uTuring Machine

Tunefish Modular 6HP
SEQUENCER RANDOM CLOCK

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Compact 6HP port of the Music Thing Turing Machine Mk II. Random looping sequencer on a 16-bit shift register — big probability knob locks or mutates a clocked CV loop. Backpack header drives Volts, Pulse and Voltages expanders.

Patch Ideas · 4

Locked generative melody
External clock drives a locked 8-step loop, CV OUT goes through a quantizer to an oscillator, and nudging the big knob CCW introduces slow mutations.
Walkthrough
  1. Set the LENGTH switch to 8.
  2. Turn the BIG KNOB fully clockwise so the loop is locked.
  3. Patch your external clock (e.g. Pamela's) → uTuring Machine CLOCK IN.
  4. Patch uTuring Machine CV OUT → quantizer IN; set the quantizer to minor pentatonic.
  5. Patch quantizer OUT → VCO V/OCT.
  6. Patch uTuring Machine PULSE OUT → envelope TRIG; envelope → VCA CV; VCO → VCA → output.
  7. To evolve the phrase, nudge the BIG KNOB just CCW of fully CW — notes will swap out one at a time.
Signal out CV OUT — stepped 0 to ~5 V pitch CV into a quantizer, then to a VCO's V/OCT.
Listen for An 8-note in-key melody that repeats exactly while locked, with PULSE OUT punching envelopes on the high notes. Nudge the big knob CCW and single notes begin to swap, mutating the phrase.
▸ Show diagram
Patch diagramPatch diagram with 5 modules and 4 connections. Modules: uTuring Machine, Clock, Quantizer, VCO, Envelope. Signals: 2 pitch, 1 gate, 1 clock.uTuring MachineClockQuantizerVCOEnvelopeLength: 8 · Big knob: fully CW (locked)CLOCK INclkCV OUT1v/octPULSE OUTgateOutclkIn1v/octOut1v/octV/Oct1v/octTriggatepitchgateclock
Probability modulation
A very slow LFO into KNOB CV drifts the module between fully random and fully locked without touching the panel.
Walkthrough
  1. Set the BIG KNOB to noon (fully random).
  2. Set the LENGTH switch to 8.
  3. Patch a slow LFO (triangle, ~0.05 Hz / 20-second cycle) → uTuring Machine KNOB CV.
  4. Patch your external clock → uTuring Machine CLOCK IN.
  5. Patch uTuring Machine CV OUT → VCO V/OCT (optionally through a quantizer).
  6. Patch uTuring Machine PULSE OUT → envelope TRIG for rhythmic accents.
  7. Listen for the LFO peaks — the probability virtually sweeps to the extremes, locking the loop for a few bars before unlocking again.
Signal out CV OUT — stepped pitch CV that cycles between random and locked melody, feeding the VCO.
Listen for The module breathes between chaos and order: random burbling when the LFO is near zero, and a settled repeating melody when the LFO peaks. Great for unattended live drift.
▸ Show diagram
Patch diagramPatch diagram with 4 modules and 3 connections. Modules: uTuring Machine, LFO, Clock, VCO. Signals: 1 cv, 1 pitch, 1 clock.uTuring MachineLFOClockVCOBig knob: noonRate: 0.05 Hz triangleKNOB CVcvCLOCK INclkCV OUT1v/octOutcvOutclkV/Oct1v/octcvpitchclock
Write-switch loop sculpting
Lock the loop CW, then hold the WRITE switch DOWN on strong beats to carve phrases out by forcing zeros into the register.
Walkthrough
  1. Set the LENGTH switch to 16.
  2. Turn the BIG KNOB fully clockwise to lock the loop.
  3. Patch your clock → uTuring Machine CLOCK IN.
  4. Patch uTuring Machine CV OUT → VCO V/OCT (optionally via a quantizer).
  5. Patch uTuring Machine PULSE OUT → drum module TRIG.
  6. Let the loop play until you hear a phrase you like.
  7. Hold the WRITE switch DOWN on strong beats to inject 0s — the drum thins out as register bits clear.
  8. Flick WRITE UP on other beats to inject 1s and rebuild density. Release to centre to re-lock whatever pattern you land on.
Signal out CV OUT — locked stepped pitch CV, editable in real time; PULSE OUT — gate that thins/densifies as you edit.
Listen for A locked 16-note line you sculpt live: WRITE DOWN drops notes out of the melody and sparsens the drum, WRITE UP fills it back in. Performance-ready subtractive editing.
▸ Show diagram
Patch diagramPatch diagram with 4 modules and 3 connections. Modules: uTuring Machine, Clock, VCO, Drum. Signals: 1 pitch, 1 gate, 1 clock.uTuring MachineClockVCODrumLength: 16 · Big knob: locked CWCLOCK INclkCV OUT1v/octPULSE OUTgateOutclkV/Oct1v/octTriggate11. thins out as register clearspitchgateclock
Pulse expander groove
Add the Tunefish Pulse expander · route several derived gate outputs to kick, snare and percussion voices · keep the core loop locked for repeatability while the pulse subset creates polyrhythms.
Walkthrough
  1. Connect the Pulse expander to the uTuring Machine backpack header (power off first).
  2. Set the LENGTH switch to 16.
  3. Turn the BIG KNOB fully clockwise to lock the loop.
  4. Patch your clock → uTuring Machine CLOCK IN.
  5. Patch Pulse OUT 1 → Kick TRIG.
  6. Patch Pulse OUT 2 → Snare TRIG.
  7. Patch Pulse OUT 4 → HiHat TRIG.
  8. If the pattern is dull, nudge the BIG KNOB CCW one click to swap a bit and re-lock — repeat until the groove lands.
Signal out Pulse (Out 1/2/4) — three 0/+5 V gate streams into three drum trigger inputs.
Listen for A locked 16-step drum pattern where each pulse output fires on its own subset of steps — kick, snare and hats sit in different-but-related rhythms like a hand-drawn euclidean groove.
▸ Show diagram
Patch diagramPatch diagram with 6 modules and 4 connections. Modules: uTuring Machine, Pulse, Kick, Snare, HiHat, Clock. Signals: 3 trigger, 1 clock.uTuring MachinePulseKickSnareHiHatClockLength: 16 · Big knob: CW lockedgate outs from register bits: CLOCK INclkOut 1trigOut 2trigOut 4trigTrigtrigTrigtrigTrigtrigOutclktriggerclock

