A digital implementation of a classic organismic semi-modular drum
machine. This manual is written the way the original hardware manual
teaches: clock first, then the looper-recorder, then the voices, then the
rest of the panel, then patching, then MIDI. Everything here is panel
truth — if this document and the panel disagree, file a defect.
Boot the machine (love . or the bundled launcher). **It is already
playing**: the clock runs, looper channel 1 rolls the factory groove, and
BD / BASS / SD / HHT are mixed with a touch of FX. You do not need to
patch anything to make sound — patching is how you make it yours.
The panel is one screen, four bands:
(right: BANK / L / M and the 16-LED playhead).
and trigger pads, and the EG x4 strip (ATT / REL per voice).
IMPULSE x2 / DIODE / CAPS (UTILITY), MASTER (volume, PWR), and the APP
bay (PATCH BOOK).
Keys: B patch book · P patch view · Space dim · Ctrl+Z /
Ctrl+Shift+Z undo/redo (patch ops) · hold Esc to quit.
The boot toast reminds you: PLAYING — B BOOK — P PATCH.
Everything starts here. The clock free-runs and everything else follows.
Controls
The readout under the clock shows the live frequency.
patched, AMT does nothing; patch a CV into CLOCK.MOD (0–10 V → 0–1)
and the tempo sweeps base × 2^(2·cv·amt).
Dividers re-write immediately; the looper rebases to slot 0.
external 24-ppqn stream (3 messages per tick; start/stop are recorded,
never obeyed — the machine free-runs from the first clock, like the
hardware). EXT takes a rising edge ≥ 3 V on CLK.
Dividers — seven square outputs, /16 /8 /4 /2 /1 /½ /¼ (a "¼" tick
is 128 ticks per loop). They are patch points like everything else: the
factory boot already uses ¼ → LRST to keep the looper aligned to the bar.
Pins: CLK (in/out — it becomes an input in EXT mode), MOD, LRST
(≥ 2 V edge resets the bar), and the seven dividers.
Four channels of tape. Each channel is a 128-tick loop sampled 96× per
tick; four banks per channel; eight start sections; quantize to 16.
Per channel: REC/PLAY (three-way, plus MUTE from the panel
cycle), ADD (record / punch-in), DEL (erase), L and M
velocity plates, and two pins: CLK (per-channel clock in — patch a
divider here for dotted/offset loops) and TRIG (the channel's audio
output, already gated by the tape). The boot wiring feeds each TRIG into
that channel's envelope generator.
Playing: in PLAY, the channel plays its current bank. Hold L
(half velocity), M (three-quarters), or both (full) to shade it.
Recording: switch to REC, hold ADD — whatever the playhead
crosses gets painted at the current velocity (L/M shade it here too).
DEL erases the run under the playhead. Punch-in works live: in PLAY,
hold ADD to drop into the tape and release to drop out.
Banks: each channel holds four banks. BANK+ADD / BANK+DEL steps
the bank down/up (one pointer, no chord juggling). Banks are separate
tapes — record a variation, step back to the groove.
Copy: BANK+ADD, then DEL on the same channel starts a live copy:
the source bank streams into the next bank while the machine keeps
playing. Release the second sensor to stop the copy mid-stream (a partial
copy is a legitimate instrument).
Sections: BANK+M arms the section jump; BANK+M+ADD jumps to
section 0–3 (by channel), BANK+M+DEL to 4–7. A section is one eighth
of the loop.
Quantize: BANK+L+M, then ADD or DEL on a channel — the bank
snaps to the 16-grid and the channel stops. Play it again to resume.
Stop: BANK+L stops the machine (all channels). The playhead LED
flashes red where it stopped; any bank step, section jump or clock reset
releases it.
Clock pins: each channel's CLK accepts any clock. Internal mode
follows the master; patch a divider in for offset feels. Two LR CLKs
patched together keep their own clocks (a dead patch is still a patch).
LRST (top strip) resets all channels to slot 0 — the boot patch
feeds it the clock's ¼ output, the manual's own cure for drift.
Cold start: PWR clears the tapes and all volatile state, keeps
the knob positions and the physical switch states, and re-arms the
factory groove. What is on tape dies with the power, like the hardware.
Four flexible generators. Each has a TRIG pad on the panel (and a
gate pin), an FX send amount, and a volume. Sends are pre-fader: the
voice stays in the main mix when you patch its direct out.
BD — TUNE (pitch), MOD AMT (pitch-mod depth from ENV/MOD), PITCH
(drop shape), DRIVE, VOL, FX. Pins: MOD (linear volt-per-octave pitch
CV), EXT (external mix), WTF? (bends the pitch modulator — deeper
jumps), OMG! (roughs the triangle core), OUT, FX. The 808 fall is ENV →
MOD with AMT up.
BASS — DCO with recursive core (no wavetables). SHAPE / WARP shape
the core and folding; TUNE; MOD AMT; LPF FR + LPF Q (the state-variable
filter); VOL; FX. CV/MIDI/PRC mode switch: CV follows the CV pin, MIDI
follows note/pitchbend, PRC is the percussive mode (pitch and trans
envelopes; SHAPE sets the pitch-env tau, WARP the trans tau). Pins: CV,
SHAPE MOD, WARP MOD, LPF FR MOD, MOD, EXT, OUT, FX.
SD — TUNE, MOD AMT (sweeps the noise spectrum), CLAP, MIX
(body/spectrum), BPF FR + BPF Q, VOL, FX. Pins: MOD (noise spectrum),
BPF MOD (filter sweep), EXT, OUT, FX. The clap window is velocity-gated:
fires only at the top of the velocity range, like the hardware.
