Tubbutec LPZW 6m0d6 User manual

6m0d6
by LPZW & Tubbutec
User manual
Find the latest version of this manual on
tubbutec.de/6m0d6

2
Index
Introduction 3
Feature List 4
Triggers, Accent and Volume 5
Noise and Metal 7
Trigger lengths 7
Outputs and Mixer 8
Bass Drum 8
Snare Drum 8
Low Tom and High Tom 9
Cymbal 9
Open and Closed Hihat 10
CV-inputs 11
LINK input and 6equencer 11
MIDI Input 12
Trigger drum sounds 12
Play the metal sound 13
CC control 13
Cong Menu 14
Entering the cong menu 14
Exiting the cong menu 14
Setting the Accent Gate normalisation 14
Firmware Update 15
Specications 15

3
Introduction
6m0md6 is based on the famous TR-606 and indeed can
sound like one, but it is so much more.
With the turn of a knob you can explore completely new
soundscapes ranging from organic retro drum sounds to
industrial sound eects – while still maintaining that ‘606’
feel.
Seamlessly blend between a 606 bass drum to a decayed
808 sub-bass, tune and damp your Cymbal or just cut it into
pieces and beat it with a monkey wrench.
Tired of the normal snare sound? Why not replace it with a
bit-crushed version of Indy ghting foes with his whip in a
cave?
Dynamic triggers, additional CV controls, MIDI control and
individual outputs add the nishing touches to this versatile
drum module.
6m0d6 includes all seven TR-606 instruments:
Bass Drum, Snare, Low and High Tom, Cymbal, Open and
Closed Hihats.
The original 606 circuits were replicated and modied with
additional parameters. However, we made sure that each
instrument can be set to sound like the original.
These settings are marked on the front panel for
convenience.

4
Feature List
• All original 606 sounds, analogue
• Many additional parameters for each sound
• Multiple trigger, accent and volume modes
• Advanced metal and noise sound control
• Multiple outputs and mix output
• CV control for multiple parameters
• MIDI input for drum trigger and sound control
• Compatible with Tubbutec 6equencer via LINK
• Eurorack, 3U, 24HP, 25mm depth, weight: 350g

Triggers, Accent and Volume
6m0d6 instruments are triggered via the 7 trigger inputs.
Additionally an Accent Gate input, An Accent CV input and
an Accent Amount pot are available. Combined, multiple
Trigger, Accent and Volume control modes are possible.
Here is the signal ow diagram for triggers and accent.
In the original 606, triggers have an amplitude of 5V, and
accented triggers up to 15V. 6m0d6 accepts trigger voltages
down to 1V. Depending on the amplitude of the triggers, not
only the instruments volumes, but also their sound will
change – just like a real drum kit.
The Accent Amount input is normalised to 5V and the Accent
gate input to ON or OFF depending on a setting in the cong
menu (default is ON).
If not cable is plugged in, these settings will be used.
Accent
Volume
Accent Gate
(Normal ON or OFF)
Instr.Trigger
Input pulse Accent pulse
Accent Amount
(Normal 5V)
ON/
OFF
ON/OFF
5V
5V..15V5V..15V
0V..5V
1V..15V
Accent Pulse
Generator
≥
Pulse
Shortener
Instrument
5

6
6m0d6 includes many ways to dynamically control
instrument volumes allowing rich, natural drum patterns.
These are determined by the trigger input volume, The
Accent Amount knob, Accent switch input and Accent CV
input.
a) Normal volume control
If nothing is plugged into the Accent Amount and Accent
Gate sockets, accent is continuously turned on with a level
adjustable with the Accent Volume knob.
b) Accent Gating
Using the Accent Gate input, accent can be turned on and
o by an external signal. When turned o, the amplitude is
that of the incoming triggers, or 5V when playing over MIDI
or LINK.
c) CV volume control
Using the Accent Amount input with a control voltage
between 0V and 5V can control amount of accent and thus
the volume when accent is turned on. Here, the Accent
Volume knob acts as an attenuator for the external CV
signal.
d) Dynamic triggers
Additionally, all instruments can be played dynamically.
The inputs accept a range from 1V to 15V which allows
much softer sounds than the original 606. If accent is turned
on, the larger of the two triggers is used for the instrument.
This means in order to get the full dynamic range, Accent
needs to be disabled. This can be accomplished by plugging
a jack cable into the Accent input, setting the Accent Gate
normalisation to OFF in the cong menu or switching Accent
ON and OFF using an external signal.

