tweak knobs, make connections and see what happens.
3. Go to http://ants.metapatch.com to explore and reproduce a large list of
patches and sounds. (http://ants.constructingtowers.com/#/patch for the
beta version).

8
BASICS
ANTS! is a modular synth. This means that you must connect cables from
the inputs to the outputs to create your patches. White symbol over black
background represents inputs. Black symbol over a white box, outputs.
This is an input. This is an output.
Patching is easy. You just need to connect a cable from an out to an in.
However, not all the connections will produce something coherent or
useful. Synths work with two kinds of signals: sound and CV. There are
synth functions that accepts and generates CV, some sound and some both.
Sound signals are those audible by us. They are in the form of waves (AC
signals) and oscillators are the main source of them. If you patch your mixer
directly to an oscillator you will listen the different sound waves generated
(sine, square, pulse, saw tooth, etc.).
Be careful with the levels if you plug your amp directly to an oscillator!
Technically, we should call these signals ‘audio’, but the ‘sound’ term will be
easier to visualize for the newbie. The main purpose of this manual is to
learn how to use the synth. From now on we will use both words
interchangeably.
CV signals (control voltage) are the ones that we use to control and modify
the parameters of the synth. They can be DC (direct current) like the signal
generated by an envelope, or AC (alternate current) like the wave resulting
of an LFO. In the second case, despite they are waves, they are below the
audible limits (infrasounds), so we can't consider them as sound.