HHT — TUNE (spectrum center), WARP (folding), HPF FR + Q, VOL, FX.
Pins: MOD (spectrum), HPF MOD (corner sweep), EXT, OUT, FX.
EG x4 — one envelope per voice: ATT and REL. The envelopes take the
strongest of their sources (the looper TRIG split plus anything you
patch into the EG's TRIG), velocity = amplitude.
SHAOS — the pseudo-random generator. FREQ knob (internal clock),
LEN 63/16/217 (three register lengths; 16 turns DATA into an input —
write bits into it), CLK in, MOD in, S/H in. Outputs: 1BIT DIR, 2BIT DIR
(1BIT+second bit, scaled), 1BIT S/H, 3BIT S/H. Patch a divider into CLK
for audio-rate hats; 1BIT DIR into HHT MOD sweeps the spectrum.
LFO — FREQ, AMT (depth of the MOD input), MORPH (saw↔triangle
continuum), RANGE LOW/MID/HI. Outputs: SQ, TRI. SYNC input restarts the
phase — patch a divider for bar-locked sweeps.
MIDI→CV x4 — four channels that mirror MIDI notes/CCs as CV. LRN
learns a channel+key (or CC) onto a slot; ch1 + BASS key = KTR (key
tracking: the slot follows the bass note). Assignments persist across
power cycles and ride in presets.
TOUCH CV x2 — resistive body-contact model: pressure in, smoothed
CV out. Hold harder for more.
ATTENUATORS x4 — passive in × amount → out. The metronome trick:
clock divider → attenuator (low) → MIX IN.
FX PROCESSOR — two channels. Modes: BPF (band-pass inside the
delay's feedback loop — repeats darken), DBL (dual-tap delay + Hall
reverb; MAD! > 5 V opens the stereo second pair, DLY/REV outs become
L/R), PCH (pitch shifter + reverb). TIME 1 ms–1 s, TUNE (shifter
interval / BPF color), FB, CLK MOD (true DSP-clock resample, 1×–7× —
patch the clock for granular artifacts), MAD! (≥ 9 V latches permanently,
like the hardware), and the DLY REV send switch (which channel the
module sends feed; DLY IN / REV IN bypass it).
DISTORTION — parallel drive/mix off the kit mix.
VCA x2 / INV / INV CONTROLLED / SWITCH x2 — the utility ecology.
The inverters bias about +5 V: a −5 V-to-+5 V envelope inverted becomes a
duck. CONTROLLED passes or inverts by a ≥ 5 V CV.
IMPULSE x2 / DIODE / CAPACITORS — converters and passive parts.
Impulse: rising edge → fixed-width pulse (clock-as-kick). Diode: current
one way (velocity windows). Caps 0.1 µF / 10 µF: AC coupling and
slewing for circuit-bent feedback.
NOISE / +10V / GND — references and a first-class noise source.
MASTER — MIX IN sums externally (pre-volume), VOLUME, main out mono
(L = R), AC-coupled (the +5 V biases of the voice outputs stop here).
PWR = cold restart.
Press P. Every one of the 119 physical points is a node in grouped
columns — drag pin to pin to clip, click a cable to detach, right-click
clears a pin, Ctrl+Z undoes. Cables stack (multiple clips on one pin
sum) and chain (clip to a netted pin unions the nets). Cable color is
the carried signal at patch time: **warm white audio, gold CV, amber
clock, red gate**.
The ecology laws, briefly:
feeds any in.
in-out pins blend through their own conductance (plugging into a voice
EXT drops its level and mixes yours in).
protection clamps make it safe, not silent.
The 8 mini + 6 ¼" jacks (JACK:1–14) are freely bindable adapters for
the outside world; bind them from the patch view like any clip.
The patch book (B) — twelve factory patches from the manual's own
examples (metronome, pitch drop, sidechain pump, clock-as-kick, …).
Arrow or click to select, ENTER to load: the whole organism — topology,
tapes, learnings, clock phase — comes up mid-idea, and the patch view
shows every cable. Start from a page, re-clip, make it yours.
Plug in a controller; the MIDI LED (green = assigned, red = received
unassigned) lives on the master bay.
(exact drum notes always win). Velocity is amplitude.
start/stop are recorded, never obeyed.
panic/clear gestures surface with the APP bay.
binding, jack binding and the clock phase. The factory book pages are
snaps; loading one is a power-on into that idea.
DSP circuit state, delay tails), knobs and physical switches stay, and
the factory groove re-arms.
backend and block size. If the native library is missing the machine
falls back to the pure-Lua engine (slower, identical sound) and says
NO AUDIO only when it means it.
PULPO-23 is the room's clock: over NYDUS it announces its transport and tempo, streams the drum kit as PCM, and receives the family's audio and CV like any other source. When LUNAR-24 and CATCH-22 are present the set finds itself — no configuration, same machine or LAN.
The drummer law. When PULPO is in the room it keeps the pulse: siblings follow the wire clock, and a fresh transport start always takes the tempo. A score can step the tempo mid-piece without a START storm — one start, not thousands. When the last PULPO leaves, the others keep their own clock again.
Songs. A song is a small Lua table: lrStop silences the factory looper under a
composed part, and events may be pitched (note) as well as drums. Shipped:
moonlight, gymnopedie, mountainking, aquarium,
canon-drums, silent (the clock keeps, the kit rests). The eight
family-session recordings live on the
LUNAR-24 page.
*PULPO-23 is a digital implementation, unaffiliated with and unendorsed
by any hardware manufacturer. Original code and artwork; the WTF? and
OMG! silks are panel truth, not our joke.*