Noise and Metal
The original 606 uses white noise for the Snare Drum and a
‘Metal’ sound for the Hihats and Cymbal. We added a third
XOR ringmod sound source and you can select between all
three sounds for each instrument.
The white noise is generated digitally and can be reduced in
quality for extra lo bit-crushing instruments. This can be
controlled via the Noise Tune knob and with the N.Tune CV-
input.
At the highest quality setting, the noise emulates the original
606 noise distribution and frequency spectrum using a DSP
algorithm.
Cymbal and Hihats originally use a metal sound created by
mixing six square-wave oscillators with specic frequencies.
The parameter Metal Tune allows you to change the pitch of
these oscillators up or down. With Metal Spread you can
change the relative pitch of the oscillators. Turn the knob to
the very left and all oscillators have the same pitch, in the
middle you get the original pitch dierence and from there
you can increase the spread even more.Both parameters
can also be controlled via CV inputs, the Tune CV is 1/Oct
compatible, which means you can play the metal sound in
tune.
And even more is possible via MIDI
(See Midi chapter below)
Trigger lengths
Incoming triggers will be internally shortened to 1.2ms to
ensure proper sounding instruments. Amplitude and shape
of the triggers are maintained, however. For the cymbal, this
pulse shaper can be disabled, allowing complete control of
the Cymbal sound. Shorter pulses also sound interesting
and are worth a try. Our MIDI velocity implementation uses
shorter pulse lengths to create dynamics.
7

Outputs and Mixer
6m0d6 includes volume pots for each instrument with
individual outputs and a mix output.
Instruments are available at the mix outputs as long as
nothing is plugged into the individual outputs. Plugging into
an individual output will remove said instrument from the mix
output.
Bass Drum
Snare Drum
The 606 bass drum consists of two damped oscillators with
xed frequencies.
• Tune: Changes the pitch of oscillator 1, ranging from
sub-bass to Tom frequencies.
• Tone: Crossfades between the two oscillators
• Decay: Adjusts the decay time of oscillator 1 from the
original length up to several seconds.
• Click: Adds a short pulse to the bass drum, giving it more
attack.
• Tune: Changes the pitch of the snare body sound
• Snappy: Adjusts the cuto frequency of a high-pass lter
on the snare part.
• Decay: Changes the decay of the snare sound. Both
very short and very long decay times are possible.
• Noise source: Selects between the three noise sources
(Noise, Metal and XOR) for the snare sound. Depending
on the noise and metal settings, a wide range of sounds
are possible.
8

Low Tom and High Tom
Cymbal
The Toms are damped oscillators with a low-passed noise
decay part that simulates reverb.
• HT Tune: Adjusts the pitch of the High Tom
• LT Tune: Adjusts the pitch of the Low Tom
• Sub Tom: Halves the pitch of the Low Tom and creates a
sub-bass or second bass drum.
• Noise amount: Adjust the reverb amount from 0 to 2x
the original. Changing the Noise Tune parameter can
have huge eects on the character of the reverb and
overall tom sound.
The original 606 cymbal consists of two bandpass ltered
parts with dierent lter frequency and dierent amplitude
envelopes which are fed by the metal noise source.
• Tune: Changes the frequency of bandpass 1
• Tone: Crossfades between the two bandpass parts.
• Decay: Adjusts the decay of the cymbal/li>
• Noise source: Selects between the three noise sources
(Noise, Metal and XOR) for the bandpasses. Depending
on the noise and metal settings, a wide range of sounds
are possible.
• CY.Pulse: Normally, signals coming into the trigger
inputs are gated to 1.2ms length to make sure the proper
drum sounds are produced. This behaviour can be
turned o for the cymbal, allowing full control of the
cymbal’s volume, envelope and length. Eectively, this
can turn the cymbal into a drone sound generator or
even string-synthesizer.
9

10
Open and Closed Hihat
The 606 hihats are created from a decaying, ltered metal
sound. Open and closed hihats use dierent envelopes, but
the same sound generation. The closed hihat cuts o the
open hihat.
In the original 606, the open hihat decay is tempo
dependent. With a faster clock, the hihat decays faster. This
clock dependency is not necessary for 6m0d6 because the
decay time can be manually set to the user’s liking.
• Swap: Swaps the Open and Closed Hihats.
• OH Decay: Decay time of the Open Hihat.
• CH Decay: decay time of the Closed Hihat ranging from
a short click to a long OH-like sound
• Noise source: Selects between the three noise sources
(Noise, Metal and XOR) for the Hihat sound. Depending
on the noise and metal settings, a wide range of sounds
are possible.

