Ritual Electronics Guillotine User manual

Ritual Electronics
Ritual Electronics
Ritual Electronics
Ritual Electronics
Guillotine
In R
In L
Guillotine
Guillotine
Guillotine
Guillotine
Gain
Colo
Colo
r
r
Guillotine
Guillotine
Guillotine

2
Summary
03................Warranty
04................Installation
05................Overview
06................Controls
07.................Colors
08................Routing
09................Patch ideas

3
Guillotine
Thank you for purchasing Ritual Electronics Guillotine.
Your module has been assembled with care in our
studio in Marseille, France.
You can find your module on Modulargrid:
https://www.modulargrid.net/e/ritual-electronics-guillotine
For any remarks and informations, contact us at:
[email protected]
For video demos and patch ideas check:
https://www.instagram.com/ritualelectronics/
Limited warranty
Ritual Electronics warrants this product to be free of defects in
materials or construction for a period of one year from the date
of purchase.
Malfunction resulting from wrong power supply voltages, backwards
or reversed eurorack bus board cable connection, abuse of the
product or any other causes determined by Ritual Electronics to be
the fault of the user are not covered by this warranty, and normal
service rates will apply.
During the warranty period, any defective products will be repaired
or replaced, at the option of Ritual Electronics, on a return-to-Ritual
Electronics basis with the customer paying the transit cost to Ritual
Electronics. The return of your module is on us.
Ritual Electronics implies and accepts no responsibility for harm to
person or apparatus caused through operation of this product.

4
Installation
Always turn your eurorack case off before plugging
or unplugging a module.
Do not touch any electrical terminals when attaching any
Eurorack bus board cable.
As the 1U series does not have a shrouded header,
so remember:
RED STRIPE DOWN
Ritual Electronics Guillotine requires:
26mA on +12V
26mA on -12V
0mA on +5V
You will need 14HP of free space in your Eurorack case to
install Guillotine. The module is 35mm deep.
Guillotine is a 1U module, you will need a 1U rack space,
either Intellijel format or Pulplogic format.

5
Overview
Guillotine is a true stereo hard clipping asymmetrical
distortion in 1U format. Its insane amount of gain
can also be used as an instrument adaptor (guitars,
basses, microphones...) as it can bring line and mic
levels to modular levels. Do not expect it to be clean
though...
Guillotine is two channels of hard clipping distortion with up
to 25dB gain. If you process mono signals you can self patch
the module to chain the two channels for close to 50dB gain.
Insane amount of gain guaranteed.
Guillotine has an internal feedback routing allowing for two
distortion colors per channel. The result is similar to a low
pass filter, but not quite. The lower position gives emphasis on
the low end, the middle position is straight up distortion, with
no coloration & the higher position emphasises on the high
frequency content.

6
Color switches
Upper: emphasis on high freq
Middle: neutral
Lower: emphasis on low freq
The left switch is for the left channel
The right one is for the right channel
Gain knob
Fully CCW the module is silent
Fully CW you go to +25dB of gain
Guillotine controls
Guillotine
In R
In L
Guillotine
Gain
Color
In L / In R
If you patch a mono signal in In L it
will be replicated to In R
If you patch a cable in In R the
connection will be broken for true
stereo use or for serial use.
See page 8
Out L / Out R
Both outputs are independent for
true stereo

7
Colors
High frequency emphasis Neutral Low frequency emphasis
High frequency empasis brings a resonant
peak which moves down in frequency as
the gain increases. The frequency above
the peak are slightly raised.
Neutral position has no emphasis. Think
of your regular distortion with no tone
control.
All the above illustrations were drawn using white noise from our own Krach module and Guillotine set at 25% gain.
Low frequency emphasis gives your sound
a slightly resonant bump and lower the
frequencies above the bump. The bump
moves down as the gain increases.