Behaviors

Shift-register mechanics clock edge

Each clock shifts bits right and re-fills bit 0 with a copy of bit 16 XORed with noise, mix set by the big knob. Extremes yield pure feedback (locked loop) or pure noise (random).

Loop locking big knob fully CW or CCW

Fully CW locks the pattern into a loop of the length set by the switch. Fully CCW locks into a 2x-length pattern. Small nudges away from extremes sprinkle single-note mutations.

Write-switch editing write switch up/down

Edit a locked loop live. Up gradually fills the register with 1s (rising melody); down with 0s (dropping). Tap on specific beats to carve phrases out of a random stream.

Expander bus backpack ribbon to expander header

16-bit parallel bus exposes every register step. Tunefish's own Volts (5 pots summed to one CV), Pulse (multiple gate outs) and Voltages (8 faders, dual CV) expanders all tap this bus — same protocol as the Music Thing Modular originals.

Audio-rate clocking VCO square wave → CLOCK IN

Feeding an oscillator into CLOCK turns the module into a chaotic digital noise source. CV OUT becomes metallic grit tracked by the VCO pitch; PULSE OUT becomes a rhythmic subharmonic.

Controls

Global Big knob (probability) Sets probability of flipping the first bit each clock. Noon is fully random; extremes lock the loop; small offsets slip occasional notes.
noon: random · 3 o'clock / 9 o'clock: slips occasional notes · fully CW: locked loop · fully CCW: locked loop at 2x length
Global Length Selects the loop length in steps. Combines with the big knob at fully-CCW to double the effective loop length.
2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 8 · 12 · 16 steps · doubled when big knob at fully CCW
Global Write Momentary 3-way switch. Up injects a 1 into the first bit each clock (fills the register); down injects a 0 (clears). Centre is normal.
up: force 1 · centre: normal · down: force 0 · acts on clock edge while held

I/O

IN · 2

  • CLOCK IN 0 to +5V trigger / clock · threshold ~1V GATE
    Advances the shift register on each rising edge. Square waves, triggers and audio-rate clocks all work; audio-rate produces metallic noise-like textures.
  • KNOB CV ±5V · attenuverted by big knob ENV
    CV input summed with the big knob position. Modulate with LFO or envelope to jump between locked and random states without touching the panel.

OUT · 2

  • CV OUT 0 to ~5V · 8-bit resolution CV
    Main stepped DAC output. Sum of the last 8 bits of the shift register; 256 discrete levels.
  • PULSE OUT 0 / +5V gate · synced to clock GATE
    Gate output tapped from the register — goes high on clock steps whose bit is 1. Rhythmic accent trigger that tracks the locked melody.