CV-inputs
LINK input and 6equencer
Several parameters can be controlled via CV inputs. All
inputs are bipolar and have a usable voltage range between
-5V and +5V. They can accept voltages greater +/-12V
without damage.
• AC.AMT: Controls volume or accented volume of the
instrument. (see “Triggers, Accent and Volume”
• SN.Dec,CY.Dec,HH.Dec: Control the decay of the
Snare Drum, Cymbal and both Hihats.
• Noise Tune: Controls the Noise Tune parameter
• Metal Tune: Controls the tune of the metal sound. This
input behaves in a 1V / Oct fashion, which makes it
possible to play the metal sound like an instrument.
• Metal Spread: Controls the Metal Spread parameter
6m0d6 has a Tubbutec LINK interface on the back and can
be directly connected to the Tubbutec 6equencer. When
using the LINK interface, the 6equencer can trigger the
instruments and Accent, without needing to patch the
connections manually. The trigger inputs are normalised,
plugging in a patch cable will disconnect an instrument from
the LINK trigger and can be controlled from an external
trigger source.
The 1U version of 6equencer has the same width as 6m0d6
and perfectly ts above or below, creating a complete drum
machine.
11

12
MIDI Input
Trigger drum sounds
MIDI input is provided by TRS MIDI. Both A and B types are
supported automatically.
Midi can be used to trigger drum sounds, adjust parameters
via MIDI CC and even play the metal sound like an
instrument.
On MIDI channel 10, the drum sounds and accent can be
triggered. 6m0d6 used the standard MIDI drum mapping:
Sending a velocity value of 127 (maximum), will result in a
simultaneous accent trigger. Alternatively, the accent will be
turned on as long as note 34 (A#1) is held.
Velocity amounts below 64 (half the velocity range) will result
in shorter pulse lengths which reduces the volume of the
instrument in interesting ways. This allows dynamic playing
via midi and can be combined with accent via note 34 for
even more expression.
The trigger inputs are normalized, plugging in a patch cable
will disconnect an instrument from the MIDI trigger and can
be controlled from an external trigger source.
BD SD LT HT CY OH CH
35 38 45 50 49 46 42
B0 D1 A1 D2 C#2 A#1 F#1

Play the metal sound
Sending notes on MIDI channel 1 allows you to play the six
metal oscillators directly. This eectively turns the oscillators
– and with them the Cymbal, Hihats and Snare Drum into a
paraphonic six-voice synthesizer.
Metal tune and Spread still work. With Spread set to 0, all
oscillators are in tune; increasing Spread will detune all
oscillators.
This is quite a powerful feature. It allows you to turn your
Cymbal into a string synthesizer, play melodies on the Snare
and much more.
6m0d6 uses a ‘unison/share’ voice allocating scheme. This
means, if only one note is pressed, all six oscillators will
share this same note. This is the same as transposing the
oscillators.
Pressing more notes will distribute them across the available
oscillators until eventually all six are used. Pressing more
than six notes and new notes will replace the ‘oldest’ note.
The trigger inputs are normalised, plugging in a patch cable
will disconnect an instrument from the MIDI trigger and can
be controlled from an external trigger source.
32 33 34 35 36 37 38
SD
Decay
CY
Decay
OH
Decay
CH
Decay
Metal
Pitch
Metal
Spread
Noise
Tune
39 40 41 42 43 44 45
BD
Gate
SD
Gate
CY
Gate
LT
Gate
HT
Gate
OH
Gate
CH
Gate
The following CC controller values are accepted:
Turn on/o pulse shapers:
CC control
13

14
The cong menu can be entered by pressing the CY.Pulse
button for more then three seconds. The CY.Pulse LED will
start blinking to indicate an active cong menu.
To exit the cong menu, press the CY-Pulse button again.
Any changed to the conguration will be saved.
When cong mode is active, the position of the M.Tune knob
controls if Accent Gate is normalised to ON or OFF (See
chapter ‘Triggers, Accent and Volume’ for details). Turn the
knob to the left half to turn the normalised Accent OFF, turn it
to the right half to turn it ON.
In the cong menu additional parameters can be changed,
however currently it contains only one parameter.
The CCs for Decay, Pitch, Spread and Tune are bipolar with
a center of 63 == no change and work in addition to the
knobs anc CV-inputs of the module.
The pulse shaper CC control can be used to turn shortening
of external trigger pulses on or o, identical to the CY.Pulse
button on the module. 0..63 = OFF, 64..127 = ON. Note that
for some instruments (BD, TOMs,..) This can cause double
triggers.
Cong Menu
Entering the cong menu
Exiting the cong menu
Setting the Accent Gate normalisation

15
Firmware updates with more features and bugxes are
possible via midi. In case there are any updates, you can
nd the latest version on tubbutec.de
Eurorack, 3U, 24HP
Depth 25mm
Weight: 350g
Power consumption: +12V: 130mA, -12V: 30mA
Manual version 1.0
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. To view a
copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Author: Tubbutec & LPZW
The most recent version of this manual can be found at
tubbutec.de/6m0d6/
All trademarks, service marks and company names are the property of
their respective owners.
Firmware Update
Specications