8
Routing
Guillotine can be self patched in series when used
with a mono input.
By reinjecting the left output in the right input you
double the amount of gain (you get close to +50dB
of gain) and double the tone control too.
When used in serial mode certain color combinations
at low gain setting can self oscillate!
External modules can be inserted betwenn Out L
and In R for more processing in between the two
distortion stages.
Out R can also be sent to In L for feedback patching...
Try insering effects in there too. Play with colors. A
world of weird sounds will arise!
Guillotine
In R
In L
Guillotine
Gain
Color

9
Patch ideas
Patch #1 - CV control!
Guillotine input is very sensitive to input levels.
As you turn the input down, Guillotine will distort less.
This means you can get pseudo voltage control over the gain
of the distortion by patching a VCA between your signal and
Guillotine.
Patch notes
Whatever, audio out ------------ VCA In
VCA, VCA out ------------ Guillotine In
VCA, VCA CV ------------ LFO / Enveloppe
Of course, use two VCAs and one or more
CV source for stereo gain control
VCA
Out I Out II
CV A
CV B
CV I
In I
CV II
In II
Guillotine
In R
In L
Guillotine
Gain
Color
Coarse
Fine
1V/Oct Lin FM
Exp FM PWM

10
Patch #2 - Saturated channel / Distortion channel
We can take advantage of the serial Guillotine configuration trick
to create a switchable gain / more gain distortion, reminiscent of
the “rythm / lead” switch on certain guitar amps.
Pair Guillotine with Pointeuse, our 1U switch module to do so.
Pair Guillotine & Pointeuse with a footswitch and pretend you have
an expensive amp.
Patch notes
Whatever, audio out ------------ Guillotine, L In
Guillotine, L Out ------------ Pointeuse, Out/In I
Guillotine, L Out ------------ Guillotine, R In
Guillotine, R Out ------------ Pointeuse, Out/In II
Pointeuse, In/Out ------------ Audio out
Patch ideas
P+
Trig In
LatchMom
Pointeuse Guillotine
In R
In L
Guillotine
Gain
Color

11
Patch ideas
Patch #3 - No input
Use Guillotine as a feedback hub.
With two stackcables or a multiple you can even have a stereo
feedback patch in no time.
Insert your favorite effects in between the ins and outs.
We prefer analog effects to minimize the risk of unwanted
digital clipping (it will happen) - but I’m sure some of you
psychos might like that.
Patch notes
Guillotine, Out L ------------ Filter, In
Filter, out ------------ Guillotine, In R
Guillotine, Out R ------------ Delay, In
Delay, Out ------------ Guillotine, In L
Turn the knobs frantically & flip those switches!
DLY
In
Dly
Fd
b
k
O
u
t
Fd
b
k
Fd
b
k
Fdbk
Delay
_+ _+
_+
Out
1V/OctFreq CVIn
Blend
Color
Guillotine
In R
In L
Guillotine
Gain
Color

12
Patch ideas
Patch #4 - 220V Synth
That’s a simple trick which will work with all distortions.
Miasma users, keep an eye open.
Oscillators tend to sound a bit dull in a distortion, compared
to a guitar let’s say. But if you add a generous dose of white
noise before the saturation, you will have a somehow electric
sound, breaking the monotony of the ever repeating waveform
of your oscillator.
Patch notes
Osillator, Saw out ------------ Mixer, Ch. 1 In
Noise, White out ------------ Mixer, Ch. 2 In
Mixer, Out ------------ Guillotine, In L
Try using colored noise instead of white for 110V synths
Mix
In I
In
In II
In III
O
ut
I
O
ut III
O
ut II
Ø I
Ø II
Multiple
II
I
WhiteP ink
Bleed Hiss
Krach
VCA
Out I Out II
CV A
CV B
CV I
In I
CV II
In II
Guillotine
In R
In L
Guillotine
Gain
Color
Coarse
Fine
1V/Oct Lin FM
Exp FM PWM

13Patch ideas
Patch #5 - Sub audio distortion
If you are into experiments, try using Guillotine to distort LFOs,
enveloppes, and other control signals. It does work.
If you use the left side of Guillotine to process the CV why not
using its right side to process the related audio ?
This way you can achieve drastic changes at the turn of a knob.
HARDCORE AUDIO HARDCORE CV
Patch notes
LFO, sine out 1 ------------ Guillotine, In L
Guillotine, Out L ------------ VCA, CV in
Guillotine, Out L ------------ Filter, CV in
VCA, Audio Out ------------ Guillotine, In R
VCALFO
Out I Out II
CV A
CV B
CV I
In I
CV II
In II
Guillotine
In R
In L
Guillotine
Gain
Color
Coarse
Fine
1V/Oct Lin FM
Exp FM PWM
_+ _+
_+
Out
1V/OctFreq CVIn