The Control Box
The Control Box is designed to be used as a master controller for The Ekdahl FAR in conjunction with CV, MIDI, USB, as a free improvisation controller - or all at once. Please note that the information supplied only applies to the default configuration the instrument is originally supplied with.
Since the internal workings of the instrument is by necessity digital, the knobs and jacks on the Control Box reports any changes via internal commands to the instrument. The very same commands are sometimes sent by different control methods thus one can freely combine various analog and digital controllers for optimal versatility. It can however also be a source of confusion when the same command is sent from several different sources at the same time.
The sum of the harmonic v/oct jack and harmonic knob determines which harmonic number to emphasize and sets the bow frequency accordingly, the sum is quantized so that 1V / octave applies in the standard fashion according to however many harmonics is in an octave in the selected harmonic table (12 tones by default).
The h.s. mod. jack, harm. shift modulation knob and harmonic shift knobs shifts the bowing wheel frequency from the current harmonic number by an amount derived in conjunction with the harmonic shift range. This jack can be used as a unquantized version of the harmonic v/oct jack. By default, the MIDI Pitch bend message sends the same commands.
The press. mod. jack, pressure modulation knob and pressure baseline knob modifies the pressure of the bowing jack. By default, the MIDI Continuous Controller #1 (Modulation wheel) message sends the same commands.
The mute mod jack, mute modulation knob and mute baseline knob sets the position of the mute.
The hammer mod. jack takes a voltage-variable trigger which is scaled through the hammer modulation knob and which engages the hammer with a variable force. The hammer scale knob affects the scale of all incoming hammer hits regardless of their control method.
The gate jack and manual gate on/off switch will when active raise the bowing jack and start the bowing motor, the switch is ignored when a cable is plugged into the engage jack. Any MIDI Note On or Note Off message will send the same command and override the switch and/or jack.
The audio jack on the control box is a supplementary audio output mainly intended for use with modular CV/Gate systems, but it can be used a regular audio jack too. In this case however the audio volume knob will most likely need to be turned down quite a bit for the receiving equipment not to distort.
See specifications for electrical details.